US can curb AI chip risks without halting tech exports, US official says

The US does not need to block the global spread of its AI chips and technology to manage national security risks, a White House official said on Tuesday, signalling a more open stance on exports to trusted allies such as Saudi Arabia.

David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto tsar, made his comments in Riyadh days after Washington announced plans to rescind and modify a Biden-era regulation that would limit global access to artificial intelligence chips.

“The Trump administration has just announced that we will be rescinding what’s known as the Biden diffusion rule … it literally restricted the diffusion or proliferation of American technology all over the world,” Sacks told the Saudi-US Investment Forum at the start of a tour of Gulf states by President Donald Trump.

“[Diffusion] is not a risk with a friend like Saudi Arabia at all but I think in general there was a great deal of misunderstanding about the diversion of GPUs,” Sacks said, referring to graphics processing units, specialised processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering.

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China a ‘key market’, says Nvidia CEO Huang during Beijing visit as US bans AI chips

China a ‘key market’, says Nvidia CEO Huang during Beijing visit as US bans AI chips

His comments mark a shift from recent curbs on data centre tech transfers and reflect growing US interest in deepening tech ties with Middle Eastern partners that are pouring billions into AI infrastructure and aiming to become a hub for the emerging technology outside the United States.