U.S. Withdraws Draft AI Chip Export Rule

The U.S. Department of Commerce withdrew a draft rule on artificial intelligence chip exports on Friday, halting a proposed framework that would have imposed new licensing requirements on shipments of advanced AI hardware worldwide. The move, announced through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, ends preliminary discussions on the policy without providing a stated reason.

The draft, titled AI Action Plan Implementation, had been submitted for interagency feedback in late February. It outlined a tiered system for exporting AI accelerators, such as those from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, based on the intended computing capacity of the end user's installation. For smaller shipments, up to around 1,000 GPUs, exporters could seek accelerated approvals with minimal oversight. Medium-scale projects would require preauthorization from the Commerce Department, along with disclosures on business activities and infrastructure use, potentially followed by onsite inspections to ensure compliance.

The most stringent measures targeted large-scale AI clusters, such as those involving 200,000 or more GPUs operated by a single entity in one country. These would have...