US export approvals stalling
Approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI‑chip exports to China have stalled at the Bureau of Industry and Security because licensing staff turnover is near 20%, creating processing bottlenecks. Nearly three months after permission was granted, Nvidia had still not sold a single H200 to China, underscoring how administrative capacity—not law—is currently limiting shipments. (tomshardware.com)
The holdup on Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China is now inside the U.S. government: export licenses are piling up at the Bureau of Industry and Security. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 10 that the bureau has lost dozens of experienced employees over the past year, leaving nearly 20% turnover among rulemaking and licensing staff. People familiar with the office said reviews that once moved faster are now stretching for months. (bloomberg.com) The same report said processed licenses are down about 25% and export backlogs now run into the billions of dollars, including shipments bound for U.S. allies as well as China. Top officials have also tightened control over individual license decisions, adding another layer to the queue. (ttnews.com) That matters because these sales are not broadly banned in the way many China chip restrictions were in 2023 and 2024. In this case, companies can ship only after the government signs off on individual applications under the Export Administration Regulations. (ecfr.gov) The Bureau of Industry and Security is the Commerce Department office that runs that process, reviewing whether an export, reexport, or in-country transfer needs a license and whether to grant it. The agency says its job is to advance national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives through export controls. (bis.gov) Nvidia had already cleared one hurdle. Bloomberg reported on February 26 that the company received a U.S. license to ship a small number of H200 chips to customers in China. (bloomberg.com) But by mid-April, the bottleneck was still visible in the sales ledger. Yahoo Finance, citing Bloomberg, reported that nearly three months after that permission, Nvidia had not sold a single H200 into China. (finance.yahoo.com) China still matters to Nvidia even after earlier curbs. In its annual report for the year ended January 26, 2025, Nvidia told investors that data center revenue in China grew in fiscal 2025, though it remained well below levels seen before the October 2023 export controls. (sec.gov) The background is a rule change from April 2025. Nvidia said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the U.S. government informed it on April 9, 2025, that sales of certain chips to China, including the H20, would require a license for the indefinite future. (sec.gov) The bureau’s own regulations describe license review as a formal case-by-case process with interagency input, deadlines, and status checks. On paper, the system still exists; in practice, Bloomberg’s reporting shows staffing losses and tighter signoff have turned it into a chokepoint. (ecfr.gov) So the immediate limit on these China shipments is not a new law or a new ban. It is whether the Bureau of Industry and Security can clear the stack of applications already sitting on its desks. (bloomberg.com)
