Latest news with #FrameworkforArtificialIntelligenceDiffusion
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What To Expect Now That Trump Has Scrapped Biden's Crippling AI Regulations
President Donald Trump pledged to remove barriers to American leadership in AI in January. The president recently made good on this promise by directing the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to scrap President Joe Biden's Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion on May 13, two days before it was set to go into effect. Although it is unclear what the Trump administration will replace it with, the rescission of the Biden-era framework recognizes the necessity of exporting American chips and AI to maintain America's technological, economic, and strategic dominance. The Biden framework would have amended export regulations to impose a worldwide license regime on all advanced semiconductors designed for data center use. This would have also hit graphics processing units (GPUs) used for AI acceleration, including foreign product chips that are "direct products" of American technology. This would have not only subjected geopolitical rivals such as China to strict controls but also restricted the number of GPUs sold to 150 other countries, many of which are close trading partners and allies, such as Israel, and some which are NATO members (Greece, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania), per the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Neil Chilson, head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute, tells Reason that the diffusion framework "established a world-wide regime that would have restricted American companies from trading with friends and allies overseas." Chilson says the rule's rescission helps American companies keep the global lead in AI technology. Keegan McBride, a senior policy adviser in emerging technology and geopolitics at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, agrees. McBride tells Reason that rescinding the Biden rule "opens up new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and global engagement." With the Biden-era framework dead, the Trump administration has announced its "Industry Guidance to Prevent Diversion of Advanced Computing Integrated Circuits." Instead of imposing a complex regulatory scheme, the new guidance informs semiconductor manufacturers how to remain in compliance with existing export restrictions that have been in place since October 2022. The guidance still recognizes the danger of China acquiring advanced chips through transshipment or diversion and by accessing data centers. The guidance also provides "common sense recommendations about how companies can help [prevent] such chips from ending up in Chinese hands," explains Chilson. Chilson anticipates the guidance to be followed by "a new rule that attempts to address some of the divergence scenarios highlighted in the guidance" and expects a more tailored solution that reflects awareness of the negative effects of the Biden approach. Matthew Mittelsteadt, a technology policy research fellow at the Cato Institute, is less optimistic. "At this juncture, the administration has signaled a desire to negotiate controls bilaterally, country by country," which Mittelsteadt warns may lead to "195 country-specific flavors of AI export controls" that would hamper American companies' competitiveness and overburden the license processors at the Commerce Department. Overinclusive regulations like Biden's Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion would have hampered economic growth and national security; capping demand for American-made advanced GPUs reduces revenue to domestic semiconductor and AI firms that require capital to invest in research and development, innovate, and maintain industry dominance. McBride is confident that the Trump administration understands that the "active promotion of American AI to the global community" is a crucial component of winning the AI race against China. Hopefully, he's right. The post What To Expect Now That Trump Has Scrapped Biden's Crippling AI Regulations appeared first on
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia (NVDA) Ends Hopper AI Chip Line for China Amid U.S. Export Curbs
Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) is ending its Hopper AI chip series in China, with CEO Jensen Huang confirming the company will no longer modify the architecture to comply with U.S. export limits. A new downgraded chip is in the works as Nvidia seeks to retain footing in a critical growth market. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. Revenue from China totaled $17 billion in the fiscal year ending January 26, 2025, representing 13% of Nvidia's total sales. The H20 chip was the only remaining product in the Hopper series legally permitted for export to China under U.S. rules. Huang confirmed in a livestream that no further Hopper updates are possible, stating, It's not Hopper because it's not possible to modify Hopper anymore, according to Taiwan's Formosa TV. The company is expected to release a downgraded H20 chip within two months, according to earlier reports from Reuters, to help regain lost market share from competitors like Huawei. The Biden administration's Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, issued in January 2025, imposed new export restrictions, which have been criticized by Huang. He argued that the U.S. should focus on maximizing the global reach of its technologies rather than restricting exports. President Donald Trump has pledged to revoke those rules, calling them counterproductive to U.S. interests in global tech leadership. Huang visited China shortly after the H20 restrictions took effect, signaling Nvidia's ongoing commitment to the region despite tightened rules. See insider trades for NVDA. Explore Peter Lynch chart. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025
