Trump to revoke Biden's chip restrictions: Report

The Trump administration intends to lift the Biden-era AI chip ban rule as part of an initiative to update semiconductor trade regulations that have faced fierce resistance from tech companies and foreign governments, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Though not complete, the repeal aims to change a program that former President Joe Biden started that established three broad tiers of countries to regulate the export of chips from Nvidia and other firms.

The Trump administration will not implement the so-called AI diffusion rule when it takes effect May 15, sources told Bloomberg.

After years of tightening regulations on the sale of semiconductors, the diffusion rule, which was unveiled during Biden's final week in office, created additional license requirements for US exports of AI chips to a large portion of the world.

By imposing security restrictions for access to top-tier American technology, the legislation aimed to keep China from obtaining AI chip technology through middlemen and to draw other countries into the US' orbit.

The top manufacturer of processors for AI model training, Nvidia, has taken issue with the increasing number of US regulations. Claiming that imposing limitations on foreign nations will only drive them to China, the company has continuously mocked the AI dissemination regulation and advocated for its complete repeal.

China is expected to grow into a $50 billion market for AI processors I the next two years, according to Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, who said this week that US businesses should be permitted to sell there.

But the Trump administration has tightened regulations aimed at Beijing's technological aspirations. It has already prohibited Nvidia from selling its H20 chip in China, a decision that has resulted in write-downs for the business totaling $5.5 billion.

Shares of top chip producers soared after the news. Nvidia was up 3.1% at the closing bell on Wall Street, AMD rose 1.76%, Intel added 1.86% and Oracle gained 1.13%.