Nvidia Informed New Chip Export Controls 'Effective Immediately'

The U.S. government has informed American chip designer Nvidia that several of its products are subject to the new export controls unveiled by the Bureau of Industry and Security last week despite BIS saying the rules wouldn’t take effect until next month.

In an SEC filing released Oct. 24, Nvidia said the U.S. government told the company Oct. 23 that the controls for some of its chips are “effective immediately.” This includes any of its products with a total processing performance of 4800 or more and designed or marketed for datacenters, Nvidia said, including its A100, A800, H100, H800 and L40S products.

The company previously announced that those chips would be subject to the new BIS license requirements (see 2310180013), which set new export control parameters on certain advanced computing chips (see 2310170055) and are scheduled to take effect Nov. 17 (see 2310180005).

Nvidia acknowledged that the licensing requirements “were originally to be effective after a 30-day period.” This isn’t the first time BIS has informed the company of new licensing requirements that haven’t yet formally taken effect for others in the industry -- BIS sent letters to specific companies, including Nvidia, restricting their ability to export certain artificial intelligence-related chips to China ahead of BIS’ release of its initial Oct. 7, 2022, chip rule (see 2209160025 and 2209010059).

“Given the strength of demand for the Company’s products worldwide, the Company does not anticipate that the accelerated timing of the licensing requirements will have a near-term meaningful impact on its financial results,” Nvidia said.

A BIS spokesperson declined to comment.