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11 days ago
US reportedly considering sweeping new chip export controls
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How, and if, the Trump administration plans to regulate the export of semiconductors has remained unclear since Donald Trump took office last year. Now, we have an idea of what the administration is thinking.
U.S. regulators have allegedly drafted rules that would require U.S. government approval to ship AI chips anywhere outside the U.S., according to Bloomberg, citing sources. This would give the U.S. significantly more control over companies like AMD and Nvidia.
TechCrunch reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Commerce provided the following: “The Commerce Department is committed to promoting secure exports of the American tech stack. We successfully advanced exports through our historic Middle East agreements, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing that approach. Today there was reporting that we were returning to the AI diffusion rule. We will not. It was burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous.”
In these drafted rules, companies and governments outside the U.S. would have to be granted approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce to purchase these chips. The review process would vary based on the size and scale of the potential purchase, Bloomberg reported.
For example, a small order by a company outside the U.S. may warrant a basic review while a sizable order could require the company’s corresponding government to get involved.
This could, of course, all change before a final announcement or ruling, but the proposal would represent significantly more government involvement than the AI Diffusion rule instituted under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration formally rescinded Biden’s diffusion regulation last May, less than a week before it was set to go into effect.
While this is the first inkling of what broad export restrictions would look like, it isn’t fully surprising that the Trump administration is looking for more government involvement as opposed to less based on how it has handled Nvidia’s potential exports to China. The Trump administration has flip-flopped multiple times on whether or not the company could send its advanced AI chips to the Chinese market before deciding to allow exports if the U.S. Department of Commerce was able to approve the customers.
However, this oversight approach may end up hurting U.S. chip companies and the U.S.’s current dominance in the global AI market. If it becomes harder to source chips from the U.S., companies may increasingly turn to other sources, especially as chip companies outside the U.S. continue to develop more advanced chips.
In Nvidia’s case, the export regulations already are hurting them. The semiconductor giant has not seen the return of its customers in China after nearly a year of uncertainty of whether or not they would keep access to the AI technology.
Senior Reporter, Venture
Becca is a senior writer at TechCrunch that covers venture capital trends and startups. She previously covered the same beat for Forbes and the Venture Capital Journal.
You can contact or verify outreach from Becca by emailing rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
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Media & Entertainment
TechCrunch Brand Studio
How, and if, the Trump administration plans to regulate the export of semiconductors has remained unclear since Donald Trump took office last year. Now, we have an idea of what the administration is thinking.
U.S. regulators have allegedly drafted rules that would require U.S. government approval to ship AI chips anywhere outside the U.S., according to Bloomberg, citing sources. This would give the U.S. significantly more control over companies like AMD and Nvidia.
TechCrunch reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Commerce provided the following: “The Commerce Department is committed to promoting secure exports of the American tech stack. We successfully advanced exports through our historic Middle East agreements, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing that approach. Today there was reporting that we were returning to the AI diffusion rule. We will not. It was burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous.”
In these drafted rules, companies and governments outside the U.S. would have to be granted approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce to purchase these chips. The review process would vary based on the size and scale of the potential purchase, Bloomberg reported.
For example, a small order by a company outside the U.S. may warrant a basic review while a sizable order could require the company’s corresponding government to get involved.
This could, of course, all change before a final announcement or ruling, but the proposal would represent significantly more government involvement than the AI Diffusion rule instituted under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration formally rescinded Biden’s diffusion regulation last May, less than a week before it was set to go into effect.
While this is the first inkling of what broad export restrictions would look like, it isn’t fully surprising that the Trump administration is looking for more government involvement as opposed to less based on how it has handled Nvidia’s potential exports to China. The Trump administration has flip-flopped multiple times on whether or not the company could send its advanced AI chips to the Chinese market before deciding to allow exports if the U.S. Department of Commerce was able to approve the customers.
However, this oversight approach may end up hurting U.S. chip companies and the U.S.’s current dominance in the global AI market. If it becomes harder to source chips from the U.S., companies may increasingly turn to other sources, especially as chip companies outside the U.S. continue to develop more advanced chips.
In Nvidia’s case, the export regulations already are hurting them. The semiconductor giant has not seen the return of its customers in China after nearly a year of uncertainty of whether or not they would keep access to the AI technology.
Senior Reporter, Venture
Becca is a senior writer at TechCrunch that covers venture capital trends and startups. She previously covered the same beat for Forbes and the Venture Capital Journal.
You can contact or verify outreach from Becca by emailing rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
Actively scaling? Fundraising? Planning your next launch?TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 delivers tactical playbooks and direct access to 1,000+ founders and investors who are building, backing, and closing.Register by March 13 to save up to $300.
Jensen Huang says Nvidia is pulling back from OpenAI and Anthropic, but his explanation raises more questions than it answers
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies,’ report says
ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal
Users are ditching ChatGPT for Claude — here’s how to make the switch
MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens
Anthropic’s Claude reports widespread outage
The trap Anthropic built for itself
© 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC.
AI Description
The U.S. government is reportedly considering implementing new export controls on semiconductor chips. This move could significantly impact global chip supply chains.