AMD to resume MI308 AI chip exports to China

(ECNS) -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced Tuesday it will soon resume shipments of its MI308 artificial intelligence chips to China, driving its stock up by more than 7%.

The company was recently informed by the U.S. Commerce Department that license applications to export MI308 products to China would be moving forward for review, it said.

AMD's clearance came a day after Nvidia got approval from the U.S. government to start selling its H20 chips to China.

The Trump administration imposed restrictions on AI chip exports to China earlier this year, citing national security concerns. In April, AMD warned that the MI308 export controls could result in losses of up to $800 million.

Both H20 and MI308 chips were developed for the Chinese market in response to U.S. export control rules.

Nvidia has removed some features from its H20 chip to comply with export restrictions to China, including fewer graphics processing unit (GPU) cores and reduced bandwidth between chip components. Despite these modifications, the H20 is widely believed to be integral to DeepSeek, making it sufficiently capable for many Chinese companies' needs.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the strategy is to sell Chinese companies enough AI chips so that they "get addicted" to American technology.

Lutnick stated that Chinese companies would only receive Nvidia's fourth-best chip, emphasizing that the U.S. is not selling its top-tier technology.

Analysts say China is now capable of developing its own AI chips and building its AI infrastructure. With many Chinese companies already involved in the sector, they are increasingly less reliant on U.S. technology.

He Hui, research director of semiconductors at Omdia, said that considering the variability of Sino-U.S. policies, U.S. AI chips will still face significant uncertainties after the resumption of sales.

He said Chinese enterprises should continue to diversify their options to better secure the supply chain and maintain flexibility.

(By Zhang Dongfang)