U.S. export‑licensing bottleneck
Approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI‑chip exports to China have stalled after the Bureau of Industry and Security lost nearly a fifth of its licensing staff, with Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler reportedly signing off on nearly every licence. Reporting says the staff shortfall has created a backlog and slower approvals at the agency. (tomshardware.com)
U.S. approvals for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chip exports to China have slowed to a crawl as the Commerce Department office handling them loses staff. (finance.yahoo.com) Bloomberg reported on April 10 that the Bureau of Industry and Security has shed 101 employees, or 19%, since 2024, based on Office of Personnel Management figures, LinkedIn changes and agency records. The same report said turnover among rulemaking and licensing staff is running near 20%. (bloomberg.com) The bottleneck is showing up in review times. Bloomberg said average turnaround reached 76 days in the first half of 2025, up from the Bureau of Industry and Security’s 38-day average in fiscal 2023. (finance.yahoo.com) (bis.gov) The Bureau of Industry and Security is the Commerce Department office that decides whether sensitive U.S. goods can be shipped abroad. For advanced chips, that means it sits between White House policy announcements and any actual sale to a customer in China, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. (aol.com) (ttnews.com) That gatekeeping role grew in January 2026, when the bureau changed its policy for some semiconductors exported to China and Macau from a presumption of denial to case-by-case review. The rule covered Nvidia H200 chips, Advanced Micro Devices MI325X chips and similar products if exporters met security and supply conditions. (bis.gov) (federalregister.gov) The current delays are colliding with promises the Trump administration made months earlier. Nvidia said on July 15, 2025 that the U.S. government had assured it licenses for H20 shipments to China would be granted and that it hoped to start deliveries soon. (cnbc.com) (blogs.nvidia.com) Reuters reported on August 1, 2025 that no H20 licenses had yet been issued despite those assurances, and one U.S. official told Reuters the export-license backlog was the longest in more than three decades. The Commerce Department said then that the bureau would “no longer rubber-stamp” applications that raised national-security questions. (aol.com) Bloomberg said Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler has insisted on personally examining nearly every license application. Reuters reported in August 2025 that some staff criticized Kessler’s management, while the department publicly defended the bureau’s stricter review approach. (finance.yahoo.com) (aol.com) The logjam now reaches beyond China. Bloomberg said Nvidia licenses for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the 25% import-duty framework for H200 shipments to approved Chinese customers, and Advanced Micro Devices MI308 approvals all run through the same office. (ttnews.com) (finance.yahoo.com) So the fight is no longer only about whether Washington allows more chip exports on paper. It is also about whether the Bureau of Industry and Security still has enough people to turn those policy shifts into signed licenses. (bloomberg.com)
