The United States will restrict the export of Nvidia AI chips to some Middle Eastern countries

August 31 news, according to foreign media telegraph reported that the latest exposure of a regulatory document this week shows that the United States plans to expand the scope of export restrictions on Nvidia A100, H100 and other high-performance AI chips to some Middle Eastern countries. Although Nvidia expects the move will not have a direct material impact on its performance, the market believes that the US move is intended to further restrict the access of relevant AI chips to China from other regions.

Nvidia's A100 and H100 chips are crucial to the training of large AI models, and as countries are vigorously developing AI technology, Nvidia's high-performance AI chips have become strategic materials to be snapped up. Originally, the United States export restrictions on high-performance AI chips were mainly targeted at China and Russia, but the latest information shows that the United States plans to expand export controls on high-performance AI chips to some Middle Eastern countries.

Nvidia's filing did not disclose which Middle Eastern countries would be subject to the restrictions. However, Nvidia's second-quarter results show that most of its revenue comes from the United States, China and Taiwan, and only 13.9 percent of its revenue comes from other countries and regions, without providing specific revenue for the Middle East. Before this, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also actively snapping up Nvidia's high-performance AI chips.

Previous reports have shown that the UAE already has thousands of Nvidia AI chips, and has developed an open source large language model called "Falcon" at the state-owned Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, the capital of ABU Dhabi. The Large language model for Saudi Arabia was developed by the Trusted Intelligence and Data Analytics Laboratory within the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. In addition, executives at two European AI companies said they had been approached by representatives of Gulf sovereign funds who wanted to exchange large investments for talent and data access.

Neither Nvidia nor the Commerce Department responded to requests for comment.