The development of artificial intelligence has become, in its own way, a “fashionable” ambition for companies from many developed countries around the world. This, of course, generates huge demand for technologies, i.e. chips that will power such artificial intelligence. The leader in the production and export of such components is, of course, NVIDIA, which has already earned billions of dollars from the “AI Boom”, becoming one of the largest listed companies around the world.
However, it is possible that this “Eldorado” for Jenesn Huang’s company will soon end, or at least be significantly limited. All thanks to American officials.
The US wants restrictions on the export of AI-powered chips to the Middle East
White House (source: wikimedia.org)
Service Bloomberg, citing sources related to the case, announced news earlier this week that may worry many companies located outside the US. American officials were said to have “talked about limiting the sale” of AI chips from NVIDIA and other domestic companies to some countries. The text mainly refers to the Persian Gulf region, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Speaking of limitations, it means that officials would probably see limits that would probably be regulated by top-down permits. This would allow the US government to specifically control exports and possibly use them for political purposes. Of course, these actions are to be treated as securing the interests of “national security”.
What is meant by the term “national security”? American politicians fear that Middle Eastern countries may cooperate with China, which could thus continue to have access to the most advanced technologies from the West.. We are talking about another iteration of the “technology war” between the US and the Middle Kingdom.
Bloomberg reports that the talks have “gained intensity” in recent weeks, although everything is still at a relatively early stage. At the time of writing, the US Department of Commerce and NVIDIA declined to comment on this matter. Representatives of Intel and AMD were also asked for their opinion, but they did not respond to requests sent not by Bloomberg but by Reuters.
National security and the position of leader in the development of the latest technologies are a priority for the USA
The US may limit the export of NVIDIA chips. Bad news not only for China
Even if such an idea were accepted by Washington, it does not mean that companies and data centers located in the Middle East would be deprived of any access to new chips. The latest US regulations already guarantee that data centers will be able to apply for special Approved End User status. Validated End User).
On this basis, non-US companies will be able to continue to receive development-needed chips without having to obtain individual shipment authorization each time.. A Department of Commerce official relayed Reutersthat the government will cooperate with any entity that is interested in cooperation with the US in this specific field.
Data centers and enterprises will have to undergo quite rigorous review. In this way, Washington wants to make sure that at no stage will the latest technologies be used in a manner inconsistent with “national security.” One of the elements of such verification is to include, among others: obtaining information about current and potential customers of a given company.
It is difficult to speculate about the potential consequences of such actions by the Americans. However, it is clear that the local government wants to defend its position as a world leader in the development of the latest technologies at all costs. From the point of view of a superpower (which the USA certainly is), this is something absolutely necessary to maintain its primacy.