The US imposes an additional export ban on Nvidia for its most powerful AI accelerators. Exports to the Middle East are now restricted.

The US imposes additional restrictions on Nvidia for the export of its H100 and A100 accelerators. The AI ​​specialist is no longer allowed to sell these to different countries in the Middle East without permission. It is not entirely clear which countries are involved. Presumably these are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

China and Russia

The US government wants to prevent advanced AI skills and tools from getting out of the country to strategic and ideological opponents. Russia and China in particular are in a tight spot: an export ban has been in place for these countries for a long time. Now there are fears that the improved relations between the Middle East countries and China could lead to GPUs entering China in this way, despite the embargo.

In addition, China, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia are talking about intensified cooperation around AI. That opens the door to a scenario where the Chinese simply come to train their algorithms on supercomputers in the Middle East and then take the knowledge back with them.

Additional export restrictions should now prevent such use of the Nvidia H100 and Nvidia A100. Nvidia itself states that the restrictions will not have a really noticeable impact on finances. The company also developed the A800 and H800: slimmed-down versions of the powerful chips that are not subject to export restrictions.