Draft AI chip regulations clash with the White House
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The Commerce Department is moving ahead with draft rules to expand federal oversight of AI chip exports, but President Trump opposes any approach that mirrors former President Biden's restrictions, a senior White House official told Axios.
Why it matters: The draft regulations would give the government sweeping control over AI chip exports abroad as companies like Nvidia and AMD seek to enter more markets.
What they're 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," a White House official told Axios.
- Another administration official said it's a "very, very early set of ideas" and anything the administration does will be in line with the White House's AI action plan.
Behind the scenes: The 129-page draft making its way through the government is the sixth iteration from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, a source familiar told Axios.
- The draft made it out of the Commerce Department, which requires a signature from Secretary Howard Lutnick, and was sent to the Office of Management and Budget last week.
- OMB has until next Thursday to send back the results of the interagency review, the source added.
- The draft regulations, which would require foreign buyers to obtain licenses from the U.S. government, were first reported by Bloomberg.
Friction point: Trump has rattled the national security community with his willingness to export sensitive U.S. tech, a position at odds with the draft proposal that industry says is overly restrictive.
- The draft regulations are essentially "diffusion 2.0," an industry source said, referring to Biden's export control regime that industry decried as overly restrictive and harmful for U.S. competitiveness.
Context: Biden's AI diffusion rule, which Trump rescinded last year, would have created a new global licensing system for the most advanced AI technology exports.
The bottom line: Trump views AI chip exports as a bargaining tool and leverage in bilateral talks with other countries, and will likely want some degree of control over how much access other countries receive.
- "We successfully advanced exports through our historic Middle East agreements, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing that approach," the Commerce Department said in an X post Thursday.
