Taiwan Weighs Stricter AI Chip Export Curbs on China as Beijing Proposes Controls on 40 Technologies

Taiwan is considering much stricter export controls on artificial intelligence chip sales to China, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The goal is to give authorities more legal tools against the diversion of advanced hardware, chiefly AI servers built on NVDA chips, from Taiwan to Chinese buyers, and Bloomberg framed the step as part of Taipei's trade alignment with Washington. Taiwan's Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin has said controls on certain items "will correspond with those of the United States," and local coverage describes a plan to add AI servers and advanced semiconductors to the controlled-goods list and make unauthorized shipments to China a criminal offense. No timeline or performance threshold has been published, and whether the rules would cover all Chinese buyers or only blacklisted firms such as Huawei and SMIC is still under evaluation.

The report lands against a live enforcement backdrop. It references a U.S. Justice Department case alleging that at least $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips were smuggled into China, a case that has implicated employees of SMCI. Bloomberg noted the move risks drawing more ire from Beijing.

Beijing moved the same day on its own technology. China proposed adding 40 artificial intelligence, biotech and solar technologies to its export control list, a draft covering AI technologies and chips that Beijing tied to national security. The draft, from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology, splits the list into 23 AI, 12 photovoltaic and 5 biomedicine items, with 14 to be prohibited and 26 restricted. Restricted AI items include 2.5D and 3D AI chip design and 3D flash memory, while open-source technology and serving overseas users through apps or APIs are excluded. Public comment runs from October 16 to November 15, a temporary export registration requirement for the listed technologies took effect immediately, and the Commerce Ministry said the measure does not target any specific country.

No market reaction to either move had been reported by Friday morning. The questions to watch are whether Taiwan formalizes the curbs and where it sets the performance threshold, how far its scope reaches beyond blacklisted buyers, and what Beijing's final list looks like after the comment period closes. For TSM, Taiwanese server assemblers and Nvidia, the near-term issue is enforcement against diversion rather than a new ban on legitimate sales; for Chinese AI developers, Beijing's list adds a licensing layer to exporting their own know-how.