Nvidia chips don’t have and shouldn’t be required to have so-called “kill switches” that would allow exported chips to be remotely disabled without the user’s consent, the semiconductor company said this week.
Estonia has recently seen an uptick in shipments of imported plywood that it suspects of violating EU sanctions against Russia, the country’s tax and customs agency said this month.
The U.S. last week arrested and accused two Chinese nationals of using a California-based company to illegally export tens of millions of dollars' worth of advanced AI semiconductors to China, including by first transshipping the chips through Malaysia and Singapore.
U.S. allies, including in Europe, may back away from their plans to de-risk from China if they continue to see the Trump administration use export controls as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with China, a panelist said during an event this week hosted by the Center for a New American Security. Others said they’re skeptical about the sustainability of the trade deals announced by the U.S. last week, especially those that commit other countries to large purchases of American goods.
The Trump administration plans to maintain strict China-related export controls on the most advanced semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment, a senior White House official said last week, adding that the U.S. also doesn’t plan to automatically greenlight all H20 chip exports to China.
The Trump administration appears to be avoiding new China-related controls on sensitive semiconductor manufacturing equipment because it fears those restrictions could impede a trade deal, a technology policy researcher said this week. Other researchers said the administration isn’t using its chip bargaining power correctly, adding that the U.S. should be getting more for the deals it has made so far with Gulf nations and potentially others in the future.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined an industrial equipment supplier more than $1.57 million after the agency said it illegally exported refiner plates to Russia. The company, Pennsylvania-based Andritz Inc., committed 36 violations of the Export Administration Regulations by shipping more than $3.1 million worth of the plates without a license between May 2023 and February 2024, BIS said.
Guernsey, a self-governing British Crown dependency in the English Channel, announced fines of 175,000 pounds (about $230,000) and 35,000 pounds (about $45,000) against a company and its director, respectively, for Russia-related sanctions violations. The Guernsey Financial Services Commission said ITI Trade and Alex Phil, its director, committed “wide-spread and systemic breaches” of sanctions regulatory requirements related to its Russian clients and “failed to ensure appropriate and effective” procedures against money laundering and financing terrorism.
California-based electronic design automation firm Cadence will pay more than $140 million in combined civil fines, criminal penalties and forfeitures after the U.S. said it violated export controls against China. The company pleaded guilty to illegally exporting EDA hardware, software and semiconductor design intellectual property technology to Chinese entities, including a university and company on the Entity List.
In separate letters to the Trump administration, more than 20 former national security officials along with five Senate Democrats urged the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to approve exports of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China.