Export licenses stall for AI chips
Approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI‑chip exports to China have stalled because the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security lost nearly a fifth of its licensing staff, creating a backlog in licensing decisions. (tomshardware.com) The slowdown has turned export controls into an operational bottleneck for hardware vendors that rely on timely approvals to serve overseas customers. (tomshardware.com)
U.S. approvals for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chip sales to China have slowed as the export-control office reviewing them has lost staff. (tomshardware.com) The Bureau of Industry and Security, part of the Commerce Department, handles export licenses for sensitive technology. Tom’s Hardware reported the bureau has lost nearly a fifth of its licensing staff, leaving applications waiting longer for decisions. (tomshardware.com) Those delays hit Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices because both companies need U.S. approval to ship some China-specific artificial-intelligence processors. Reuters reported in April 2025 that Nvidia planned to sell the H20 chip in China and Advanced Micro Devices planned shipments of its MI308 product, subject to export rules. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2) The licensing queue matters because Washington tightened chip rules in October 2022 and updated them again in October 2023 to limit China’s access to advanced computing hardware. Those controls did not ban every shipment, but they pushed more transactions into a case-by-case approval process. (bis.doc.gov 1) (bis.doc.gov 2) For chipmakers, that turns export controls from a policy constraint into an operating risk. A product designed to comply with technical limits still cannot move until the government signs off, and a thinner review staff can stretch that timeline. (tomshardware.com) Nvidia has already had to redesign China offerings more than once as U.S. rules changed. After earlier restrictions blocked higher-end products, the company developed lower-performance chips for the Chinese market, including the H20. (reuters.com) (reuters.com) Advanced Micro Devices followed a similar path. The company said in 2025 that its MI308 accelerator was aimed at markets including China under the current rules, putting its sales plans on the same licensing track as Nvidia’s. (reuters.com) The Bureau of Industry and Security says its mission is to advance U.S. national security, foreign-policy and economic objectives through export controls and other tools. That leaves the office balancing two jobs at once: blocking sensitive transfers and processing legal trade quickly enough for U.S. companies to keep serving overseas customers. (bis.doc.gov) What happens next is less about a new chip than about paperwork and staffing. Until the licensing backlog clears or staffing recovers, the pace of approved artificial-intelligence chip exports to China will depend on how fast the Bureau of Industry and Security can work through the queue. (tomshardware.com)
