Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia Urge Trump to Revise Chip Export Curbs

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Tech companies with a combined market valuation of more than $8 trillion are urging the Trump administration to rethink chip export restrictions that they fear will push US allies into the arms of Chinese competitors.

In rapid succession on Thursday, Microsoft Corp.’s president and Amazon.com Inc.’s chief executive officer both said the Trump team should reconsider Biden-era regulations that would cap the export of artificial intelligence semiconductors to nations including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Their entreaty echoed a similar call from Nvidia Corp.’s CEO.

At a time when many tech companies have been eager to be seen expressing support for President Donald Trump and his economic policies, the remarks in the last 24 hours show that they have some big asks, too.

Introduced by the Biden administration, the so-called AI diffusion rule puts several nations in the second tier of a three-tier category that curbs the export of chips used in data centers to train AI models. Microsoft President Brad Smith said the policy capped the export of AI chips to “strategically vital markets” and could prompt those countries to turn to China for advanced semiconductors.

“Left unchanged, the Biden rule will give China a strategic advantage in spreading over time its own AI technology, echoing its rapid ascent in 5G telecommunications a decade ago,” Smith wrote in a corporate blog post on Thursday.

Hours later, Amazon boss Andy Jassy made a similar point.

“I don’t know how this administration feels about it, but I would say that we share the concern that it has limitations on certain countries who are natural allies of the US,” Jassy said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“They’re going to need more chips, and so I think if we don’t do it, we’re going to basically give up that business and those relationships to other countries, who can provide those chips,” Jassy said. “I think we’re better off being partners with them.”

Trump and his team have been drawing up tougher versions of US semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry — a sign that the White House is keen to expand on Biden-era efforts to limit Beijing’s technological prowess.

The rule, which will have an impact on data center development everywhere from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, drew harsh rebuke from companies including Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of advanced AI chips. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed optimism that the Trump administration would opt for a lighter regulatory touch.

Nvidia is also concerned about how export restrictions are hurting its business in China. “Data center sales in China remained well below levels seen on the onset of export controls,” Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said on a call with analysts late Wednesday. “Absent any change in regulations, we believe that China’s shipments will remain roughly at the current percentage.”

Huang said Nvidia’s China revenue is half where it was before restrictions were imposed. Later he said in an interview on CNBC that the chips he’s allowed to ship to China are 60 times less powerful than his best products and that Huawei and others are gaining ground.

“It’s hard to tell whether export controls are effective,” he said.

For its part, Microsoft runs or is building data centers in several countries subject to caps on chips exports, including the UAE, where the US tech giant is developing AI data centers in partnership with G42. Amazon also has a global cloud-computing business. The two companies are among the biggest customers of Nvidia, the top builder of the high-end chips used in artificial intelligence.

–With assistance from Mackenzie Hawkins and Caroline Hyde.

(Updates with Amazon CEO comments, context)