Export approvals stalling at BIS
Approvals for Nvidia and AMD chip exports to China are slowing because the U.S. export‑licensing agency has lost nearly 20% of its licensing staff, leaving senior officials to sign off on many applications. That backlog is increasing compliance complexity for hardware and semiconductor firms that rely on international shipments. (tomshardware.com)
U.S. approvals for some chip exports are slowing because the Commerce Department office that signs off on them has lost nearly one-fifth of its licensing staff. (bloomberg.com) The office is the Bureau of Industry and Security, the part of Commerce that reviews exports of sensitive technology. Bloomberg reported on April 10 that turnover among its rulemaking and licensing staff is now close to 20%, and some applications have been taking several months. (bloomberg.com) That slowdown is hitting Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, whose China-bound artificial intelligence chips need licenses. The Bureau of Industry and Security said on January 13 that Nvidia H200, Advanced Micro Devices MI325X, and similar chips could be reviewed case by case if applicants met new security conditions. (bis.gov) Those conditions include showing the shipment will not reduce chip supply for U.S. customers, proving the Chinese buyer has export-compliance procedures, and submitting to third-party testing in the United States. Each of those steps adds paperwork before a shipment can move. (bis.gov) The backlog has been building for months. Reuters reported on August 1, 2025, that thousands of export applications were stuck in limbo and one U.S. official called it the longest licensing backlog in more than three decades. (usnews.com) Commerce defended the tougher review. A department spokesperson told Reuters in August 2025 that the Bureau of Industry and Security would “no longer rubber-stamp” applications that raised national-security questions. (usnews.com) The stakes are large because China is still a major market for Nvidia’s lower-specification China chips. Nvidia said on April 15, 2025, that it would take a $5.5 billion charge after the U.S. government told it on April 9 that exports of its H20 chip to China would require a license. (cnbc.com) Nvidia said the H20 generated an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024. The chip was designed specifically to comply with earlier U.S. restrictions by cutting some performance compared with Nvidia’s top products sold outside China. (cnbc.com) The Bureau of Industry and Security was already handling a heavy workload before the latest staffing losses. In fiscal year 2023, it processed 37,943 license applications, approved 32,365, returned 4,998 without action, and denied 580. (bis.gov) Reuters reported that the bureau averaged 38 days per application in fiscal year 2023, the most recent official benchmark cited in that report. Current reviews stretching into months mark a sharp change from that baseline. (usnews.com) For chipmakers, the bottleneck is no longer just what the rules say on paper. It is whether the agency that writes and enforces those rules still has enough people to clear the queue. (bloomberg.com)
