US Debates Who Should Be Able to Buy American AI Chips

It’s been two years since the Biden administration reshaped the global semiconductor market by barring China from buying the best US chips. Then, 12 months later, officials expanded the curbs to cover more technology and another 43 countries. The idea is to prevent China from using intermediaries in the Middle East, Africa or Asia to access chips that could lend Beijing a military edge. The effect, so far, has been to largely block chunks of the world from importing high-end processors at all.

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“What the United States is saying now is: Don’t worry, the rest of the world, you will still be able to get advanced AI chips as long as the US government is OK with it,” said Geoffrey Gertz, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former Biden official. The question, Gertz said, is whether that provides comfort about eventual access or raises “more fears that the US government is going to put itself in the middle of every international transaction.”

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