U.S. export‑licensing bottleneck
U.S. approvals for high‑end AI chip exports to China are slowing because the Commerce Department’s licensing office has lost roughly 20% of its staff, forcing senior officials into routine sign‑offs and delaying shipments. Companies and allies are now facing longer waits for Nvidia and AMD approvals as the small licensing office struggles to process requests at scale. (tomshardware.com)
A staffing crunch inside the Commerce Department is slowing U.S. approvals for advanced chip exports to China, turning routine licenses into waits that now stretch for months. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 10 that the Bureau of Industry and Security, the office that reviews these exports, has lost dozens of experienced employees over the past year, amounting to nearly 20% turnover in its rulemaking and licensing staff. The report said senior officials have also tightened control over individual licenses, adding another layer of delay. (bloomberg.com) Tom’s Hardware, citing that Bloomberg reporting on April 13, said the slowdown is hitting approvals for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices shipments to China and leaving companies waiting longer for sign-offs on high-end artificial intelligence accelerators. Those accelerators are the specialized chips used to train and run large artificial intelligence models in data centers. (tomshardware.com) The bottleneck sits inside a policy system Washington has been expanding since October 7, 2022, when the Commerce Department announced new export controls on advanced computing chips and semiconductor manufacturing items for China. Those rules turned a growing share of top-tier chip sales into transactions that require government permission before a product can ship. (bis.gov) That matters in 2026 because the licensing load has not gone away. On January 13, 2026, the Bureau of Industry and Security said it would review licenses for Nvidia H200, Advanced Micro Devices MI325X, and similar chips on a case-by-case basis if security conditions are met, keeping the licensing office at the center of every sale. (bis.gov) The delays are no longer limited to one company or one destination. Bloomberg said export backlogs now run into the billions of dollars and include products intended for U.S. allies, not just shipments bound for China. (bloomberg.com) Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have both built China-specific products to stay inside U.S. rules as those rules changed. Each new policy revision, though, creates another round of technical review over whether a chip’s performance, memory, and interconnect features cross the licensing line. (bis.gov) (tomshardware.com) The staffing losses are landing at the same time Chinese buyers have more domestic options than they did a year ago. Tom’s Hardware reported on April 2 that Nvidia’s share of China’s data-center market had fallen below 60% as Huawei and Cambricon gained ground. (tomshardware.com) The administration has framed the controls as a national security measure, and the Bureau of Industry and Security’s January rule said the goal was to allow some shipments while applying case-by-case review and security conditions. Industry executives and people familiar with the licensing process told Bloomberg the office now lacks the staff to move that policy at the speed companies expected. (bis.gov) (bloomberg.com) For now, the practical result is simpler than the policy debate: the United States is still allowing some advanced chip sales under license, but the office that must approve them is taking longer to do the paperwork. (bloomberg.com)
