Tech sector braces for new US export rules

Limits on Al chips take effect on May 15

- SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK

The Thai technology industry is preparing for the impact of new tiered US AI chip export restrictions set to take effect on May 15.

Siam AI, a leading cloud artificial intelligence service provider, said it might consider expanding its cloud service to other countries when it expands, if import restrictions on Al chips tighten in the future.

Local IT product distributors are stepping up measures to comply with US and Chinese sanctions.

They are strictly pre-auditing customer orders for restricted AI chips to prevent China from potentially using Thailand as a proxy for purchasing the chips and re-exporting them to other countries.

This AI diffusion rule, imposed during Joe Biden's final week in the Oval Office, divided the world into three tiers and set maximum thresholds for the AI computing power that can be shipped to each country.

According to Bloomberg, the rule, which will have an impact on data centre development everywhere from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, drew harsh rebukes from companies including Nvidia Corp, the world's leading maker of advanced Al chips.

The Tier 1 countries are trusted US allies, which will have almost unfettered access to advanced graphics processing units (GPUs).