Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies
- The Trump administration unveiled a new artificial intelligence blueprint aimed at easing environmental regulations and boosting AI exports to allies to compete with China.
- The plan encourages exporting U.S. AI hardware and software while reducing restrictive state laws.
- The administration also seeks to fast-track data center construction by relaxing environmental rules.
- President Trump's approach contrasts with the prior administration's stricter controls on AI technology access.
The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology.
President Donald Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the United States investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority.
The plan, which includes some 90 recommendations, calls for the export of U.S. AI software and hardware abroad as well as a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from predecessor Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips.
"We're establishing a program led by the departments of Commerce and State to partner with industry to deliver secure full-stack AI export packages, including hardware models, software applications and standards to America's friends and allies around the world," said Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
An expansion in exports of a full suite of AI products could benefit AI chip juggernauts Nvidia and AMD as well as AI model giants Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta.
Biden feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. The former president, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival.
Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports.
"Our edge (in AI) is not something that we can sort of rest on our laurels," Vice President JD Vance said at the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast.
"If we're regulating ourselves to death and allowing the Chinese to catch up to us, that's not something ... we should blame the Chinese for..., that is something we should blame our own leaders for, for having stupid policies that allow other countries to catch up with America," Vance said.
The AI plan, according to a senior administration official, does not address national security concerns around Nvidia's H20 chip, which powers AI models and was designed to walk right up to the line of prior restrictions on Chinese AI chip access.
Trump blocked the export of the H20 to China in April but allowed the company to resume sales earlier this month, sparking rare public criticism from fellow Republicans.
Fast tracking data centers
The plan also calls for fast tracking the construction of data centers by loosening environmental regulations and utilizing federal land to expedite development of the projects, including any power supplies.
The administration will seek to establish new exclusions for data centers under the National Environmental Policy Act and streamline permits under the Clean Water Act.
Trump will incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan.
Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported.
U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country.
The export expansion plans announced Saturday take a page from deals unveiled in May that gave the United Arab Emirates expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology.
The event is hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump’s campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected.
Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders, Jamie Freed and Mark Porter