Washington clears AMD to resume shipments to China of advanced AI chips – NotebookCheck.net News (19459000)
The U.S. Commerce Department will advance AMD’s MI308 export licenses, ending months of suspension. This policy shift reverses early-2025 hardware curbs and could restore both vendors’ access to China’s AI market once formal approvals arrive.
U.S. Commerce Department. AMD was informed that its license applications for exporting MI308 Accelerators “will move forward for review,” had been approved, paving the way to resume sales after months of suspension. Nvidia received the same signal earlier this week for its H20 processor.
This decision reverses the strict stance taken by the Trump administration in 2025, when it insisted on a non-negotiable ban on high-end AI equipment. AMD had warned investors that a ban on MI308 could shave off $800 million from its results. Nvidia, meanwhile, may have to take a hit of $5.5 billion due to H20 restrictions.
Both AMD and Nvidia created the MI308 specifically to meet previous U.S. Export thresholds. However, even these toned-down designs were subjected to a wider crackdown in January. Since then, executives – including Jensen Huang of Nvidia – have lobbied Washington for rules that they believe could undermine the U.S.’s leadership in AI.
“AI diffusion” The White House scrapped Biden’s framework”AI diffusion”which imposed tier-based controls and promised a simplified rule set. The final details are still unclear, but the partial rollback indicates a willingness for national security concerns to be balanced with commercial interests.
Both vendors could benefit from a renewed access to the largest AI market in the world, which would help them reduce inventory pressure and soften previous revenue losses. However, any licenses will still need formal approval.
Nathan Ali – Tech Writer 263 articles have been published on Notebookcheck since 2024
– I’m a tech nerd at heart. It all began in middle school. I’ve always been a gadget nerd. Rooting Android phones and jailbreaking iOS was my thing. I’ve bricked some phones, but it hasn’t stopped me from trying. Since over a decade I have been following tech news and trying to stay up to date with the latest. But I am not only interested in tech. I also love cars and follow what’s new within the automotive industry. I should also mention that I worked as a free-lance writer. I won’t mention the companies for which I wrote (you know what it is like), but it was an interesting experience. In my free time, I alternate between reading, gaming and keeping up with the latest tech and auto news. It’s a mixture that keeps me entertained and interested.
Nathan Ali (Update: 2025-7-16)
