The US Department of Commerce has moved to close a loophole that may have let advanced artificial intelligence chips slip through to Chinese firms outside China. On Sunday,the department rolled out new guidance aimed at stopping the shipment of high-performance processors, including Nvidia’s Rubin and Blackwell models and AMD’s MI350x, to subsidiaries of Chinese companies in places like Malaysia.
This surprising step shows that, for almost a year, top AI chips from US might have been making their way to Chinese entities, despite ongoing efforts to limit semiconductor access . The guidance appeared on the Commerce Department's website,marking shift toward stricter regulations that had been more relaxed before.
The exact number of chips exported during this time isn’t clear, but industry estimates suggest it could be in the hundreds of thousands. Trump administration had initially kept this door open, letting companies take advantage of the regulatory gap . Commerce Department hasn’t commented yet on what this new directive means.
This move reflects the challenges in US-China tech relations, especially as the United States tries to restrict China's access to crucial technologies needed to boost its AI capabilities .
