Trump's Cunning Tactic to Make the World Submit to America

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Donald Trump administration is weighing a new tactic to generate revenue for the United States. US officials are reportedly debating a regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips. In a document seen by Reuters, the regulation would require other countries to invest in AI data centres in the United States or provide security assurances as a condition for allowing the export of 200,000 chips or more, Reuters reported on Friday (6 March 2026). The rules are not final and could change. This would be the first attempt to regulate AI chip flows to US allies and partners since the Trump administration said it had rolled back earlier AI diffusion rules. The rule aims to keep most AI infrastructure development in the US and direct most purchases through a handful of US cloud companies. If implemented, the proposal would benefit the Trump administration in negotiating investments into the US. This aligns with Trump’s main priorities to boost investments and determine how many AI chips can be handed over to other countries. The rules differ from the Biden administration’s approach. Previously, closeness of ties was the key factor. US allies were exempt from the majority of chip export restrictions. The proposed new rules would not affect countries on blacklist such as Russia, which cannot obtain US AI chips under Biden-era rules. China, which is among those countries, was green-lit in December 2025 to receive the second-most advanced AI chips from Nvidia. The shipment was delayed due to national security conditions that could persuade China not to proceed with the purchase. According to documents seen by Reuters, small-scale chip installations with fewer than 1,000 chips would also require a special licence. The documents state that to qualify for the exemption, exporters like Nvidia or AMD must monitor the chips. Recipients must agree to use software that prevents the chips from being interconnected with other chips to form a ‘cluster’, an industry term used to describe a large group of chips. Foreign companies seeking up to 100,000 chips would need to provide intergovernmental guarantees, according to the Reuters-sourced documents. The documents say that the Trump administration has required Saudi Arabia to provide such guarantees in order to purchase the advanced chips. Installing up to 200,000 chips could also require a visit from US export-control officials, according to the Reuters-sourced documents. ‘This rule could help the US government address chip diversion to China and ensure the most advanced AI supercomputers are built more safely,’ said Saif Khan, a former national security official in the Biden administration now at the Institute for Progress, a think tank in Washington. ‘However, the licensing requirements are broad, apply globally, and raise concerns that the government intends to use these controls as leverage in negotiations with allies rather than for security.’ In a statement posted on X, the US Department of Commerce confirmed they were discussing new rules but said they would not be ‘onerous, excessive, and disastrous’ as proposed by the Biden administration. Instead, the department said it would follow the pattern of deals to ship US chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where both countries agreed to invest in the US. ‘The Department of Commerce is committed to promoting the safe export of American technology,’ the department said. ‘We have advanced exports through our historic Middle East agreements, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalising this approach.’ The draft seen by Reuters does not touch on exports of model weights, a key parameter of AI systems tightly guarded by firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others as one of their main competitive secrets. Under Biden’s rules, restrictions were placed on model weights in an effort to ensure that the most advanced AI is developed and deployed in trusted and safe environments. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia and AMD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.