The Biden administration is closely monitoring Nvidia’s sale of accelerators to China and is collaborating with the chipmaker to determine which chips the country can acquire.
In an interview with Reuters, commerce secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized that Nvidia should be able to sell GPUs in China for commercial AI applications. However, she stated that the most sophisticated AI chips, which could enable China to develop advanced models, should not be allowed for export. Raimondo also noted that based on discussions with Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, the company is committed to complying with the regulations.
Nvidia confirmed that it is in discussions with the Commerce Department regarding export restrictions. A spokesperson for Nvidia informed The Register that they are cooperating with the US government and are committed to offering compliant datacenter solutions to customers worldwide.
The US government has expressed concerns about the potential use of AI models in military applications and introduced stricter performance limits on GPUs and AI accelerators sold to China in October. As a result, Nvidia has been impacted by these changes and is working on developing GPUs that meet the new performance caps.
Raimondo has warned chipmakers against attempting to circumvent export bans and indicated that the government will closely monitor any attempts to redesign chips to bypass regulations. This has put chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD in a challenging position as they seek to comply with regulations while maintaining access to the large Chinese market.