US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to rescind the previous administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) chip curbs as part of a broader effort to revise semiconductor trade restrictions that have drawn strong opposition from major tech companies and foreign governments, people familiar with the matter said.
The repeal, which is not yet final, seeks to refashion a policy launched under former US president Joe Biden that created three broad tiers of countries for regulating the export of chips from Nvidia Corp and others.
The Trump administration would not enforce the AI diffusion rule when it takes effect on Thursday next week, the people said.
Photo: AFP
The changes are taking shape as Trump prepares for a trip to the Middle East, where a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have bristled at restrictions on their ability to acquire AI chips.
Trump officials are actively working toward a new rule that would strengthen the control of chips abroad, the people said.
Shares of chipmakers rose on Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported on the move. Nvidia climbed 3.1 percent, and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index — a closely watched benchmark — gained 1.7 percent.
Photo: Reuters
“The Biden AI rule is overly complex, overly bureaucratic and would stymie American innovation,” the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement. “We will be replacing it with a much simpler rule that unleashes American innovation and ensures American AI dominance.”
The commerce department would continue to strictly enforce chip export curbs while it develops a new rule, the people said.
One element would be to impose chip controls on countries that have diverted chips to China, including Malaysia and Thailand, one of the people said.
Meanwhile, Arm Holdings PLC shares fell more than 10 percent in late trading after giving a disappointing sales forecast for the current quarter, stoking concerns about a tariff-fueled slowdown for the chip industry.
Revenue would be US$1 billion to US$1.1 billion in the fiscal first quarter, Arm said in a statement on Wednesday. Wall Street had estimated a number at the highest end of that range. Profit would be US$0.30 to US$0.38 a share, minus certain items, also lower than analysts’ projections.
“We’ve been conservative to make sure we don’t overreach,” Arm CEO Rene Haas said in an interview. “The health of the business is unbelievably strong. We’re seeing huge momentum in our data center business.”
Customers continue to push ahead with investment in chips, particularly for AI computing, and that is benefiting Arm, he said.
Arm decided not to provide investors with an annual target, because of economic uncertainty, executives told analysts on a call.
A dearth of forecasts from customers for this year means that Arm has less data on which to make its own projections, Arm chief financial officer Jason Child said.
Arm’s products — classified as services — are not directly affected by tariffs, Child said, adding that any hit, which has not been felt so far, would come in the form of suppressing demand for devices such as smartphones.
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SUPPLY RESILIENCE: The extra expense would be worth it, as the US firm is diversifying chip sourcing to avert disruptions similar to the one during the pandemic, the CEO said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) on Wednesday said that the chips her company gets from supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would cost more when they are produced in TSMC’s Arizona facilities. Compared with similar parts from factories in Taiwan, the US chips would be “more than 5 percent, but less than 20 percent” in terms of higher costs, she said at an artificial intelligence (AI) event in Washington. AMD expects its first chips from TSMC’s Arizona facilities by the end of the year, Su said. The extra expense is worth it, because the company is
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
RSS