It's already been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the "AI race" that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel's appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no time getting to work trying to revitalize the legacy company — to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export rules on his way out of office that may or may not actually stick. Here's a look at what's happened since the beginning of the year. May 7: Just a week before the "Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" was set to go into place, the Trump administration plans on taking a different path. According to multiple media outlets, including Axios and Bloomberg, the administration won't enforce the restrictions when they were supposed to start on May 15 and is instead working on its own framework. April 30: Anthropic doubled down on its support for restricting U.S.-made chip exports, including some tweaks to the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, like imposing further restrictions on Tier 2 countries and dedicating resources to enforcement. An Nvidia spokesperson shot back, saying, 'American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in 'baby bumps' or 'alongside live lobsters.'" April 22: Ahead of its Q1 earnings call, Intel said it was planning to lay off more than 21,000 employees. The layoffs were meant to streamline management, something CEO Lip-Bu Tan has long said Intel needed to do, and help rebuild the company's engineering focus. April 15: Nvidia's H20 AI chip got hit with an export licensing requirement, the company disclosed in an SEC filing. The company added it expects $5.5 billion in charges related to this new requirement in the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year. The H20 is the most advanced AI chip Nvidia can still export to China in some form or fashion. TSMC and Intel reported similar expenses the same week. April 9: Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang was spotted attending dinner at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, according to reports. At the time, NPR reported Huang may have been able to spare Nvidia's H20 AI chips from export restrictions upon agreeing to invest in AI data centers in the U.S. April 3: Intel and TSMC allegedly reached a tentative agreement to launch a joint chipmaking venture. This joint venture would operate Intel's chipmaking facilities, and TSMC would have a 20% stake in the new venture. Both companies declined to comment or confirm. If this deal doesn't come to fruition, this is likely a decent preview of potential deals in this industry to come. April 1: CEO Lip-Bu Tan got to work right away. Just weeks after he joined Intel, the company announced that it was going to spin off noncore assets so it could focus. He also said the company would launch new products, including custom semiconductors for customers. March 12: Intel announced that industry veteran, and former board member, Lip-Bu Tan would return to the company as CEO on March 18. At the time of his appointment, Tan said Intel would be an "engineering-focused company" under his leadership. February 28: Intel was supposed to start operating its first chip fabrication plant in Ohio this year. Instead, the company slowed down construction on the plant for the second time in February. Now the $28 billion semiconductor project won't wrap up construction until 2030 and may not even open until 2031. February 3: U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo), wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Nominee-Designate Howard Lutnick urging the Trump administration to further restrict AI chip exports. The letter specifically referred to Nvidia's H20 AI chips, which were used in the training of DeepSeek's R1 "reasoning" model. January 27: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused quite the stir in Silicon Valley when it released the open version of its R1 "reasoning" model. While this isn't semiconductor news specifically, the sheer alarm in the AI and semiconductor industries DeepSeek's release caused continues to have ripple effects on the chip industry. January 13: With just a week left in office, former president Joe Biden proposed sweeping new export restrictions on U.S.-made AI chips. This order created a three-tier structure that determined how many U.S. chips can be exported to each country. Under this proposal, Tier 1 countries faced no restrictions; Tier 2 countries had a chip purchase limit for the first time; and Tier 3 countries got additional restrictions. January 6: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei co-wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal endorsing existing AI chip export controls and pointing to them as a reason why China's AI market was behind the U.S.'. He also called on incoming president Donald Trump to impose further restrictions and to close loopholes that have allowed AI companies in China to still get their hands on these chips.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Trump admin scraps Biden-era AI chip export curbs, vows new global strategy to counter China
