U.S. officials are evaluating a new regulatory framework to govern the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips, with proposals that could require foreign governments or companies to invest in U.S. AI infrastructure as a condition for receiving large shipments of these chips, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
The draft rules, which are still under discussion and may change before finalization, would mark the first major attempt by the Trump administration to regulate AI chip exports to allied nations since it scrapped the previous administration’s “AI diffusion” framework. That earlier policy aimed to keep more AI infrastructure development within the United States and channel international purchases through a limited number of U.S.-based cloud providers.
Under the new proposal, countries seeking to import large volumes of AI chips — particularly orders of 200,000 units or more — may be required to commit to investments in American AI data centers or provide security guarantees to the U.S. government. The framework could give Washington significant leverage in negotiating economic investments tied to technology access, aligning with President Donald Trump’s broader push to attract more technology infrastructure development to the United States.
The proposed approach differs significantly from the policy stance of former President Joe Biden, whose administration had considered exempting close allies from strict restrictions on advanced chip exports. Instead, the new framework could apply licensing requirements more broadly across international markets.
The draft document suggests that even relatively small installations involving fewer than 1,000 AI chips might require export licenses. For such shipments to qualify for exemptions, exporters such as Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) would need to actively monitor the chips, while buyers would be required to use software controls preventing the chips from being linked together into large computing clusters — a configuration commonly used to build powerful AI supercomputers.
Foreign companies seeking to import up to 100,000 chips could also be required to provide formal government-to-government assurances regarding the use of the technology. According to the document, the Trump administration has already required such assurances from Saudi Arabia as part of agreements allowing it to purchase advanced chips.
For installations involving up to 200,000 chips, the framework may include additional oversight measures such as inspections or site visits by U.S. export control officials to ensure compliance with security requirements.
Experts say the proposed policy could help address concerns about advanced AI chips being diverted to countries such as China, which remain subject to strict restrictions under existing export control rules. “The rule could help the U.S. government address chip diversion to China and ensure a more secure buildout of the most powerful AI supercomputers,” said Saif Khan, a former national security official in the Biden administration who now works at the Washington-based think tank Institute for Progress.
However, Khan also noted that the licensing requirements could be overly broad, potentially applying worldwide and raising concerns that export controls may be used as a negotiating tool with allied nations rather than purely for national security purposes.
In a statement posted on social media platform X, the U.S. Commerce Department confirmed that it is evaluating new export control policies but emphasized that they would not resemble the earlier framework introduced by the previous administration, which it described as “burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous.”
Instead, officials indicated that the policy could follow a model similar to recent agreements with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where access to advanced U.S. AI chips was linked to commitments to invest in technology infrastructure within the United States.
