New export restrictions: Nvidia fires back against Biden administration
"Interim Final Rule" aims to limit US AI chip exports. Nvidia strongly opposes; others less critical.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang likes to sell (AI) hardware, including to China.
(Image: Nvidia)
The Biden administration wants to pass a final rule at the end of its term of office that will further restrict access to AI hardware and AI models for some countries – above all China and Russia.
The so-called Interim Final Rule"Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" is in the finalization phase but, contrary to expectations, has not yet been published. In the meantime, there has been an open exchange of blows; Nvidia in particular has sharply criticized the Biden government. At the same time, Nvidia is joining the ranks of companies pandering to Trump.
The new framework is intended to give the US Department of Commerce more far-reaching powers to decide who can sell which AI accelerators to China, among others. The use of US AI models in the countries concerned is also to be restricted. In doing so, the US wants to close loopholes through which Chinese hyperscalers, for example, can still obtain accelerators from Nvidia and others.
Last week, US companies were still moderate: the head of the Information Technology Council (ITIC) Jason Oxman, for example, wrote to the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. In the letter, he expressed concerns that further restrictions could disrupt supply chains and scare off partners. The ITIC includes AMD, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Dell, Google, HPE, Intel, Microsoft and TSMC, among others.
Nvidia vehemently defends its economic interests
Nvidia, on the other hand, has now published a statement on its own website. It repeatedly refers to a "misguided regulation". Literally translated, it reads:
"In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review. This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition — the lifeblood of innovation — the Biden Administration’s new rule threatens to squander America’s hard-won technological advantage.
While cloaked in the guise of an “anti-China” measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead."
Nvidia earns many billions of US dollars with its accelerators for training AI algorithms. The company has a considerable economic interest in selling its hardware to China. Nvidia has circumvented previous export restrictions by adapting its products for China. The A800 and H800, for example, slowed down the interconnect for communication between several accelerators. In the case of the GeForce RTX 5090, a slimmed-down version is intended to slow down the integrated Tensor cores.
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Not only Democrats in favor of further restrictions
The Special Committee of the US House of Representatives on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is one dissenting vote. In a letter – also supported by Republicans – to Raimondo , the committee welcomed stricter rules for China.
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