Biden Aide: Trump Likely to Maintain New AI Chip Controls
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President-elect Donald Trump is likely to maintain new U.S. limits on global sales of AI chips by Nvidia Corp. and others, a top Biden administration official said, citing bipartisan national security concerns surrounding China’s pursuit of advanced technology.
The rules, unveiled by the White House on Jan. 13, would cap shipments of advanced AI processors on both a company and a country basis, covering most of the world in an expansion of trade curbs that have mostly targeted China. While it’s possible that the incoming Trump administration may tweak the parameters of the restrictions, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he expects that the core pieces will remain in tact.
“Obviously it’s going to be up to them how they want to proceed, and they may have internal debates the same way we had internal debates about exactly how to calibrate the rule,” Sullivan said in a wide-ranging interview Jan. 13 with Bloomberg News. “But I would be surprised sitting here today if, after 120 days, they looked at the landscape as we’ve looked at it, and said, ‘You know, we really don’t need this at all.’”
The measures were designed to achieve two core objectives, Sullivan said: maintaining American leadership in frontier AI, and ensuring that U.S. — not Chinese — technology powers global AI development. “We’re determined to protect, preserve and extend that lead, and that’s the hand we’re going to pass on to the next administration,” he said.
The rules have set off a firestorm in Washington, with some key tech companies — Nvidia in particular — lobbying fiercely against what they see as an extreme overreach. Asked whether he’s worried about Trump cutting deals with CEOs that oppose the direction of U.S. tech policy, Sullivan said that with some unnamed exceptions, corporate leaders “by and large” accept the basic need for trade restrictions.
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That will make it “extremely hard” to knock the U.S. off course, Sullivan said. But there’s also a lot of room for Trump to maneuver as he sees fit. The new rules have a 120-day comment period, giving the new administration time to reopen conversations with companies and lawmakers. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has already said he’s looking at legislative options — including the Congressional Review Act — to potentially overturn the rules, issued a week before President Joe Biden’s term ends.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said before the rules were officially published that he expects the Trump administration to bring less regulation. On Jan. 13, the company criticized the Biden administration for jeopardizing U.S. progress in AI technology, adding that Nvidia looks forward to a “return to policies that strengthen American leadership” under Trump.
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