The United States plans to restrict the sale of AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to companies involved in building domestic data centers.

New export license requirements: how they affect H200 accelerator shipments

Recent difficulties that Nvidia encountered while trying to obtain export permits for H200 accelerators to China vividly illustrate the heated debates in the U.S. Congress over high‑technology goods control.

Key points of the new policy

* Mandatory conditions for foreign recipients

Under the fresh initiative, the U.S. government wants foreign buyers either to build data centers within the country or to guarantee safe use of American AI accelerators.

* Shipments of more than 200 000 units

According to Reuters, if a batch exceeds this figure, additional approvals will be required. The new rules will give an advantage to large U.S. cloud companies in purchases and help develop domestic computing infrastructure for AI. In addition, authorities can negotiate with other countries about investments in American infrastructure in exchange for exporting accelerators.

* Relations with allies

In the previous administration the principle was simple: nearest geopolitical partners were exempt from restrictions. Under Biden Russia has already been excluded from shipments, and under Trump China formally received permission, but licenses are still being processed and the Chinese side is not ready for mass import of H200.

What’s new in control rules

1. Licensing even small batches

Now permits are required for any accelerator shipment outside the U.S., including batches of fewer than 1 000 units.

2. Exception conditions

Shipments can be exempt from restrictions only if strict requirements are met:

* Manufacturers (AMD, Nvidia and others) must control end use of devices.
* The client must guarantee that the total system performance will not exceed the set threshold by expanding the cluster.

3. Guarantees for large customers

Foreign companies wishing to purchase more than 100 000 accelerators must provide state guarantees. Saudi Arabia has already offered such a guarantee and received the required equipment batch.

4. Control of large shipments

Shipments over 200 000 units into the buyer’s country will require the presence of special inspectors.

5. Differentiation from Biden rules

The Department of Commerce confirmed that the discussed rules will differ from those introduced under the previous administration. They are aimed at ensuring new agreements with Saudi Arabia and the UAE include investments from these countries in the American economy.

Pros and cons

* The government wants to preserve U.S. technological leadership, but the new regulation does not account for the possibility of foreign companies creating more advanced AI models.
* Meanwhile the Biden administration sought restriction to give American developers an advantage in artificial intelligence.

Thus, the new export rules create a stricter and more transparent system for controlling high‑technology equipment shipments while opening opportunities for strategic partners willing to invest in the U.S. economy.