Taiwan is considering stricter export controls on AI chips and AI servers sold to China as part of trade talks with the US, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move would target semiconductor smuggling and align Taiwan more closely with US rules.

Taipei currently requires licenses mainly for shipments to Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s biggest contract chipmaker, after it blacklisted the firms last June.

As a result, Taiwan’s existing controls focus on specific companies rather than all buyers in China.

Officials are discussing a threshold-based system similar to US curbs, under which Taiwan would likely restrict sales to China of AI chips above a certain processing threshold, although details are still being finalized.

Taiwan hosts many companies that assemble Nvidia chips into AI servers, so broader rules could affect those server makers.

Beijing previously criticized Taiwan’s blacklisting of Huawei and SMIC as damaging the island’s own interests.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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