The unexpected guidance suggests the United States' best AI chips may have been making their way to the subsidiaries of Chinese AI firms based in places like Malaysia for almost a year despite broader US efforts to starve Chinese firms of semiconductors needed to develop critical AI capabilities.

The US is escalating export restrictions on NVIDIA and AMD AI chips to Chinese entities abroad. Here's what it means for semiconductors, AI, and crypto.

U.S. Commerce Department closes AI chip loophole for Chinese firms, imposes license requirements regardless of location.