Export approvals are bottlenecked
US approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI‑chip exports to China are stalling because the Bureau of Industry and Security has lost nearly 20% of its licensing staff, creating administrative delays even where political clearance exists. The slowdown means companies may be waiting months to ship approved hardware, turning bureaucratic capacity into a material constraint on supply. (tomshardware.com)
A staffing crunch inside the Commerce Department is slowing United States approvals for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chip exports to China, even after policy opened a path for some sales. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 10 that the Bureau of Industry and Security has lost dozens of experienced employees over the past year, with turnover nearing 20% among rulemaking and licensing staff. People familiar with the office told Bloomberg that license reviews for chipmakers and other exporters are now stretching into months. (bloomberg.com) The bottleneck comes after the Bureau of Industry and Security changed its policy on January 13, with the rule taking effect January 15, 2026, to review exports of Nvidia H200, Advanced Micro Devices MI325X, and similar chips to China and Macau on a case-by-case basis instead of starting from a presumption of denial. The Commerce Department said the shift followed President Donald Trump’s December 8, 2025 announcement allowing shipments to approved Chinese customers under new security conditions. (bis.gov, federalregister.gov) An export license is the government’s permission slip for shipping sensitive technology abroad. When the line of applications gets longer and the review team gets smaller, the delay becomes a supply problem for companies that already built chips and lined up buyers. (marinelink.com, bloomberg.com) That matters for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices because China remains a major market for data-center chips, and the January rule was supposed to create a controlled channel for at least some advanced sales. Instead, the Bureau of Industry and Security is becoming the choke point between White House policy and actual shipments. (bis.gov, finnegan.com, bloomberg.com) The Bureau of Industry and Security has long handled tens of thousands of export applications a year. In fiscal 2023, it averaged 38 days per application and processed 37,943 cases, denying about 2%, according to figures cited in Reuters coverage republished by MarineLink. (marinelink.com) Recent reporting points to a much slower system. Bloomberg said processed licenses are down by roughly one-quarter and billions of dollars in exports are sitting in backlog, including shipments meant for United States allies as well as China-bound chip orders. (ttnews.com, bloomberg.com) Law firms that track export controls say the January rule did not create a free pass. Exporters still have to clear customer checks, security certifications, compliance obligations, and product-specific review before chips can move. (cov.com, bakermckenzie.com) The Commerce Department has not publicly framed the slowdown as a staffing crisis in its January announcement, which emphasized national-security safeguards and approved-customer screening. But the practical result described by Bloomberg is that approval on paper no longer guarantees a quick shipment in practice. (bis.gov, bloomberg.com) For chip exporters, the immediate question is no longer only whether Washington will allow the sale. It is whether the Bureau of Industry and Security still has enough people to stamp the paperwork before the market moves on. (bloomberg.com)
