The Trump administration is aiming to ratchet crackdowns on access to Chinese computer chips, and according to the report, it urges allies to tighten restrictions after the rise of Deepseek surprised US investors .
The White House recently met with officials from Japan and Dutch to discuss with engineers from major chip company Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd. about ASML, which holds NV's maintenance of semiconductor gear at production facilities in China. According to Bloomberg.
Trump officials hope that major allies will match the restrictions the US has placed on its companies, such as LAM Research Corp., KLA Corp. and Applied Materials Inc., the report said.
There were also early discussions in Washington about sanctioning certain Chinese companies, sources told Bloomberg.
Some Trump officials are also discussing stronger restrictions on Nvidia chip exports, some people told Bloomberg. Nvidia's shares reporting earnings on Wednesday fell 1%.
Tokyo Electronics Co. slipped around 4% on Tuesday morning.
Trump's team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With a week left in office, President Biden had proposed new rules to close out chip exports to China.
“If it's China and the US has not decided on the future of AI on Earth, then I think that interests are truly profound,” Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in January. .
Officials have made it clear that it's up to Trump to pursue or drop a more restrictive approach.
The semiconductor giants claim that stronger restrictions will hinder business and set them globally.
However, Chinese companies seem to have found a way to skirt the current US restrictions, boosting the discussion of more stringent rules.
US officials are now investigating whether China-based Deepseek (which shook the stock market and threatened American domination in the artificial intelligence race) has purchased Nvidia chips through a third party in Singapore. Bloomberg reported earlier.
It could take months for early stage consultations to lead to new regulations. It is also unclear how allies will respond to the Trump administration compared to Biden.
The Biden administration had secured a handshake agreement with Dutch officials to limit China's gear maintenance. Without regular maintenance, chip manufacturing equipment could quickly generate semiconductors and lose its ability to become obsolete.
But after Trump won the election, the Netherlands pulled the curb back, two Biden officials said.
Biden's team has passed several other priorities in the Trump administration, such as a proposal to block Chinese memory chip maker Chanxin Memory Technology from purchasing American technology, the report said .
Some Trump officials are also calling for stricter restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., a leading chip-making partner for smartphone maker Huawei. Huawei overtook Apple's share of the Chinese phone market last year.
The new administration is also working on AI spread rules imposed in Biden's final week. Export control divided the world into three countries, with the largest export levels of each tier different.
Industry giants, including Nvidia, have denounced the rules.
