In the competition to develop artificial intelligence, the USA has tightened its restrictions on chip deliveries to China. The new rules are likely to primarily affect technology from the semiconductor company Nvidia, which plays a key role worldwide in training systems with artificial intelligence. Nvidia shares fell by around five percent yesterday after the new export rules were announced.
The previous level of US restrictions had already prevented the sale to China of Nvidia’s H100 and A100 chip systems, which large companies in the West use to develop their AI software such as the chatbot ChatGPT. The group quickly developed the slimmed down versions H800 and A800. They were below the ban threshold because they exchanged data with each other more slowly than the top models.
USA: Cutting-edge technology with military utility
According to previous information, Nvidia received orders worth around five billion dollars for these chip systems. It is unclear how much of this can be fulfilled before the new US restrictions take effect.
The US government says it wants to prevent China from gaining access to American cutting-edge technology with military use. In view of US restrictions, China is trying to develop its own chip technologies – and recently presented some progress. For this reason alone, US measures were expected to be tightened.
At the same time, there have been warnings from the American chip industry in recent months that restrictions that are too harsh could harm the business of US companies like Nvidia. The share prices of chip suppliers such as Intel and AMD also fell on Tuesday.
Nvidia shares have recently risen sharply and are almost three times more expensive than at the beginning of the year. The trigger for this is the boom in artificial intelligence, which is causing the US chip company’s business to grow explosively.
