Microsoft (MS) requested President Donald Trump to reconsider the United States' AI chip export control policy, The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 27th (local time). Brad Smith, MS Vice President, warned through a blog post that the rules proposed by the Trump administration could lead to strategic mistakes in global AI competition.
He argued that the AI chip export control rules announced by the previous Biden administration could negatively impact U.S. allies and that their implementation should be reconsidered.
The AI chip export control rules, which will go into effect starting in May, allow unlimited sales of U.S.-made AI chips to 18 allied countries, while restricting exports to about 20 'concerned countries,' including China and Russia. For other countries, quotas will be set. This is intended to block Chinese corporations from circumventing AI chip exports through third countries.
Vice President Smith pointed out that this rule could result in outcomes contrary to the goals of strengthening U.S. AI leadership and reducing trade deficits, criticizing, "If this rule is implemented as it is, it will provide China with a strategic advantage." He also emphasized that, "Imposing restrictions on the establishment of overseas AI data centers by U.S. technology corporations will benefit China's AI industry."
Chinese corporation Huawei has released its latest AI chip "Ascend 910C," and the Chinese government is urging domestic corporations to move away from NVIDIA's chips. NVIDIA is supplying only lower-performance AI chips to China under export controls. NVIDIA's CFO revealed in an interview with FT that he is not confident in the Trump administration's response.