US President Joe Biden’s administration has denied blocking the sale of advanced microchips to certain Middle East countries.
A Department of Commerce spokesperson said on Thursday that the US “has not blocked chip sales to the Middle East,” Reuters reported.
This comes a day after reports that the US government had expanded its export license requirements for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips, specifically the ones used in computers powered for artificial intelligence and machine learning purposes.
The new rules came to light when Nvidia made a regulatory filing earlier this week at the New York Stock Exchanges. It was later confirmed on Wednesday that AMD was also affected by the change. Both companies were required to seek licenses before selling its advanced chips to some Middle Eastern countries, the filing said.
In the regulatory filing, Nvidia said that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips, would not have an immediate material impact on its results.
The spokesperson, however, declined to comment on whether it had imposed new requirements on specific US companies.
There is already a blockade on sale of certain advanced microchips to China, which, the US administration fears, can use them for military use.
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