BEIJING, October 26 (TMTPost)— The Biden administration is stepping up curbs on China’s cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Credit：TMTPost

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, Nvidia Corporation disclosed the U.S. government informed that the licensing requirements of a rule introduced last week, applicable to products having a “total processing performance” of 4800 or more and designed or marketed for datacenters, is effective immediately.

The recent development suggested the United States has skipped a 30-day public comment period and imposed the export control on Nvidia’s products in advance. Nvidia said, in the filling, the licensing requirements immediately impacted shipments of its five graphics processing unit (GPU) products, including A100, A800, H100, H800, and L40S.    

The aforementioned rule entitles “Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Updates and Corrections”, dated October 18. The U.S. Department of Commerce said the rule reinforces the controls launched in October 2022 to restrict China’s both purchase and manufacture certain high-end chips critical for military advantage. The agency believes the rules are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of these controls, close loopholes, and ensure they remain durable. The goal is to limit China’s “access to advanced semiconductors that could fuel breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and sophisticated computers,” said the U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo.

Nvidia is the semiconductor designer that dominates the market for AI chips. It became a big winner amid the AI frenzy this year as its products empower AI systems including the large language model behind ChatGPT. The behemoth said in March it has modified some of flagship products including A100 and H100 for exports to China, including an alternative A800 chip, as the U.S. regulators last year banned it from selling its most advanced chips to China.

But even A800, the weakened version of Nivida’s cutting-edge A100 processor, is not allowed for export without first obtaining a license according to the new restrictions. From Wednesday on, Chinese buyers has not had access to any AI chips made by Nvidia, and Chinese tech giants like Tencent and ByteDance lost final opportunities to stock AI chips that are supposed to underpin their large models.

A number of industry insiders in China expressed their concerns about impact of the new export control rule. They told TMTPost that training of large AI model’s computing in China could fall behind Microsoft-backed OpenAI in the future. TMTPost also learned Tencent and ByteDance had previously purchased H800 GPUs in large quantities, but they have not received any ordered products yet. It is highly unlikely for Nvidia to deliver any A800 GPU even though Chinese companies engaged on large models and intelligent computing centers place their small orders following the new export restrictions.

In a filling last week, Nvidia cautioned the licensing requirement may impact its “ability to complete development of products in a timely manner, support existing customers of covered products, or supply customers of covered products outside the impacted regions”, and may require it to transition certain operations out of one or more of the identified countries. Nevertheless, the American chipmaker didn’t anticipate the additional restrictions will have a near-term meaningful impact on its financial results, given the strength of demand for its products worldwide. In the filling recently, Nvidia said it doesn’t expect the accelerated timing of the licensing requirements will have a near-term meaningful impact on its financial results, citing the strength of demand for the company’s products worldwide.

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