Biden's administration has crafted sanctions aimed at cutting Russia and China off from advanced artificial intelligence chips, according to Bloomberg.

In the administration of President Joe Biden, the U.S. has developed three tiers of permits for the sale of chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) operations, which, if implemented, will create difficulties for Russia and China in obtaining them.

Source. This is reported by Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the preparation of new measures that may be announced as early as Friday.

The U.S. aims to restrict the sale of chips utilized in data centers for AI at both the country and company levels.

The goal of these restrictions is to concentrate technology in friendly nations and encourage companies worldwide to adhere to American standards. As a result, semiconductor trade restrictions will extend to most of the globe.

New regulations will create three levels of export control.

The first group will include the U.S. and 18 allied countries, primarily in Western Europe (such as Germany, the Netherlands, etc.), along with Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. Companies will be able to freely deploy AI chip computing capacities in these countries.

Additionally, companies headquartered in these nations will be able to apply for U.S. government permission to supply chips to data centers in most other regions—provided that no more than a quarter of their total computing capacities are located in second category countries (in any one such country, no more than 7%). Companies must also comply with U.S. security requirements.

For third category countries, such as Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and many African nations, a complete ban is effectively imposed. This includes about 25 countries subject to U.S. arms embargoes.

Most countries in the world fall into the second category, which will have limits on the amount of computing power that can utilize AI chips produced by American companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

However, companies based in such countries may circumvent national restrictions and obtain their own, higher limits if they agree to a set of U.S. government requirements regarding security and human rights, according to Bloomberg's sources. This, they say, is intended to create a group of trusted organizations that develop and implement AI in a secure environment worldwide.

Since American AI chips significantly outperform Chinese ones, many companies and entire nations, according to the White House, are willing to navigate all obstacles to gain access to U.S. technologies.

This provides the U.S. with a unique opportunity to control the global development of AI and "pull both companies and countries out of Beijing's orbit," states a letter from the special committee of the House of Representatives on China addressed to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

Background. Recall that it was recently reported that the U.S. imposed sanctions against a Chinese cyber company linked to the Chinese government.