Washington reportedly moves to tighten leash on AI chip exports

The Trump administration is reportedly planning new restrictions on GPU exports, aimed not only at controlling who gets them, but at driving AI investment back into the US.

The Department of Commerce is said to be drafting rules that would require chipmakers to obtain government approval before exporting AI chips to any country, effectively giving Washington a stranglehold on AI compute supply.

News site Axios says a 129-page draft is circulating through the government, though a White House official pushed back, saying the draft "does not reflect what President Trump has said on export controls nor does it reflect the direction of the Trump administration on encouraging export of the American AI stack."

AI chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD would have to obtain export permission on a country-by-country basis. This has drawn comparisons with the AI Diffusion rules passed by the outgoing Biden administration during its final weeks. This ...