TMTPOST -- Nvidia Corporations shares shed as much as 4.7% before finishing around 2% lower on Monday. Shares of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip heavyweight sold off on reported customers’ order delay of its latest AI chip racks and new U.S. rule on AI export controls.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
Four Nvidia’s major customers including Microsoft Corporation, Meta Platforms Inc., Google and Amazon Web Services, the cloud business of Amazon.com. Inc., recently cut some orders of racks for Nvidia’s newest Blackwell architecture AI chips, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter on Monday. The reported delays came as the initial deliveries of Blackwell chip racks have encountered overheating and glitches during interconnected stage.
Some of aforementioned customers are waiting for a later version of the racks, which may not be available in the second of this year, or plan to replace it with that from Nvidia’s order AI chips, accordingly cutting the current orders while placing new orders for older chips, according to the report.
The total value of those four abovementioned customers of Blackwell chip racks has reportedly reached $10 billion or more. Microsoft had planned to install Blackwell GB200 racks with at least 50,000 Blackwell chips in one of its facilities in Phoenix, but its main partners OpenAI asked it to provide Nvidia’s older chip model, the H200, sooner due to the delay of racks, per the report.
It’s unclear how the reported order cuts will affect Nvidia’s revenue because the company could find other buyers for the GB200 racks with minor malfunctions.
Monday also saw the U.S. government announced releasing an Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion to ensure “U.S. technology undergirds global AI use and that adversaries cannot easily abuse advanced AI.” The new rule, which builds on previous chip controls by thwarting smuggling, closing other loopholes, and raising AI security standards, streamlines licensing hurdles for both large and small chip orders, bolsters U.S. AI leadership, and provides clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The Biden administration had already limited semiconductor exports to China, and the new regulations represent an expansion of semiconductor caps to most of the world as it will create three tiers of chip trade restrictions. The regulatory framework for Responsible Diffusion of Advanced Artificial Intelligence Technology adopts a three-tired strategy to ensure U.S. allies have access to the most advanced AI models, and Keep such models out of the hands of adversaries, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
A small number of U.S. allies, about 18 countries, at the top level, would enjoy New License Exception Artificial Intelligence Authorization (AIA) and maintain essentially unmitigated access to American chips. A group of alleged adversaries like China would be effectively blocked from importing the chips. Some 120 other countries, the vast majority of the world have to be reportedly subject to limits on the total computing power that can go to one country.
Under the new rule, U.S.-headquartered companies such as Microsoft will be able to to keep as much as 50% of their controlled advanced chips outside the United States, and up to 25% of these controlled chips outside of the top tier countries, namely certain U.S. allied and partner countries, no more than 7% in any single country under other two tiers.
The new rule is set to take effect following a 120-day comment period, so the incoming Trump administration could weigh and determine the rules for the sales of advanced chips by chip giants including Nvidia Corporation.
Nvidia called the upcoming new rule “misguided ” and blasted the Biden administration for seeking to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review. “This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally,” said Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of government affairs.
Finkle also praised U.S. president-elect Donald Trump for his first term "demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world — not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach." “We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond,” Finkel said.
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