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President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a more stringent stance on China’s technological advances, warning businesses around the world that using artificial intelligence chips created by Huawei could cause criminal penalties for violating US export controls.
The Commerce Department has issued guidance to clarify that Huawei’s Ascend processors are almost certainly subject to export control as they contain or have been created US technology.
The Industrial and Security Bureau, which oversees export controls, said Tuesday it was releasing enhancing rules for foreign AI chips, including “issuing guidance that using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world would violate US export controls.”
Those familiar with the issue stressed that the bureau had not issued new rules, but revealed to businesses that Huawei Chips is likely violating measures that require difficult licenses to export US technology to Chinese companies.
“The guidance is not a new control, but rather a simple use that everyone in the Advanced Computing (Integrated Circuit) designed by Huawei is violating export control rules, or even a mere use, is simply a public confirmation of use.”
The station said three Huawei Ascend chips (910B, 910C and 910D) are subject to regulation, and such chips are “designed with specific US software or technology, or produced in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which is a direct product of specific US software or technology.”
This guidance comes as the US has become increasingly concerned about the speed at which Huawei developed advanced chips and other AI hardware.
Huawei has begun delivering “clusters” of AI chips to Chinese clients, claiming to be superior to comparable products from major AI chip manufacturer Nvidia with key metrics such as Total Compute and Memory. The system relies on a number of 910c chips that do not fall individually on Nvidia’s most advanced products, but offers superior performance for rival Nvidia cluster products.
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The Shenzhen-based conglomerate currently offers ascend series processors primarily 910B and 910C to Chinese companies. Huawei is increasing its production capacity by building its own advanced semiconductor production line as Chinese companies are separated from Nvidia’s products.
There is growing concern that the national champions in China will soon be selling AI processors in both China and foreign markets, which can compete with the products of NVIDIA and other US companies.
Nvidia chief Jensen Huang said last month that Huawei is “one of the world’s most frightening technology companies,” and that US policy should help his company compete on the global stage.
Nvidia declined to comment on the department’s new rules. Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Commerce Department also retracted the AI proliferation rules on Tuesday. This will take effect on May 15th, when measures previously planned by the Biden administration.
It is designed to limit AI chip exports to other countries, making it difficult for China to avoid existing US export controls. However, the department said the rules were too bureaucratic (a view that former Biden officials reject) and would issue alternatives in the future.
The announcement came on the day Trump visited Saudi Arabia. There, they announced numerous deals, including building AI infrastructure using hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips, including a commitment by the Kingdom’s new state-owned AI company, Humain.
Sources familiar with the situation said the scale of the proposed Gulf deal shocked many senior Trump administration officials. They were concerned about the offshore of large-scale AI infrastructure and were blinded to the UAE cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Beijing.
Additional Reports by Michael Acton of San Francisco
