China chip approvals stall
Approvals for AI‑grade chip exports to China have stalled because the US Bureau of Industry and Security is short‑staffed, leaving shipments from Nvidia and AMD stuck in approval queues. Reports say the bottleneck—roughly 20% staff turnover in the office that vets exports—is delaying deliveries such as Nvidia’s H200 and creating administrative uncertainty for suppliers and customers. (startupnews.fyi) (xataka.com)
Shipments of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial intelligence chips to China are piling up in Washington, not at the border, as export approvals stall inside the Commerce Department. (finance.yahoo.com) The office handling those licenses, the Bureau of Industry and Security, has lost 101 employees since 2024, a 19% drop, according to a Bloomberg analysis cited by Yahoo Finance. Approval times stretched to 76 days in the first half of 2025, up from a 38-day average in 2023. (finance.yahoo.com) The backlog is hitting chips the Trump administration had already moved closer to allowing into China. On January 13, 2026, the Bureau of Industry and Security said Nvidia’s H200, Advanced Micro Devices’ MI325X and similar chips would be reviewed case by case if exporters met security conditions. (bis.gov) (federalregister.gov) That matters because these are not blanket approvals. Exporters must show that shipments will not reduce supply for United States customers, that Chinese buyers have compliance procedures, and that the chips were independently tested in the United States. (bis.gov) (federalregister.gov) The staffing squeeze is landing on an agency whose workload has been expanding for years. A June 2025 Government Accountability Office report said the bureau had not done a bureau-wide workforce planning effort since 2016, even as export controls on advanced semiconductors grew more central to national security policy. (files.gao.gov) The same report said the Bureau of Industry and Security’s funded positions rose from 403 in fiscal 2013 to 585 in fiscal 2024, but much of the recent growth went to Russia-related controls and a new office for communications technology supply chains. The Government Accountability Office said the bureau still lacked a long-term workforce plan. (files.gao.gov) Bloomberg’s reporting, as cited by Yahoo Finance, said turnover among rulemaking and licensing staff was running near 20% and that Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler was personally examining nearly every license application. The same report said Nvidia had not sold a single H200 to China months after the White House cleared the deal, despite receiving orders. (finance.yahoo.com) The delays also reach beyond China. The same licensing office is handling approvals tied to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and Bloomberg’s account said those Middle East cases require individual negotiations rather than a standard template. (finance.yahoo.com) For Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and their customers, the rule on paper changed in January. In practice, the queue now appears to be the policy. (bis.gov) (finance.yahoo.com)
