Nvidia, AMD chips face new U.S. export license rule
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- The Trump administration is weighing draft regulations that would require foreign buyers to obtain licenses from the U.S. government to purchase American AI chips from Nvidia and AMD, giving "Washington broad control" over where other countries can build facilities for training and running AI models (per Bloomberg).
- Nvidia and AMD shares initially fell on the news but later recovered — Nvidia closed up 0.2% while AMD closed down 1.3% on the day of the report.
- Chipmakers had been awaiting the administration's approach after the White House scrapped the Biden-era "diffusion" rule, which AI companies and chipmakers had argued was overly complex and made it difficult to sell abroad.
- The Commerce Department said it is "committed to promoting secure exports of the American tech stack" and stated "We will not" return to Biden's "burdensome, overreaching and disastrous" rule, acknowledging "ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing that approach."
- Representatives for Nvidia and AMD did not immediately respond to requests for comment as of the article's publication.
- The key variable is restrictiveness — a swift approval process would be welcomed by chipmakers, while rejected applications or constricted exports "could brew opposition," the source notes.
Why it matters: Chipmakers have been in export-policy limbo since the Trump White House scrapped Biden's diffusion rule, and this framework would resolve that ambiguity one way or another. The market's muted reaction — Nvidia up 0.2%, AMD down 1.3% — suggests investors see roughly balanced odds between a streamlined licensing regime that speeds sales and a restrictive one that constricts them.
