Nvidia, AMD Face New Restrictions on Chip Exports to China
The U.S. government has told Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that they must begin obtaining licenses to export certain computing chips to China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and certain other countries, the companies reported this week in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Nvidia said it was informed that the new restriction on its H20 chip "addresses the risk" that the product "may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China.” The government later informed Nvidia that the license requirement will remain in effect “for the indefinite future," the company said.
AMD, whose MI308 chip is covered by the new restriction, said it "expects to apply for licenses but there is no assurance that licenses will be granted."
Both companies reported chip-related charges in their SEC filings. For the fiscal quarter ending April 27, Nvidia expects to take a charge of up to $5.5 billion “associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves." It didn't say how much of that sum it attributes to the licensing requirement. AMD said it "expects that the export control may result in charges of up to approximately $800 million in inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves."
Asked to comment on the filings, a Commerce Department spokesperson said in an email that the agency is "issuing new export licensing requirements on the Nvidia H20, AMD MI308, and their equivalents. The Commerce Department is committed to acting on [President Donald Trump's] directive to safeguard our national and economic security.”
A memorandum that Trump signed in January calls on Commerce and other agencies to review U.S. export controls and “advise on modifications in light of developments involving strategic adversaries or geopolitical rivals as well as all other relevant national security and global considerations" (see 2501210023).
Several lawmakers have called for restricting exports of the H20 and similar products, saying China could use the chips to develop its artificial intelligence capabilities (see 2502030031 and 2501300067). AI research and development firm Anthropic made a similar pitch to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last month (2503110027). At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified that the U.S. should prevent China from obtaining American technology it can use to advance its AI capabilities (see 2501290041).