US bans Nvidia, AMD AI chips' export to some Mideast countries, amid China fears

The United States has broadened restrictions on the exportation of high-performance artificial intelligence chips by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, extending them beyond China to other regions, including some countries in the Middle East, amid rising concerns about Beijing’s access to critical AI resources.

Reuters reported Thursday that a regulatory filing by Nvidia stated that its state-of-the-art A100 and H100 chips, which are used in machine learning on AI apps such as ChatGPT had been put on a “no-export” list. Nvidia is one of the most valuable businesses in the world, worth around $1.2 trillion.

“During the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the USG informed us of an additional licensing requirement for a subset of A100 and H100 products destined to certain customers and other regions, including some countries in the Middle East,” the California-based firm said in an Aug. 28 filing.

Nvidia said that the export ban would not have an “immediate material impact” on its financial results. Reuters reported that AMD had also been told that the company would have to implement similar restrictions.