Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule (RIN 0694-AK43, 91 FR 1684, signed 13 January 2026, effective 15 January 2026) revising the EAR license-review policy for exports of certain advanced-computing integrated circuits to end-users in China and Macau from a presumption of denial to case-by-case review. Eligibility is limited to commodities controlled under ECCN 3A090.a and 3A090.b with a Total Processing Performance (TPP) below 21,000 and total DRAM bandwidth below 6,500 GB/s — the band that covers NVIDIA H200 and AMD MI325X-equivalents and below. To qualify, exporters must certify (i) sufficiency of US supply such that the export will not delay domestic orders or divert foundry capacity, (ii) that aggregate TPP of advanced-node ICs exported to China or Macau will not exceed 50% of domestic shipments, (iii) compliance with end-use and end-user prohibitions, and (iv) prior performance review by a qualified independent third-party testing lab headquartered in the United States. The rule is the first material rollback of the October 2022 / October 2023 / December 2024 advanced-computing export-control architecture and operationalises the Trump-administration policy of trading H200-class chip access against Chinese cooperation on critical minerals, fentanyl precursors and Taiwan-strait restraint.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations to remove three foreign-owned semiconductor fabs operating in China — Intel Semiconductor (Dalian) Ltd, Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd, and SK hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd — from the Validated End-User (VEU) Authorizations list (15 CFR Part 748). BIS framed the VEU program as a "loophole" that previously allowed these fabs to receive most US-origin chipmaking equipment, software and technology license-free, a privilege no US-owned fab in China ever had. After the effective date, every restricted shipment to these fabs will require an individual export license, reviewed case-by-case under the existing 2022/2023 advanced- computing controls. The rule is published as Federal Register document 2025-16735 (90 FR 42321), Docket BIS-2025-0555, RIN 0694-AK32.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations to add 12 entities to the Entity List under the destinations of China (11) and Taiwan (1) via Final Rule 2025-05427 (90 FR 14046), companion to the larger 70-entity rule (2025-05426) published the same day. Targets fall in three clusters: (i) Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence and Beijing Innovation Wisdom Technology — added for acquiring US-origin items in support of China's military modernization, specifically developing large AI models and advanced computing chips for defense; (ii) the Inspur group — Inspur (Beijing) Electronic Information Industry, Inspur Electronic Information Industry, Inspur Electronic Information (Hong Kong), Inspur (HK) Electronics, Inspur Software, and Inspur Taiwan — added as subsidiaries contributing to supercomputers for military end use; and (iii) Henan Dingxin, Nettrix Information Industry, Suma Technology, and Suma-USI Electronics — added for involvement in the development of Chinese exascale supercomputers. License requirements are for all items subject to the EAR; review policy is presumption of denial for the AI cluster and policy of denial for the supercomputer clusters.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued its largest single export-control package targeting China's semiconductor industry on 2 December 2024, with three layered measures (final rules published in the Federal Register 5 December 2024). First, controls on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) above set performance thresholds — blocking the memory architecture that is foundational to AI training. Second, additions of 24 semiconductor manufacturing equipment item types to the Commerce Control List, covering deposition, etch, ion- implant, advanced packaging, and metrology categories. Third, Entity List designations for 140+ entities, the bulk Chinese semiconductor companies + equipment makers + investment vehicles, including major Chinese fab tooling firms. The package triggered MOFCOM's same-day-following retaliation (filed: 2024-12-03-china-mofcom-ge-ga-sb-export-ban-us).

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published an interim final rule (89 FR 80064; FR doc 2024-22587) amending the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR 748.15) to expand the Validated End User (VEU) program with a new "Data Center VEU Authorization" pathway. The rule lets BIS pre-authorize specified data-center operators in third countries to receive advanced computing integrated circuits (ECCNs 3A090, 4A090 and related) and related technology without individual export licenses, conditional on vetted security plans, end-use monitoring, and reporting. Country Group D:5 destinations — China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Venezuela, Cuba and 17 other arms-embargoed states — are categorically excluded. Eligible destinations include Egypt, Laos, Moldova, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and the UAE — extending the US chip-equipment perimeter into a managed trusted-data-center channel for Gulf, MENA, and Central Asian AI build-out.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule on 5 September 2024 (effective 6 September 2024, published in the Federal Register on the same day as 89 FR 73285) establishing multilateral export controls on four categories of emerging technologies: (1) quantum computing items including quantum computers, related cryogenic / control / measurement systems, and certain quantum software; (2) gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) production technology — the next-node semiconductor architecture beyond FinFET; (3) advanced additive-manufacturing equipment for metals + alloys; (4) certain biotech-related items added in a parallel rule on 12 September 2024. The rule operates without country exceptions for some categories, with multilateral coordination via Wassenaar + Australia Group + Nuclear Suppliers Group frameworks.

On April 4, 2024, the Bureau of Industry and Security published an interim final rule (89 FR 23876) providing corrections, clarifications, and targeted revisions to the October 2023 advanced-computing and semiconductor manufacturing equipment rules. The most substantive change splits the former License Exception NAC (Notified Advanced Computing) into two separate exceptions: NAC (retaining the 25-day prior notification requirement) and a new ACA (Advanced Computing Authorized) exception that permits certain shipments without advance notification. The rule also adds ECCN 4A090.b covering computers and assemblies containing advanced ICs, restores national-security controls to several ECCNs, and addresses various technical drafting errors from the October 2023 rules.

