Quick overview

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NVIDIA  dominates the AI industry, but the Trump administration wants to assume a formal position in the sector with comparable broad authority.

Draft regulations drafted by US Commerce Department officials would limit shipments of AI chips to any location in the world without US approval, giving Washington extensive control over whether and under what circumstances other nations can construct facilities for training and operating AI models.

Almost all exports of AI accelerators from companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. would need US approval under the proposed rule, which could be significantly altered or abandoned completely.

A worldwide extension of restrictions that presently spans about 40 nations, according to people with knowledge of the situation. In the tech industry, these chips are the most sought-after parts—businesses like Alphabet Inc. and OpenAI.

The Commerce Department’s draft rule isn’t intended to be a ban on Nvidia exports, and President Donald Trump’s team has stated time and again that they want the world to use American AI. Instead, the rules would establish the US government as a gatekeeper for the AI sector, requiring businesses and, in certain situations, their governments to obtain Washington’s approval before purchasing the valuable accelerators.

The ability of nations to construct vital digital infrastructure—a technology that many world leaders view as essential to economic growth, corporate competitiveness, and military sovereignty—would then depend on how Trump’s team decides to distribute those licenses. With a few exceptions, shipments of up to 1,000 of Nvidia’s most recent GB300 graphics processing units, or GPUs, would go through a fairly straightforward review process.