in Blog post Today, Microsoft’s vice-chairman and President Brad Smith, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is calling for Israel, India, Switzerland and other countries to add it to the list of countries exempt restrictions on exporting AI chips produced in the US.
The restrictions, known as the spreading rules, are expected to come into effect in May, and could limit the ability to ship graphics processors to countries where cloud computing giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia are considered US allies but are subject to restrictions on export restrictions for chips used to develop AI models.
These restrictions were imposed a month before the Biden administration’s last day as part of a plan designed to prevent leaks of advanced US technology to China, Russia and North Korea.
The rules exempt Western countries such as the UK, France and Spain from restrictions, but several US allies, Israel, India, Switzerland, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Poland, are located in the middle class two categories.
Once President Donald Trump took office, he refused to cancel the order for obvious national security reasons. It is believed that Israel was imposed due to its failure to comply with regulations designed to prevent US technology from leaking to countries such as China. Microsoft’s call for an extended list of exemption countries focuses on AI chips used to train and operate AI models.
Nvidia opposed the move as soon as it was announced, but Microsoft has now joined in opposition to restrictions. It appears to limit the ability to sell AI processing and cloud services to major countries such as Israel, the UAE, India and Switzerland.
Smith says these countries will turn to China to make up for the lack of graphics processors. “The unintended consequence of this approach is to encourage Tier two countries to look for AI infrastructure and services elsewhere. And it is clear where they will be forced to change. If left unchanged, the spreading rules will be a gift for China’s rapidly expanding AI sector,” he writes.
“Stop leaving American friends and allies to the second tier that undermines confidence in continuing access to American products, eliminating quantitative caps that interfere with well-functioning economic markets.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News -en.globes.co.il- February 27, 2025.
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