Microsoft Asks Trump to Reverse Biden-Era Chip Export Rules
**Microsoft Asks Trump to Reverse Biden-Era Chip Export Rules**
By Aaron Holmes
Microsoft called on the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era rules that restricted the export of cutting-edge chips used to train and run AI models, company president Brad Smith said in a blog post on Thursday. The rules, which restrict the shipment of graphics processing units made by Nvidia and other leading chipmakers to certain countries around the globe, is impeding Microsoft's plans to build datacenters in countries like Poland and India, Smith said.
The Biden-era rule enacted last year divides countries into three tiers, with the heaviest restrictions on chip exports placed on third-tier countries like China and Russia, and limits on how many chips can be shipped to second-tier countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. Smith said that Microsoft supports the restrictions on tier-one countries but decried that the rule "puts many important U.S. allies and partners in a Tier Two category," arguing that the rules were hampering Microsoft's ability to build data centers in those countries that would rely on materials exported from US manufacturers.
Microsoft has been lobbying the Trump administration in recent months as it seeks fewer restrictions on building new datacenters to run AI applications. Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion on datacenters this year, with more than half of that spending in the US, the company has said.