Washington targets foreign subsidiaries headquartered in Beijing, putting China’s stealth pipeline for NVIDIA and AMD chips on the chopping block

The Trump administration is moving to block foreign subsidiaries of China-based companies from buying advanced U.S. AI chips.

The Commerce Department will now require licenses for entities headquartered in China even if they operate abroad, closing a loophole left by the Biden-era rules.

The step follows concerns that NVIDIA and AMD chips were diverted through overseas subsidiaries and front companies in places like Southeast Asia.

It also comes amid a separate federal case involving an alleged $2.5 billion GPU smuggling scheme to China.