In order to completely block all channels for Chinese companies to obtain advanced chips, the U.S. Department of Commerce has officially begun to close regulatory loopholes left by previous export control policies. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued the latest guidance and rules, making it clear that even if the relevant entities are registered and operated outside China, as long as their actual headquarters belongs to entities within China, BIS will strictly implement the export license review requirements related to advanced chips for such entities, and no supply will be allowed without a license.
A BIS spokesperson publicly responded that the guidance issued this time is essentially a clarification of the rules for export license requirements that have been implemented in 2023, and is not a new control clause. BIS will continue to strictly implement various export control measures in the future. The so-called purpose is to "protect key U.S. technologies from flowing to specific areas."
Nvidia officially stated simultaneously that the newly released guidance will not have any additional impact on the company's business operations. It added that the U.S. Department of Commerce has already set clear licensing restrictions for Nvidia's high-end AI chip products. Normal shipments to restricted entities are not possible, and the new rules will not change the existing supply status.
The loopholes to be closed this time have been around for a long time. In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially announced that it would no longer implement the AI proliferation rules issued in the final stage of the Biden administration. This set of rules that originally set universal licensing requirements for all global AI chip circulation links has been suspended, directly leaving a gray space where controls can be circumvented to supply to Chinese-related entities.
The new regulations introduced at that time not only directly canceled the relevant provisions requiring overseas leading foundries such as TSMC to conduct additional due diligence, but also completely invalidated the original restriction that required foundries to check one by one that high-end AI chips produced by themselves should not flow into Chinese front companies.
At the same time, the new regulations do not require overseas data centers that have purchased relevant chips to deactivate relevant computing equipment, nor do they require them to stop providing operation and maintenance services for servers equipped with advanced AI chips. Many Chinese-related entities previously relied on such overseas third-party entities to circumvent controls to obtain high-end computing chips. Now BIS's new guidance directly cuts off this bypass path completely.