In a surprise move, the U.S. government didn’t treat the EU as a whole.  

“It’s country-specific and it’s not: Europe in or out,” said Sipearl’s Notton.

As a result, a dividing line runs through the EU: Western European countries generally face no restrictions, while most Eastern European countries now have limits on the amount of chips they can buy. 

France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Nordics (Sweden, Finland and Denmark), Spain and Italy have nothing to fear. 

Poland, which just this week promised to spend heavily on AI development, could be the most notable victim. 

The move could also spell trouble for Greece and Luxembourg, which were each picked by the European Commission to install an AI-optimized supercomputer on which startups and researchers could train their cutting-edge models.