US issues worldwide restriction on using Huawei AI chips

TAIPEI/PALO ALTO -- The U.S. government is restricting anyone, anywhere in the world, from using Huawei's AI chips, an unprecedented crackdown on the Chinese tech giant despite a recent de-escalation of the tariff war between Washington and Beijing.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, on Tuesday issued new guidelines on chips for artificial intelligence applications. Among these was an "alert" to the tech industry that using advanced chips from China -- namely Huawei's Ascend chips -- without a license is a violation of U.S. export control rules.