The U.S. is imposing some of its strongest measures yet to limit Chinese advances in artificial intelligence, requiring companies to get government approval to export certain information about their AI models and set up large AI computing facilities overseas.

The rules, in January 2025, are a final push by the Biden administration in a yearslong effort to use export controls to stem China’s advances in chip-making and AI, and they have sparked a backlash from companies including Nvidia. The rules impose caps on how many advanced AI chips can be exported to certain countries and require a license to export the data that underpins the most sophisticated AI systems.

Strict sales restrictions on these chips are already in place for China, Iran and other U.S. adversaries, and the new rules carve out exemptions for a group of 18 close U.S. allies and partners. These include countries such as the U.K., France and Germany, a senior administration official said. But a broad category of more than 120 other countries, including U.S. allies in the Middle East and Asia, are set to face new hurdles in setting up huge AI computing facilities.

While the impact of the rules isn’t yet clear, they threatened to limit sales of AI chips from Nvidia, which has built a large business out of satisfying demand for AI infrastructure in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Company officials said they expected to bring in almost $10 billion of revenue last year from so-called “sovereign AI,” where countries around the world increasingly see AI computing facilities as national assets.

Under the new rules, companies that produce AI models—the likes of OpenAI and Google—would need export licenses to send the “weights” attached to those models to many foreign countries. Model weights are the secret sauce in advanced AI systems like ChatGPT, a series of digital knobs that fine-tune their performance.

Excerpts from Asa Fitch and Liza Lin U.S. Targets China With New AI Curbs, Overriding Nvidia’s Objections, WSJ, Jan. 13, 2025