Intel Tells Chinese Clients Some AI Chips To Require Licence

Intel told its Chinese clients earlier this month that sales of some of their advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors will now require a licence, the Financial Times reported.

The report came after Nvidia said it would take a $5.5 billion (£4.1bn) charge after the White House imposed unexpected restrictions on sales of its H20 chip, which it expressly engineered to comply with earlier US sanctions, and the Netherlands’ ASML also warned that it may face restrictions.

Silicon Valley-based Intel told clients the week of 7 April that it would require a licence for exporting AI chips to China that had a total DRAM bandwidth of 1,400 gigabytes per second or more, input-output bandwidth of 1,100 GB/s or more, or a total of both together of 1,700 GB/s or more, the report said, citing a company email and people familiar with the discussions.

Gaudi AI chip

Intel’s Gaudi AI chip and Nvidia’s H20 far exceed the requirements, the report said.

Nvidia was taken by surprise by the new export controls, as it had held discussions with the White House and thought the H20 chip could potentially be exempted from new rounds of controls, reports said.

Nvidia executives met with US president Donald Trump in Florida earlier this month, and the company had agreed to invest $500bn in the US.

“On April 9, 2025, the US government, or USG, informed Nvidia Corporation… that the USG requires a license for export to China (including Hong Kong and Macau) and D:5 countries, or to companies headquartered or with an ultimate parent therein, of the Company’s H20 integrated circuits and any other circuits achieving the H20’s memory bandwidth, interconnect bandwidth, or combination thereof,” Nvidia said in last week’s SEC filing.

“The USG indicated that the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China. On April 14, 2025, the USG informed the Company that the license requirement will be in effect for the indefinite future.

“First quarter results are expected to include up to approximately $5.5bn of charges associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves.”

Nvidia noted that its fiscal first quarter 2026 ends on 27 April 2025.

Regulatory changes

The US under the Biden Administration had already targeted China with two rounds of sanctions in October 2022 and October 2023 that specifically limited the parameters of AI chips that US firms such as Nvidia could sell to Chinese buyers.

In October 2022 the US announced its sweeping export controls for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and chips to China, including banning the export of the Nvidia A100 and more powerful H100 chips to mainland China and Hong Kong.

In October 2023 the US also banned the export of the slower Nvidia A800 and H800, which had been specifically developed for sale to China.

The US export restrictions of certain AI chips to China went into force in April 2024.

In December 2024 the outgoing Biden Administration announced another round of export controls designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions.