New Round of US AI Chip Controls Will Draw EU Backlash, Think Tank Says
The Biden administration’s upcoming AI chip-related export controls likely will upset key U.S. allies, especially the EU, by reinforcing the notion that the U.S. relies too heavily on extraterritorial controls and is “hellbent” on maintaining American technology leadership, the Center for European Policy Analysis said this week.
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A blog post for CEPA, written by the think tank’s chief of staff, Matthew Eitel, said the EU will “almost certainly complain” that the new controls unfairly benefit U.S. cloud “hyperscalers” and damage the competitiveness of European cloud services firms. The rules could prompt the EU to invoke an “untested” anti-coercion instrument, which allows the bloc to impose countermeasures against countries in response to economic coercion (see 2303280024).
The rules also could “accelerate” talks among European nations to form their own chips coalition as part of an effort to develop alternatives to U.S. technology, Eitel said, and possibly avoid the compliance hurdles posed by American export controls laws.
CEPA’s comments come as the Biden administration faces a range of criticism from the technology industry, which has called the upcoming controls overbroad and rushed (see 2501080034 and 2501060015). Leaders of the House Select Committee on China, however, said they support the restrictions (see 2501070010).
The rules are expected to be released before Joe Biden leaves office, and Eitel said it’s unclear how President-elect Donald Trump will approach them. He said Trump likely will be focused more on tariffs at the start of his term, “so new US officials could deem the new controls and accompanying regulations are onerous and repeal them,” including as part of a “grand bargain” with China. Trump also could tweak the controls by “switching from use-based to country-based controls,” Eitel said.
“There will inevitably be internal clashes between the administration’s China-hawks and pro-tech voices,” he said. “This final salvo of chip export controls may be the last for President Biden -- but it is almost certain to not be the final battle in the US-China tech competition.”