The United States has issued a notice affirming its restrictions on shipments of semiconductors to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China amid concerns about loopholes in Washington's export control regime.

The Department of Commerce said in the guidance issued on Sunday that its licensing requirements for the export of advanced AI chips applied to all businesses with headquarters or a parent company in China.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said it issued the clarification in response to questions about whether it was enforcing preexisting licence requirements after it overturned former President Joe Biden's Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion. "The answer is yes," the BIS said.

Unveiled in the final days of the Biden administration, the framework proposed a globe-spanning licensing regime to control access to AI chips, drawing backlash from tech firms including Nvidia.

President Donald Trump's administration scrapped the framework last May, citing "burdensome new regulatory requirements" and harm to diplomatic relations.

Chip giant Nvidia, whose top-of-the-line Blackwell GPUs are banned for export to China, said it had already been operating in keeping with the clarified rules. AMD, Intel and TSMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chris McGuire, a former State Department official, accused the Trump administration of providing Chinese companies a loophole to buy export-controlled chips. He said Chinese companies have been buying these chips "very likely at scale" and that the clarification makes such shipments illegal again.

The US has rolled out numerous restrictions on high-end technology to China as Washington and Beijing battle for dominance in AI. In December, Trump announced he would allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chip to China.

Source: www.aljazeera.com