US curbs AI chip exports from Nvidia and AMD to some Middle East countries

Aug 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) artificial-intelligence chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East.

Nvidia said in a regulatory filing this week that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an "immediate material impact" on its results.

Rival AMD also received an informed letter with similar restrictions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that the move has no material impact on its revenue.

U.S. officials usually impose export controls for national security reasons. A similar move announced last year signaled an escalation of the U.S. crackdown on China's technological capabilities, but it was not immediately clear what risks were posed by exports to the Middle East.

In a separate statement, Nvidia said the new licensing requirement "doesn't affect a meaningful portion of our revenue. We are working with the U.S. government to address this matter."

The Commerce Department, which administers licensing requirements on exports, said on Thursday through a spokesperson that the U.S. "has not blocked chip sales to the Middle East" and declined to comment on whether it had imposed new requirements on specific US companies.