On May 31, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued new guidance requiring export licenses when selling advanced AI chips to overseas buyers whose ultimate parent company is located in China. Affected products include Nvidia’s Rubin and Blackwell series and AMD’s MI350x accelerators. The guidance is intended to clarify enforcement details rather than impose a blanket ban; products already shipped remain in the custody of the customers.
Confirmed Technical Requirements in BIS’s New Guidance
The core requirement in the new guidance is: for any buyer whose ultimate parent company is located in China, purchasing advanced AI chips requires an export license; the scope of regulatory verification is expanded from the destination country to the ultimate parent company’s nationality. Exporters must verify each buyer’s ultimate parent company, not only check the destination country; distributors and cloud service providers face higher standards for customer identity verification. This adjustment is a response to the regulatory measures China previously imposed on exports of advanced semiconductors.
Confirmed Situation During the Enforcement “Vacuum” Period
Industry sources told Reuters that during the year-long enforcement vacuum, hundreds of thousands of advanced chips flowed into overseas Chinese-funded companies, with Singapore and Malaysia suspected to be among the main hubs for chip re-routing. U.S. federal prosecutors previously filed a lawsuit against the operator of a GPU smuggling ring involving an amount as high as $2.5 billion; the case’s re-routing pattern is linked to the aforementioned pipeline.
Nvidia’s Confirmed Financial Data
Nvidia confirmed that in FY2027 Q1, its Data Center Hopper shipments to China were zero (compared with $4.6 billion in the same period a year earlier). Despite zero shipments to China, driven by Blackwell 300 demand, Nvidia’s data center total revenue still reached an all-time high of $75.2 billion.
FAQ
Is BIS’s new guidance a complete ban on exporting AI chips or an expansion of license requirements?
According to BIS’s guidance, this is a clarification and expansion of license requirements, not a blanket ban. Existing authorized sales of low-end chips may continue under the original terms, and products already shipped remain in the custody of the customers; the core of the new rules is that when selling advanced AI chips to overseas buyers whose ultimate parent company is located in China, an export license is required.
Which specific chip models does this guidance target?
Affected products include Nvidia’s Rubin series, Blackwell series, and AMD’s MI350x accelerators— all of which are high-end advanced AI chips.
During the one-year enforcement vacuum period, what is the estimated scale of chip inflows into Chinese-funded companies overseas?
Industry sources told Reuters that an estimated hundreds of thousands of advanced chips flowed into overseas Chinese-funded companies during this period, with Singapore and Malaysia suspected to be among the main hubs for re-routing.