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel In a sweeping reversal of U.S. export policy on artificial intelligence technology, the Trump administration has rescinded a Biden-era rule that was set to take effect Thursday, which would have placed strict caps on the number of advanced AI chips exported to dozens of countries without prior federal move, confirmed by the Department of Commerce on Tuesday, comes after a week of strong signals from the Trump administration that it planned to significantly alter or eliminate the now-withdrawn regulation — officially called the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion — was issued in January during the final days of President Joe Biden's term. It represented a culmination of the previous administration's four-year strategy to limit China's access to high-performance chips and prevent their use in military applications.'These new requirements would have stifled American innovation and saddled companies with burdensome new regulatory requirements,' the Commerce Department said in its updated Biden rule divided the world into a three-tier system. Seventeen countries — including all NATO members, Japan, and Taiwan — were classified in the top tier and faced no export caps.A second tier of over 120 countries would have faced limits on chip quantities, while adversarial nations like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea fell into the third tier and were effectively blocked from receiving U.S.-made AI officials in the Trump administration argued the tier-based framework was both 'unworkable' and 'bureaucratic.' According to a Commerce Department spokeswoman quoted in a Reuters report last week, the rule was deemed 'unenforceable' and would be replaced by a 'much simpler rule that unleashes American innovation and ensures American AI dominance.'Commerce Undersecretary Jeffery Kessler confirmed on Tuesday that the Trump administration is developing a replacement strategy focused on a global licensing regime that would facilitate AI technology exports to trusted countries through direct government-to-government agreements.'The Trump Administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to share American AI technology with trusted partners around the world, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries,' Kessler the Biden-era framework aimed to thread a needle between national security and economic competitiveness, critics within the current administration said it risked hurting American companies in rapidly growing global AI markets. Major chip manufacturers such as Nvidia could stand to benefit significantly from the rollback, with shares of the company rising 3% on Wednesday after reports of the rule's imminent withdrawal, before dipping slightly in after-hours Biden export control regime was part of a broader campaign to prevent U.S.-developed AI chips — a critical input for military systems, surveillance technologies, and advanced computing — from strengthening China's capabilities. However, Trump officials now suggest that export oversight can be better managed through diplomatic channels, rather than rigid global the rollback, Commerce officials emphasised that restrictions will remain in place for adversarial states such as China and Russia, with a new rule currently in the works. The timeline for unveiling the new policy remains uncertain, though discussions on a licensing-based framework are said to be ongoing, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US can curb AI chip risks without halting tech exports, US official says
RIYADH (Reuters) -The United States does not need to block the global spread of its AI chips and technology to manage national security risks, a White House official said on Tuesday, signalling a more open stance on exports to trusted allies such as Saudi Arabia. David Sacks, the White House's AI and crypto czar, made his comments in Riyadh days after Washington announced plans to rescind and modify a Biden-era regulation that would limit global access to artificial-intelligence chips. "The Trump administration has just announced that we will be rescinding what's known as the Biden diffusion rule... it literally restricted the diffusion or proliferation of American technology all over the world," Sacks told the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum at the start of a tour of Gulf states by President Donald Trump. "(Diffusion) is not a risk with a friend like Saudi Arabia at all but I think in general there was a great deal of misunderstanding about the diversion of GPUs," Sacks said, referring to graphics processing units, specialised processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering. His comments mark a shift from recent curbs on data center tech transfers and reflect growing U.S. interest in deepening tech ties with Middle Eastern partners that are pouring billions into AI infrastructure and aiming to become a hub for the emerging technology outside the United States. "The original reason for this diffusion rule is that we have a policy of not wanting our advanced semiconductors to go to what are known as countries of concern," said Sacks, adding that it was never intended to capture friends, allies and strategic partners. The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion was issued in January, a week before the end of the administration of former President Joe Biden. It capped a four-year effort by the Biden administration to hobble China's access to advanced chips that could enhance its military capabilities and to maintain U.S. leadership in AI. Trump appointed Sacks in December, in an effort to reshape U.S. policies on digital assets and AI. The new administration's tech backers have generally called for minimal regulation around AI and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, saying Washington would throttle growing innovative sectors with excessive rules. The industry has said that by limiting access to the chips, countries will buy the technology from China. Sign in to access your portfolio
