According to sources familiar with the matter, Biden administration officials are already discussing restricting Nvidia and other American companies from selling advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to "certain countries" in order to limit their AI development and capabilities.

According to their claims, for the so-called "national security interests", the new regulations will set upper limits on export permits for certain countries. Informants say officials will focus on countries in the Persian Gulf, where the demand for AI datacenters is increasing and there is strong financial support. However, the evaluation work is still in the early stages and there may be variables.

Persian Gulf countries should include 8 countries along the coast of the Persian Gulf: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

Informants also point out that this idea has gained attention in recent weeks. The policy will be based on a new framework to streamline the licensing process for delivering AI chips to datacenters in places like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and other companies have not commented on this. Currently, it is unclear how each AI chip manufacturer will respond to the US restrictions. Reports suggest that it may be difficult to introduce comprehensive new policies in the final months of the Biden administration, and implementing such rules may be challenging.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined to comment on the discussions, but mentioned a recent joint statement by the US and the UAE on artificial intelligence. In this statement, the two countries recognize "the enormous potential of artificial intelligence", as well as "the challenges and risks of this emerging technology, and the vital importance of safeguard measures".

Hidden Misery

However, given the United States' previous actions, this move is inevitably seen as further restricting China's development in the field of AI. It was reported that prior to this, the United States had already restricted companies like Nvidia, AMD, etc., from exporting AI chips to more than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and other regions, out of concern that these companies' products might be transferred to China.

Previously, Nvidia had developed custom chips from the H20 series for the Chinese market to comply with U.S. export regulations and began taking orders in February of this year. However, due to performance degradation and high prices, it did not generate much interest from Chinese customers, who instead turned more to choosing domestically produced AI chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously stated that governments worldwide are seeking so-called sovereign artificial intelligence - the ability to establish and operate their own artificial intelligence systems, a pursuit that has become a key driving factor for advanced processor demand. Nvidia's chips are the gold standard for datacenter operators, making the company the most valuable chip manufacturer globally and the biggest beneficiary of the AI boom.

Regarding the unreasonable oppression from the United States, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce responded, 'For some time, the United States has frequently generalized the concept of national security, abused export control measures, artificially split the global semiconductor market, wantonly interfered with normal economic and trade exchanges among other countries' enterprises, seriously deviating from the principles of free trade and multilateral trade rules, and severely impacting global industry chain and supply chain stability.'

"China has consistently and firmly opposed this. We hope that relevant countries will adhere to market principles and the spirit of contracts, resist economic coercion from the United States, and jointly maintain the stability of the global industry chain and supply chain," he added.

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