BANGKOK — Shares in computer chip makers slumped early Wednesday after Nvidia said tighter U.S. government controls on exports of computer chips used for artificial intelligence will cost it an extra $5.5 billion.
The company, which announced Monday that it will produce its artificial intelligence super computers in the United States for the first time, said the government told it that its H20 integrated circuits and others of a similar bandwidth would be subject to the licensing requirements for the ''indefinite future.''
In a regulatory filing, it said the government said the controls addressed risks that the products ''may be used in or diverted to, a supercomputer in China.''
Nvidia's shares fell 5.8% in pre-market trading. Shares in rival chip maker AMD dropped 6.5%.
Asian technology giants also saw big declines. Testing equipment maker Advantest's shares fell 6.7% in Tokyo, Disco Corp. lost 7.6% and Taiwan's TSMC dropped 2.4%.
The news of the new controls came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to impose restrictions on exports of Nvidia's H20 and other advanced AI chips to China.
''I write with great concern regarding reports that the Commerce Department has paused its plan to restrict the export of powerful advanced AI chips like Nvidia's H20 to the People's Republic of China (PRC),'' Warren wrote in a letter posted on the website of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
It said former President Joe Biden had not included the H20 chips in controls his administration placed on exports of advanced AI chips.
