Chip designer Nvidia said U.S. officials had told it to stop shipping two major computer chips to China for artificial intelligence work, a move that could undermine Chinese companies’ ability to do advanced work like image recognition.
The company said on Wednesday that the ban, which affects its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine learning, could interfere with development of the H100, the flagship chip Nvidia announced this year.
Nvidia said U.S. officials told it that the new rule “removes concerns that covered products may be used or converted in China for ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’.”
Asked for comment, the U.S. Commerce Department would not say what new standards it would impose on AI chips that cannot be shipped to China, but said it is reviewing China’s policies and procedures to “keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands.”
“While we are not in a position to outline specific policy changes at this time, we are taking a comprehensive approach to implementing additional measures related to technology, end-uses and end-users to protect US national security and foreign policy interests,” a spokeswoman told Reuters.
The announcement marks a major escalation of US crackdowns on China’s technological capabilities as tensions flare over the fate of Taiwan.
A spokesman for rival AMD told Reuters the company had received new licensing requirements that would stop it from exporting its MI250 artificial intelligence chips to China, but believed it would not affect its MI100 chips.
Without American chips from companies like NVIDIA and AMD, Chinese firms would not be able to cost-effectively build the kind of advanced computing used for image and speech recognition, among many other tasks.
Image recognition and natural language processing are common in consumer applications such as smartphones for answering questions and tagging photos. They also have military uses, such as scanning satellite images for weapons or bases and intercepting digital communications for intelligence gathering purposes.
Nvidia said it booked $400 million in sales of the affected chips to China this quarter, which could be lost if Chinese companies decide not to buy alternative Nvidia products. He said he plans to apply for an exemption from the law, but has no assurances that US officials will help him.
