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.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to