Microsoft warns that Trump restrictions on AI chips can strengthen China and harm strategic allies such as Israel and India
Microsoft warned Donald Trump’s government that risks committing a “strategic error” if it continues with artificial intelligence chips export controls, which will lead allies to use Chinese technology. According to Financial Times, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said on Thursday that US president should not proceed with export controls of used chips to train and execute AI models because they would negatively affect allies like Israel, India and Singapore.
He said the restrictions, announced in the last days of Joe Biden’s government and should take effect in May, would cause dozens of countries facing Americans AI chips to buy from China.
“As written, the rule impairs two Trump government priorities: strengthening US AI leadership and reducing the country’s commercial deficit of nearly one trillion,” Smith wrote in a blog post entitled “Trump government can avoid a false strategic step in AI global race.”
He added, “If we change nothing, Biden’s rule will give China a strategic advantage.”
The Trump government’s “America First” agenda, which includes the threat of tariffs on business partners, poses a significant risk to the US technology industry, which strongly depends on the manufacture of chips in Taiwan.
Smith, an influential voice in Washington, adopted a conciliatory tone with the new administration, and last month he and the executive president Satya Nadella met Trump on their mar-a-lag resort.
“AI diffusion” export controls, introduced in the last days of Biden’s presidency, create a three -level Licensing System for AI chips used on data centers, such as the powerful NVIDIA Graphic Processing Units.
They aim to make it difficult for Chinese companies to get around US export controls by accessing them through third parties.
The legislation imposes a ceiling on chip export volumes for all except a small number of countries, including members of G7 and Taiwan. More than 100 countries fit this “intermediate” level.
The EU, Nvidia and the chip industry have generally criticized the rules, which are now in a period of industry feedback.
The rule, said Smith, “goes beyond what is necessary” by imposing “quantitative limits on the capacity of American technology companies to build and expand AI data centers in their countries,” presenting “a gift to China’s rapid expansion industry.”
Huawei, for example, has been launching its latest Ascend 910C processors, with the Chinese government asking local companies to move away from Nvidia’s chips. Nvidia sells less powerful versions of its popular AI chips in China, in accordance with export controls.
Microsoft has promised to spend about $ 80 billion on capital expenses this year. It also spent more than rival hypereschalters acquiring chips and graphic processing units in 2024, disbursing about $ 20 billion compared to Google’s $ 14 billion and Amazon’s $ 8 billion, according to the New Street Research.
On Wednesday, Nvidia’s financial director, Colette Kress, told Financial Times that the company was getting involved with the Trump administration, but “wasn’t sure what the government would do” about AI diffusion rule.
Source: https://www.ocafezinho.com/2025/02/28/microsoft-pressiona-trump-por-chips-sem-restricoes/
