Chip rules loosen in Washington while Beijing considers tightening its own
In January the US Commerce Department moved H200- and MI325X-equivalent chips from presumption of denial to case-by-case review. China's Ministry of Commerce is now reportedly considering restrictions on exporting advanced AI models, training data and overseas acquisitions, and on the use of foreign semiconductor manufacturing. Both directions of the same wall are being built at once.
The symmetry is the story. For three years the assumption was that one country restricts and the other tries to obtain. What is emerging instead is two states each deciding that its AI stack is a strategic asset requiring export control — which produces not a blockade but a partition, with different rules on each side.
The Chinese list under consideration is broader than chips and that is the part worth noting. Models, training data and overseas acquisition of strategically important technology companies are categories the American controls have mostly not touched. Controlling training data in particular would be a novel instrument with no established enforcement precedent.
American loosening and Chinese tightening arriving in the same year also complicates the standard narrative in both capitals. Each is now doing something the other's rhetoric says only they would do.
Mayer Brown — Administration policies on advanced AI chips codified, with reverberations across the AI ecosystem → · Tom's Hardware — China is considering export controls on AI technologies, including banning local companies from using TSMC → · Yahoo Finance — China considers tighter export controls on AI models and chips, FT reports →