Huawei has demonstrated that innovation can find a way even under the heaviest sanctions when it shocked the global technology industry with its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which features sophisticated 7-nanometer chips, despite wiping out US technology restrictions. The US response was quick and predictable. Expansion of export controls and restrictions.
Currently, a report suggesting that Huawei’s Ai Chips is approaching Nvidia-level performance, suggesting that Chinese companies remain distinctively quiet about these developments, while America is preemptively escalating the semiconductor war to a global proportion.
The Trump administration’s declaration of violating Huawei’s Ascend chip “anywhere in the world” reveals that US export controls reveal more than policy enforcement.
This global AI chip ban emerged on May 14, 2025, when President Donald Trump’s administration retracted Biden-era AI proliferation rules without revealing details of alternative policies.
Instead, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have released guidance on “strengthening export controls for overseas AI chips” targeting Huawei’s Ascend Processors in particular.
The new guidelines warn of “enforcement measures” that include the imprisonment and fines of global businesses found using these China-developed chips. This is a fundamental departure from traditional export controls that usually control what leaves the borders of the country.
Scope of American technical authority
The South China Morning Post reports that these new guidelines explicitly dominate Huawei’s ascend chips after abandoning the Biden administration’s national “AI proliferation” rules. However, the implications of this global AI chip ban far exceed bilateral US-China tensions.
By asserting jurisdiction over global technology choices, the United States essentially requires sovereign states and independent companies around the world to comply with domestic policy preferences.
This extraterritorial approach raises fundamental questions about national sovereignty and international trade. Should Brazilian AI startups be prevented from using the most cost-effective chip solutions simply because they are manufactured by Chinese companies?
Should European research institutions abandon promising collaborations as they include hardware that Washington would not be able to accept?
According to Financial Times BIS said Huawei’s Ascend 910B, 910C, and 910D are all subject to regulation as they are “designed using specific US software or technology, or manufactured with semiconductor manufacturing equipment that is a direct product such as specific US origin software or technology.”
Industrial resistance to universal control
Even within the US, the chip-making sector is wary of Washington’s semiconductor policy. The aggressive expansion of export controls creates uncertainty beyond Chinese companies, affecting the global supply chain and innovation partnerships built over decades.
“Washington’s new guidelines will further deepen the technological division between the two biggest economies of the world, as they essentially force global tech companies to choose Chinese or US hardware,” analysts point out. This choice of forced binary ignores the subtle reality of modern technological development, where innovation arises from diverse international collaboration.
The economic impact has proven to be incredible. In a recent analysis, Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI chip provides 80% of the efficiency of the NVIDIA A100 when training large language models, but “in other tests, the Ascend chip could be 20% higher than the A100.”
By blocking access to competitive alternatives, this global AI chip ban could misreduce innovation and maintain an artificial market monopoly.
Innovation Paradox
Perhaps most ironically, policies aimed at maintaining American technical leadership may undermine that. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed earlier this month that Huawei is “one of the world’s most frightening technology companies,” saying China is “not behind” in AI development.
Trying to separate such capabilities through global restrictions will accelerate the development of a parallel technology ecosystem, which ultimately reduces the impact of America rather than maintaining it.
The secret surrounding Huawei’s ascend chips holds “It keeps AI chip details close to your chest, with only public information coming from third-party disassembly reports.”
Following the escalation of restrictions, Huawei has stopped disclosure of official information about the series, including release dates, production schedules and manufacturing technology. Chips designated under current US restrictions, including the Ascend 910C and 910D, have not been officially confirmed by Huawei.
Geopolitical impact
In a South China Morning Post report, Chimley, a senior analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, warned that “if the guidance is strictly enforced, it is likely to cause retaliation from China,” and that “it could become a negotiation point for ongoing trade talks between Washington and Beijing.”
This assessment highlights the counter-effective nature of offensive, unilateral action in an interconnected global economy.
The semiconductor industry thrives with international collaboration, research sharing and open competition. This ecosystem fragmentation policy will not serve anyone’s long-term benefits, including those in the US.
As global communities tackle the challenges from climate change, artificial barriers are preventing them from accessing the best tools, ultimately harming human progress.
Beyond binary choices
The question is not whether the state should protect its strategic interests, but they should and must do. But when export restrictions expand “anywhere in the world,” we go from legitimate national security policies to technological authoritarianism. The global technology community deserves a framework that balances security concerns with elements of innovation.
This global AI chip ban risks accelerating the technological fragmentation that it is trying to prevent. History suggests that markets separated by political ordinances often generate competing parallel innovation ecosystems more effectively than those operated under artificial constraints.
Rather than extending control globally, the strategic approach focuses on celebrating competitors through superior technology and international partnerships. The current path to technological fork is neither American interest nor global innovation. It only creates a more fragmented, less efficient world where artificial barriers will replace natural competition.
The future of the semiconductor industry depends on finding sustainable solutions that address legitimate security concerns without dismantling the collaborative networks that drive technological advancement. Once this global AI chip ban is in effect, the world will see whether innovation thrives through competition or fragments through control.
See also: Huawei’s AI hardware breakthrough challenges Nvidia’s advantage
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