AI hardware approvals stall

Approvals for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chip exports to China have slowed as the U.S. export-control office handling licenses has lost nearly one in five licensing staff. (tomshardware.com) Tom’s Hardware reported that the Bureau of Industry and Security has lost nearly 20% of its licensing staff, creating a backlog for export applications tied to Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices shipments to China. The bureau runs the Simplified Network Application Process Redesign system, or SNAP-R, which companies use to file export license applications and related requests under the Export Administration Regulations. (tomshardware.com) (bis.doc.gov) Those approvals matter because advanced computing chips bound for China face U.S. controls and often need case-by-case review before a shipment can leave. The Bureau of Industry and Security is the Commerce Department office that administers those export rules. (tomshardware.com) (bis.doc.gov) A separate supply-chain strain is building in chemicals. Seoul Economic Daily reported on April 13 that China plans to halt sulfuric acid exports next month, and the report said the prospect had already pushed aluminum prices higher. (en.sedaily.com) Sulfuric acid is one of the chemical industry’s biggest basic materials, with uses in metallurgy, refining, and other heavy industrial processes. The United States Geological Survey says sulfur, through sulfuric acid, is important across industrial supply chains, and Britannica lists metallurgy among sulfuric acid’s core uses. (usgs.gov) (britannica.com) Aluminum sits inside the chip supply chain even when the end product is a processor or graphics chip. Britannica says aluminum and its alloys are widely used because they are light, conductive, and corrosion-resistant, while chip-industry materials guidance lists sulfuric acid among chemicals handled in semiconductor manufacturing. (britannica.com) (semiconductors.org) The timing is the problem for manufacturers. A delayed export license can hold up a finished shipment, and a tighter sulfuric-acid market can raise costs or complicate sourcing for upstream materials used in metal and chip production. (tomshardware.com) (en.sedaily.com) China’s data-center market has already been getting harder for U.S. chip companies to serve. Tom’s Hardware reported on April 1 that Nvidia’s share of China’s data-center market had fallen below 60% as domestic suppliers gained ground while U.S. companies struggled to get products into the market. (tomshardware.com) Neither bottleneck changes the underlying demand for artificial-intelligence hardware. But together they leave suppliers, buyers, and investors waiting on two things at once: government signatures and industrial inputs. (tomshardware.com) (en.sedaily.com)