Biden divides EU with new AI chip export controls - Euractiv

Biden divides EU with new AI chip export controls – Euractiv

Posted by Admin January 14, 2025 Tech

The US has announced a new round of export controls on its artificial intelligence (AI) chips industry, and while it carves out exemptions for strategic allies, many EU member states did not make the cut.

Since a wave of AI innovation following the roll-out of ChatGPT and an ongoing economic contest with China to develop new tech, the geoeconomic value of chip manufacturing and graphics processing units (GPUs) used for AI has come to the fore.

The White House’s announcement comes amid increasing attempts to restrict the transfer of the most advanced chips to non-trusted actors.

It states that companies from 18 “key allies and partners” meeting “high security and trust standards” will be designated as Universal Verified End Users (UVEU) and can benefit from full exemption from the measures restricting shipment of GPUs, while a much longer list of countries, including several EU member states, will not.

The chosen UVEU companies will be able to purchase hundreds of thousands of chips but will still be limited to “up to 7% of their global AI computation capacity” in countries around the world on a global and enduring basis.

Those not on the list but who are not “a country of concern” can apply for permission to purchase computational power of up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years, while the rest can purchase up to 50,000 GPUs per country.

As for what makes a key ally or not, the announcement states they are jurisdictions with robust technology protection regimes and technology ecosystems that are aligned with the national security and foreign policy interests of the US.

A “country of concern” list includes about 20 countries, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela. No EU countries appear on this list.

Who’s in, and who’s out?

A total of 10 EU member states made the US ally list, while 17 did not. As for the methodology used to designate countries as allies, some examples are harder to understand than others.

It is easy to see why the Netherlands and Taiwan, both of which have far-reaching global influences over specific parts of the manufacturing process of the world’s best chips, are exempt from measures. However, it is unclear why Belgium was designated a key ally exempt from measures while Poland was not.

Following the US announcement, European Commissioners for Technology and Trade, Henna Virkkunen and Maroš Šefčovič, published a joint statement expressing concern about the measures.

However, they focused on the narrative of a potential win-win, describing the EU as an economic opportunity for the US, not a security risk and expressing hope for constructive engagement with the incoming Trump administration.

Therefore, the chip trade will likely be rolled into any future discussion the Commission has with the new US administration about the future transatlantic trade relationship rather than directly challenged immediately.

IT stakeholders, however, did not react in such a measured manner. Tech lobbyist ITI CEO Jason Oxman said in a press release that the decision was rushed and made without robust stakeholder engagement.

He called on the incoming Trump administration to lift the restrictions which would threaten the global supply chain and the use of US technology in the world.

[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]