BIS interim final rule — additional due diligence measures for advanced computing integrated circuits (ECCN 3A090)

Mechanism

The IFR amends EAR provisions covering advanced-computing ICs (ECCN 3A090) along three dimensions:

1. Authorized-customer lists. BIS will publish lists of approved IC designers and approved IC packagers that foundries and OSATs can rely on as a safe-harbour proxy for KYC/end-use diligence when fabricating or assembling 3A090-class chips. This is the long-requested "trusted-customer" pathway industry asked for after the October 2022 / October 2023 chip controls forced wafer fabs to do unscalable per-design diligence. 2. Front-end-fabricator reporting. Any front-end fabricator producing a 3A090.a IC (the highest-performance bucket) for an authorized IC designer must file periodic reports to BIS so the government can see who is actually pulling chips through the supply chain — closing a visibility gap that emerged when Huawei surrogates and Sophgo-style fabless intermediaries began routing designs through TSMC. 3. Scope adjustments. The rule fine-tunes the scope of covered items, reflecting how the underlying 3A090 thresholds had drifted from BIS's intended policy. The 14 February 2025 correction (already filed) walked back one over-broad RS-license trigger that landed in this IFR.

The compliance grace period (16-31 January 2025) gave fabs a two-week window to update internal screening procedures.

Downstream implications

• Foundries (TSMC, Samsung Foundry, GlobalFoundries) and OSATs

(ASE, Amkor, JCET) gain a documented diligence path but inherit ongoing reporting overhead for any 3A090.a fabrication.

• Fabless designers not on the authorized list face new friction

getting wafers; the implicit message to mainland Chinese fabless customers is that designers like Sophgo, Bitmain, MetaX, and Innosilicon are presumed off-limits.

• The IFR is the operational scaffolding behind the AI Diffusion

Framework: the diffusion rule defines who can receive compute, this rule defines how fabs verify upstream that they aren't shipping to denied designers.

• The 14 February 2025 RS-scope correction shows the rule was

drafted under speed pressure in the final week of the Biden administration; the Trump-era BIS retained this IFR even after rescinding the AI Diffusion Framework on 13 May 2025, suggesting the due-diligence architecture has bipartisan support.

Open questions

• How quickly does BIS actually publish the Authorized IC Designer

list, and what is the threshold for inclusion?

• Does the front-end-fabricator reporting requirement extend

extraterritorially via the FDP / Section 734.9 to non-US fabs producing 3A090.a designs?

• Did the Trump administration retain or modify this IFR after

rescinding the parallel AI Diffusion Framework in May 2025?