The Biden administration plans to implement a final regulation before the end of its term to further restrict access to AI hardware and AI models for certain countries, mainly China and Russia. This regulation, called the “Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion,” is in its finalization phase but has not yet been published. There is ongoing debate, with Nvidia particularly criticizing the Biden administration. Nvidia is also aligning with companies that support Trump.
The new framework would give the US Department of Commerce more decision-making power over who can sell AI accelerators to countries like China. It also aims to restrict the use of US AI models in these countries, closing loopholes that allow Chinese companies to access accelerators from Nvidia and others.
Last week, some US companies expressed moderate concern. Jason Oxman, the head of the Information Technology Council (ITIC), wrote to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, expressing concerns that further restrictions could disrupt supply chains and alienate partners. The ITIC includes companies such as AMD, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Dell, Google, HPE, Intel, Microsoft, and TSMC.
Nvidia has been vocal about its economic interests, publishing a statement on its website criticizing the regulation as “misguided.” The statement claims that the Biden administration is attempting to undermine America’s leadership with extensive regulations developed in secrecy without proper legislative review. It argues that these regulations would impose bureaucratic control over how American semiconductors, computers, systems, and even software are developed and marketed globally.
Nvidia argues that these rules, presented as an “anti-China” measure, would not enhance US security. Instead, they would globally control technology, including technology already widespread in gaming PCs and consumer hardware. The company believes the new rules would weaken America’s global competitiveness and undermine the innovation that has kept the US at the forefront.
Nvidia earns billions from its accelerators used for training AI algorithms and has a significant economic interest in selling its hardware to China. The company has previously circumvented export restrictions by creating modified products for China, such as the A800 and H800, which slow down interconnect communication between multiple accelerators. The GeForce RTX 5090 is expected to have a version with reduced capabilities to limit its integrated tensor cores.
Not only Democrats support further restrictions. A special committee of the US House of Representatives on strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, supported by Republicans, welcomed stricter rules for China in a letter to Raimondo.