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Microsoft warned the administration of Donald Trump to take the risk of making a “strategic wrong step” if he pushed forward with export controls on artificial intelligence chips, which would rather push allies to use Chinese technology.
Brad Smith, Microsoft President, said on Thursday that the US president should not go forward with export controls on chips used for training and running AI models because they would adversely affect allies such as Israel, India and Singapore.
He said that the strictures, announced in the last days of Joe Biden’s administration and intended to enter into force in May, cause dozens of countries that faced caps on US AI chips that they can buy from China.
“As made, the rule undermines two Trump administrative priorities: strengthening the AI AI leadership and a reduction in a trade deficit near the dollar trillion,” Smith wrote in a blog post called “Trump administration can avoid a strategic wrong step in the Global AI race.”
He added: “Left unchanged, the rule of Biden will give China a strategic advantage.”
Trump’s administration “American First”, which includes the threat of tariffs to trade partners, is a significant risk for the US technological sector, which in Taiwan relies on the production of chips.
Smith, an influential vote in Washington, achieved a reconciliable tone with a new administration, and last month he and the CEO of Satya Nadella met Trump at his Mar-a-Lije Resort.
The export controls of “AI diffusion”, introduced in the last days of the Biden Presidency, create a three-layer licensing system for AI chips used in data centers, such as powerful graphics of NVIDIA.
They aim to make it difficult for Chinese companies to bypass US export control by accessing them through third countries.
The legislation imposes a limit of the amount of chip exports for all, except for small numbers of countries, which include members of the G7 and Taiwan. More than 100 countries belong to this “middle” level.
EU, Nvidia And the wider industry of chips criticized the rules that are now in the feedback period in the industry.
The rule, Smith said, “transcends what it takes by” putting “quantitative limitations on the ability of US technological companies to build and expand the AI data centers in their countries,” presenting a “gift of the Chinese sector that spreads quickly”.
Huawei, for example, was extraction His latest Ascend 910C processors, with the Chinese government inviting local companies to move away from Nvidia chips. Nvidia sells less powerful versions of her popular AI chips in China, in accordance with export controls.
Microsoft He committed to spend about $ 80 billion on capital expenditures this year. Also surpass rival hypersalers The acquisition of chips and graphic processing units of 2024, amounting to about $ 20 billion compared to Google’s $ 14 billion and Amazon’s $ 8 billion, according to New Street Research.
On Wednesday, NVIDIA CEO of Nvidia Colette Kress told the Financial Times that the company was involved in Trump’s administration, but “it was not really sure what the administration would do” in connection with the AI diffusion rule.
