Export controls showing cracks
U.S. export approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI chips have stalled, reportedly because the Bureau of Industry and Security lost nearly 20% of its licensing staff, creating administrative bottlenecks. Separately, a probe says a Chinese Nvidia cloud partner procured about 300 servers with restricted GPUs worth roughly $92 million, illustrating enforcement challenges. (tomshardware.com) (arbiterz.com)
The office that approves United States exports of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial intelligence chips is slowing to a crawl just as Washington says more sales can go through. (bloomberg.com) (bis.gov) Bloomberg reported on April 10 that the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has lost nearly 20% of the licensing staff in the office handling these cases, and some approvals now take months. The same report said processed licenses fell about 25% as workloads rose. (bloomberg.com) That bottleneck lands after the Bureau of Industry and Security changed policy on January 15, 2026, to review some advanced chips for China on a case-by-case basis instead of treating them as broadly blocked. The agency said the revised policy covers products including Nvidia H200 and Advanced Micro Devices MI325X class chips if security conditions are met. (bis.gov) (sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com) A separate Bloomberg investigation found that Sharetronic Data Technology, a Chinese cloud and server company that has described itself as an Nvidia partner, sold about 300 servers worth roughly $92 million to a Shenzhen affiliate in May and June 2025. Public tax invoices reviewed by Bloomberg tied those sales to server models designed for restricted Nvidia accelerators. (bloomberg.com) (finance.yahoo.com) The invoices listed 276 Super Micro SYS-821GE-TNHR systems and 32 Dell PowerEdge XE9680 systems. Product pages for those machines show support for Nvidia H100 or H200 systems, and Dell’s configuration page also lists Nvidia H20, Advanced Micro Devices MI300X, and Intel Gaudi 3 options, all of which were under United States controls for China at the time. (finance.yahoo.com) (bloomberg.com) Export controls work in two stages: Washington writes the rules, then officials review licenses and police shipments. The current problem is that both stages are under strain at once, with slower paperwork on the front end and suspected workarounds showing up after the rules are already in place. (bis.gov) (bloomberg.com 1) (bloomberg.com 2) The policy itself is not new. The Biden administration first imposed sweeping controls on advanced computing chips and chipmaking tools in October 2022, then expanded them in 2023 and 2024 as Nvidia redesigned products for China and Washington tightened thresholds. (csis.org) (bis.gov) Nvidia has said it follows export rules wherever it does business, and Bloomberg reported that it was not clear from the Chinese invoices how the servers were sourced or which exact chips were inside every machine. That leaves the central enforcement question unresolved: whether the systems moved through licensed channels, gray-market resellers, or outright smuggling. (bloomberg.com) (finance.yahoo.com) China’s market is already shifting while Washington sorts out the rules. Reuters reported on April 1 that Chinese chipmakers captured about 41% of China’s artificial intelligence accelerator server market in 2025, cutting into Nvidia’s position. (reuters.com) The immediate test is simple: whether the United States can clear legitimate licenses faster than buyers find other routes. Right now, the paper trail and the shipment trail are both telling the same story. (bloomberg.com 1) (bloomberg.com 2)
