Biden divides EU with new AI chip export controls
The US has announced a new round of export controls on its artificial intelligence (AI) chips industry, and while it carves out exemptions for strategic allies, many EU member states did not make the cut.
Since a wave of AI innovation following the roll-out of ChatGPT and an ongoing economic contest with China to develop new tech, the geoeconomic value of chip manufacturing and graphics processing units (GPUs) used for AI has come to the fore.
The White House’s announcement comes amid increasing attempts to restrict the transfer of the most advanced chips to non-trusted actors.
It states that companies from 18 “key allies and partners” meeting “high security and trust standards” will be designated as Universal Verified End Users (UVEU) and can benefit from full exemption from the measures restricting shipment of GPUs, while a much longer list of countries, including several EU member states, will not.
The chosen UVEU companies will be able to purchase hundreds of thousands of chips but will still be limited to “up to 7% of their global AI computation capacity” in countries around the world on a global and enduring basis.
Those not on the list but who are not “a country of concern” can apply for permission to purchase computational power of up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years, while the rest can purchase up to 50,000 GPUs per country.
As for what makes a key ally or not, the announcement states they are jurisdictions with robust technology protection regimes and technology ecosystems that are aligned with the national security and foreign policy interests of the US.
A “country of concern” list includes about 20 countries, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela. No EU countries appear on this list.
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Biden divides EU with new AI chip export controls, source
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