U.S. technology giants with a total market value of more than $8 trillion have urged the Trump administration to reconsider chip export restrictions, fearing that it will push U.S. allies into the arms of competitors. The president of Microsoft and the CEO of Amazon said one after another on Thursday that the Trump team should reconsider Biden-era restrictions on the export of AI chips to countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Nvidia's CEO made a similar call.
At a time when many tech companies are rushing to express support for Trump and his economic policies, the outcry over the past 24 hours suggests these companies also have some big demands.
The so-called AI proliferation rules introduced by the Biden administration place several countries in the second of a three-tier category to limit the export of chips used by data centers to train artificial intelligence models. Microsoft President Brad Smith said the policy restricted the export of artificial intelligence chips to "strategically important markets."
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made a similar point hours later.
“I don’t know how this administration feels about this, but I would say we are also concerned about restrictions on countries that are natural allies of the United States,” Jassy said in an interview.
"They need more chips, so I think if we don't provide them, we're basically ceding those businesses and relationships to other countries that can provide them," Jassy said. “I think it would be better to be a partner with them.”
The Trump team is enacting tighter chip restrictions and putting pressure on key allies.
This regulation will have an impact on the development of data centers from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and has been questioned by industry giants such as Nvidia. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed optimism that the Trump administration would opt for looser regulations.