On 25 October 2023 the Bureau of Industry and Security published an interim final rule (88 FR 73424; FR Doc 2023-23055) making substantive revisions to the October 7 2022 advanced-computing IFR, incorporating 43 public comments covering 78 topics. The rule replaced the prior TOPS-based performance metric with a new "Total Processing Performance" (TPP) / performance-density dual-threshold structure for ECCN 3A090, splitting the control into tiers 3A090.a (full licence requirement for highest-capability datacenter AI chips) and 3A090.b (new License Exception NAC with 25-day prior notification for the intermediate tier). Geographic scope was expanded from China-and-Macau to Country Groups D:1/D:4/D:5 to block diversion via third-country intermediaries and offshore datacenters.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued an interim final rule on 17 October 2023 that substantially expanded the advanced-computing and semiconductor manufacturing controls first imposed in October 2022. The rule closed the performance-threshold workaround that NVIDIA had used to ship China-specific A800/H800 GPUs, replacing it with a "performance density" metric and adding a new "Notified Advanced Computing" licence category. It expanded controls on chipmaking equipment (additional ECCNs covering deposition, etch, metrology), pulled 21 additional countries (mostly Middle East / Central Asia) into a regional licensing scheme to prevent transshipment, and added 13 Chinese entities to the Entity List including AI-chip designers.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security revised the Validated End-User (VEU) authorizations for Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (Xi'an NAND fab) and SK Hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd. (Wuxi DRAM fab) on 17 October 2023, expanding each from its previous restricted eligible-items list to cover "all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations." Both authorizations exclude EUV equipment and related components: Samsung China is barred from EUV items for NAND production; SK Hynix is barred from EUV items for DRAM production. The revision was published simultaneously with the broader October 2023 advanced- computing chip controls (FR Doc 2023-22560), giving the two South Korean memory fabs a calibrated safe harbour under the newly tightened regime.

BIS amended the Commerce Control List (CCL) under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement decisions agreed at the December 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary meeting, revising 16 ECCNs across computing, electronics, lasers, sensors, and aerospace domains. The most operationally significant change raised the Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) threshold for digital computers under ECCN 4A003.b from 29 to 70 Weighted TeraFLOPS (WT), reducing the licensing burden for high-performance computing exports to Wassenaar partner countries while preserving controls to non-partners. Corresponding revisions to License Exception APP (15 CFR Part 740) and License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) align the broader EAR framework with the updated multilateral thresholds.

BIS published an interim final rule on January 18, 2023 (88 FR 2821, FR Doc 2023-00888) extending to Macau the same advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing controls originally imposed on China by the October 7, 2022 rule. The extension closes a diversion loophole created by Macau's status as a Special Administrative Region of China, applying equivalent license requirements for advanced computing ICs, equipment used in ≤14 nm logic and advanced NAND/DRAM fabrication, and supercomputer end-use restrictions. The rule also includes entity list modifications and took effect one day before Federal Register publication (January 17, 2023).

The Bureau of Industry and Security added 36 entities — 35 in China, 1 in Japan — to the Entity List under a presumption of denial for all EAR-controlled items, effective December 16, 2022. The most consequential additions are Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC, simultaneously removed from the Unverified List), eight Cambricon AI-chip subsidiaries, and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China's sole domestic lithography producer. Three existing entries were revised: CETC 13 and two affiliates gained a Footnote 3 Russian-military-end-user designation, bringing them under the Russia/Belarus Foreign Direct Product rule with a blanket denial policy.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security imposed broad new controls on the export of advanced computing chips, chipmaking equipment, and US-person services supporting Chinese semiconductor fabrication. The October 7 2022 rule blocked supply of GPUs above set performance thresholds (initially 600 GB/s interconnect / 4800 TOPS) to China and added end-use restrictions on manufacturing tools used in advanced (≤14/16 nm logic, ≤18 nm DRAM, ≤128-layer NAND) facilities, with a foreign direct product rule extending coverage globally.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 31 Chinese entities — including Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (YMTC), China's largest NAND flash manufacturer — to the Unverified List (UVL), suspending license exceptions and requiring end-user statements for all EAR-controlled items destined to these parties. BIS simultaneously removed nine Chinese entities previously on the UVL after successfully completing end-use checks. The rule also established a new 60-day UVL-to-Entity-List escalation clock and clarified that sustained host-government obstruction of end-use checks constitutes independent grounds for Entity List designation — a structural enforcement change aimed at closing China's pattern of blocking BIS post-shipment verification visits.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Commerce Control List (CCL) under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement four emerging and foundational technology decisions agreed at the December 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary meeting, pursuant to ECRA Section 1758. The rule adds new export controls on ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor substrates (gallium oxide Ga₂O₃ and diamond), ECAD software for Gate-All- Around Field-Effect Transistor (GAAFET) integrated circuit development, and Pressure Gain Combustion (PGC) technology for advanced gas turbine engines. Controls require a licence for items destined to countries listed in the NS:1 and AT:1 columns of the Commerce Country Chart; ECAD software controls (ECCN 3D006) have a delayed compliance date of October 14, 2022.