The U.S. officials have prepared draft regulations that would restrict AI chip sales globally without U.S. approval, Bloomberg News reported.
The proposed rules would require companies to get U.S. permission for virtually all exports of AI accelerators developed by the likes of Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a global expansion of restrictions that currently cover about 40 countries, the report added, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The Commerce Department, the Bureau of Industry and Security, Nvidia, and AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
These chips are desired by companies globally for use in data centers that power AI services like OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT and Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Gemini.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s team has said repeatedly that they want the world to use U.S. AI, and the draft rules are not meant to function as an Nvidia export ban. Rather, the rules would set up the U.S. government as gatekeeper for the AI industry. Companies and, in some cases, their governments would have to get the U.S. Commerce Department’s approval to buy the chips, the report noted.
How Trump’s team determines to give these licenses would then decide if countries will be able to establish critical digital infrastructure, technology that many see as key to economic growth, corporate competitiveness, and military sovereignty, according to the report.
The specific approval process would depend on how much computing power a company requires. Shipments of up to 1,000 of Nvidia’s latest GB300 graphics processing units, or GPUs, would see a largely simple review with certain exemption opportunities, the report noted.
Companies setting up larger clusters would require preclearance before seeking export licenses. These companies could face conditions like disclosing their business models or allowing the U.S. government to visit sites, depending on the specifics of the data centers in question, the report added.
For large deployments — over 200,000 of Nvidia’s GB300 chips owned by one company in one country — the host government would have to get involved. The U.S. would only approve such exports to allies that make strict security pledges and “matching” investments in U.S. AI. However, the draft rule does not specify an investment ratio.
The Trump team’s framework is not finalized, and officials across federal agencies are currently providing their input. The draft could change, or it could be shelved for other priorities, the report noted.
The Trump administration had previously criticized the Biden administration’s AI diffusion rule, which curbed AI chip sales to many countries and set caps on how much could be exported, as burdensome.
China’s AI ambitions are a big reason behind the U.S.’s AI policymaking. One focus is limiting China’s manufacturing of AI chips, which the U.S. has done by curbing exports of chipmaking equipment. In addition, under Trump, Nvidia was allowed back into China to compete against local tech giant Huawei Technologies. The new global rules would not change the White House’s approach to chip exports to China, as Trump’s team weighs how many Nvidia chips would be enough to dampen Huawei’s rise without giving China too much computing capacity, the report noted.
The U.S. could also use export licenses to curb Chinese companies’ access to AI chips overseas, as some national security experts have advocated. In some instances, they already have: Trump’s team conditioned some Nvidia shipments to the UAE on companies not providing computing services to any Chinese AI firms, the report added.
Earlier this week, it was reported that U.S. officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia can export to any one Chinese company to about 75,000 H200 chips.
In December 2025, Trump approved the sale of some advanced AI chips, including the H200 GPUs, to China in exchange for a 25% fee. Trump issued a proclamation in January imposing the 25% tariff on certain high-end chips, including Nvidia’s H200 and AMD’s MI325X.
The H200 is the predecessor to Nvidia’s current flagship Blackwell chips and the upcoming Vera Rubin. The Trump Administration had previously allowed Nvidia to sell a less powerful GPU, the H20, to China.