Taiwan Plans AI Chip Export Curbs to Match US
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- Taiwan is considering stronger export controls that would, for the first time, make AI chip smuggling to China a criminal offense rather than a matter enforceable only through unrelated local laws like document-falsification charges.
- The proposed curbs would restrict sales to all customers in China, not just blacklisted firms like Huawei Technologies and SMIC (blacklisted by Taipei in 2025), and would cover chips with processing power above a certain threshold similar to Washington's approach.
- Gigabyte Technology shares fell as much as 3.2% and Asustek Computer 4.4% in early Taipei trading on June 10 — outpacing the broader market — as investors weighed tighter oversight of Nvidia-powered server assembly.
- Taiwan's first known detentions of alleged chip smugglers came in May on document-falsification charges, and in April a court sentenced a Tokyo Electron engineer to 10 years for stealing proprietary data from TSMC.
- Regional peers are diverging: Malaysia agreed in 2025 to fully match US AI processor curbs as part of a broader trade accord, but implementation is unclear; Singapore has opted to address diversion through existing local laws while reminding businesses to follow US restrictions.
- Geoffrey Gertz, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said Taiwan 'has its own reasons for moving toward stricter technology controls toward China, and may be more willing than most countries to stand up to Beijing these days.'
Why it matters: If Taiwan makes AI chip smuggling a criminal offense, it would be the most far-reaching export-control move yet from the Lai administration and would directly affect Taiwanese server assemblers like Gigabyte and Asustek that funnel Nvidia chips into Nvidia-powered AI systems worldwide. The policy also forces Beijing to react — China already accused Taipei's DPP of 'kneeling' to the US when it blacklisted Huawei and SMIC in 2025 — and tests whether regional partners like Malaysia will actually implement their own parallel commitments.
