The United States is reportedly considering sweeping new controls on chip exports

How and whether the Trump administration plans to regulate semiconductor exports has remained unclear since Donald Trump took office last year. Now, we have an idea of ​​what the administration is thinking.

US regulators have allegedly drafted rules requiring US government approval to ship AI chips anywhere outside the US. According to Bloombergciting sources. This would give the United States much greater control over companies like AMD and Nvidia.

TechCrunch has reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment.

A US Commerce Department spokesperson provided the following: “The Commerce Department is committed to promoting secure exports of America’s technology portfolio. We have successfully promoted exports through our historic agreements in the Middle East, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing this approach. Today there were reports that we would return to an AI deployment norm. But we will not do that. That was burdensome, overblown, and disastrous.”

In these rules that have been drafted, companies and governments outside the United States must obtain approval from the US Department of Commerce to purchase these chips. Bloomberg reported that the review process will vary based on the size and size of the potential purchase.

For example, a small order by a company outside the United States may require basic review while a large order may require government involvement corresponding to the company.

Of course, all of this could change before a final announcement or ruling, but the proposal would represent much greater government involvement than that Artificial Intelligence Deployment Base It was established under President Joe Biden. Trump administration Officially cancelled The deployment regulations were approved by Biden last May, less than a week before they entered into force.

While this is the first idea of ​​what broad export restrictions would look like, it’s not entirely surprising that the Trump administration is looking for more government involvement rather than less involvement based on how it handles potential Nvidia exports to China. The Trump administration has Confused a few times On whether or not the company can send its advanced AI chips to the Chinese market before deciding whether to allow exports if so. The US Department of Commerce was able to approve the customers.

However, this regulatory approach could ultimately harm US chip companies and the current US dominance in the global AI market. If chips become more difficult to obtain from the United States, companies may increasingly turn to other sources, especially as chip companies outside the United States continue to develop more advanced chips.

In Nvidia’s case, export regulations are already hurting it. Semiconductor giant It has not seen the return of its customers in China After nearly a year of uncertainty over whether or not they would retain access to the AI ​​technology.