The US government ordered Nvidia and AMD to stop exporting high-end AI processors to China. The government wants to prevent China from incorporating the processors into military applications.
The export ban involves Nvidia’s A100 and H100 processors. The processors are designed to accelerate machine learning tasks. According to the US government, Chinese companies could use the processors for military applications of image recognition, speech recognition and textual natural language processing.
Export ban for Nvidia and AMD
Nvidia isn’t happy about the ban. According to Reuters, the chip giant indicates it could significantly slow down the development of the H100 processor, the company’s flagship product. Nvidia shares fell by 3.7 percent after the ban’s announcement.
In addition to Nvidia, chip giant AMD was ordered to stop exporting its MI250 AI processors to China. AMD expects the government to keep its MI100 processor out of the equation, Reuters said. AMD saw its shares fall by 2 percent after the ban was announced.
New measures
The US recently stepped up measures against exports of sensitive technology to China. An export ban on sensitive chip and incinerator technology was announced for “national security reasons” last month.
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