The Biden administration in the United States has announced that it will be implementing new rules to prevent American chipmakers from selling products to China that bypass government restrictions. These rules are part of an ongoing effort to block further exports of AI chips to China. The details of these new rules, reported for the first time by Reuters, will be added to the existing restrictions on chip shipments to China that were unveiled in October last year. Although the updates are expected to be announced this week, it is worth noting that such timetables can often change.
According to an anonymous official, the new rules will prohibit the sale of AI chips that fall just below the current technical parameters. In addition, companies will be required to report shipments of other AI chips. However, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Commerce has declined to comment on these reports.
Unfortunately, this latest crackdown on tech exports to China may complicate the recent diplomatic efforts made by senior members of the Biden administration to improve relations between the two superpowers. The U.S. has argued that these export restrictions are necessary to prevent China from using American chips and equipment to strengthen its military capabilities. However, Beijing has accused the United States of abusing export controls to suppress Chinese companies.
These restrictions on exports to China represent a significant shift in U.S.-China tech policy. The Chinese embassy in Washington has not yet responded to these new rules.
Last year, Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, faced government restrictions that prevented them from shipping two of its most advanced AI chips to customers in China. However, Nvidia quickly released new variants of these chips specifically for the Chinese market that were less sophisticated and were able to circumvent the U.S. export controls. One of these alternative chips, called the H800, has computing power comparable to Nvidia’s more powerful but blocked H100 chip when used in certain AI applications. Nevertheless, there are limitations to its key performance aspects, as reported by Reuters.
In response to this, the U.S. plans to introduce new guidelines that will restrict certain advanced data center AI chips that are not currently covered by the existing regulations. While the specific chips to be banned have not been identified, it has been suggested that Nvidia’s H800 chip is one of the targets. Nvidia, a company based in Santa Clara, California, has yet to comment on the situation.
The new rules are not expected to apply to consumer chips used in products like laptops, but the Commerce Department will require companies to report when they are filling orders for the most powerful consumer chips. This is to ensure that these chips are not being used in ways that may threaten national security.
To prevent China from obtaining AI chips that the U.S. considers too powerful, the anonymous official revealed that the U.S. plans to remove one of the parameters used to restrict the export of certain AI data center chips – the “bandwidth parameter”. By removing this parameter, another guideline will come into effect, thereby expanding the scope of chips that will be subject to export restrictions. As a result, the communication speed between AI chips will likely be reduced. This change is significant because training the largest AI models requires multiple chips working together. Slowing down their communication speed will make AI development more challenging and expensive.
In addition to removing the “bandwidth parameter”, the U.S. also intends to introduce a new parameter called “performance density” to prevent potential workarounds in the future. However, the official declined to provide further details on this new guideline.
The updated rules are designed to adapt to technological advancements in AI chips. Under the new guidelines, companies will be required to notify the U.S. government about semiconductors that slightly fall below the prescribed parameters before shipping them to China. The government will then review each case individually to determine if there are any national security risks. Unless instructed otherwise, the chips can be shipped to China.
These updates to the export regulations may also close a loophole that currently allows Chinese companies to access American AI chips through their overseas units, as previously reported by Reuters. However, it is important to note that the rules will not restrict access to U.S. cloud computing services or those provided by U.S. allies.
The Biden administration’s implementation of new rules to restrict AI chip exports to China is a significant development in the ongoing trade tensions between the two countries. These rules aim to prevent the supply of advanced AI chips to China while allowing for the exportation of consumer chips. By adjusting the parameters and introducing new guidelines, the U.S. government hopes to maintain control over the technological capabilities of Chinese companies and minimize any potential threats to national security. As the technology landscape continues to evolve, it remains to be seen how these regulations will shape the future of AI chip exports between the United States and China.
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