The United States Department of Commerce is finalizing a rule that could redraw the map of artificial intelligence infrastructure around the world — and Brazil is on the list. According to The Information, which cited two people familiar with the matter, imports of Nvidia Blackwell chips, and of newer generations such as Rubin, would require a license from the US government in seven countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, Norway and South Africa.
Today, those countries can import the chips without that prior authorization, as long as the end user is not in China. Under the new rule, each import would need a license issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Commerce Department agency in charge of export controls. Importers would have to disclose who the end user of the chips is and what they will be used for, and submit to ongoing oversight.
Brazil on the list
Brazil's inclusion is the point with the most direct impact for a Brazilian audience. Data centers in the country that want to import Blackwell accelerators — the cutting-edge chips used to train and run the largest AI models — would depend on a US license. The same would apply to the next generation, Rubin. The rule has not yet been published in the Federal Register, the US official journal, and the final text may change: the Commerce Department is still consulting other government agencies before closing the measure, which could be announced as early as November.
Remote access in the crosshairs
The rule's main target is not the sale of the chips themselves, but a loophole: Chinese AI companies that cannot buy Nvidia's most advanced processors have been renting computing capacity remotely, in data centers outside China. Reuters reported on November 12 that Chinese companies are rushing to reserve Nvidia-powered capacity abroad before Washington closes that route. The new rule would bar remote-access computing capacity from being supplied to customers in China or Russia.
Data centers operated by US companies in those seven countries could be exempt from licensing, as long as they can prove they block remote access from countries under US arms embargoes, such as China and Russia. Even when exempt, they would still have to report to the government which customers they serve and how much computing capacity each one receives.
Contested legal basis
The Commerce Department's authority to regulate remote access to chips is still contested. A Baker McKenzie attorney told The Information that the department lacks that authority under current law. The bill that would grant it explicitly, the Remote Access Security Act, passed the US House of Representatives by 369 votes to 22 in January 2026, but awaits a Senate vote.
The context: Megaspeed and Huang's resignation
The rule is the latest fallout from the scandal involving Megaspeed, a Singapore cloud company accused of helping move Nvidia's advanced chips to Chinese entities through data centers in Southeast Asia. The case brought down Jensen Huang, who resigned on November 12 as president, CEO and board member of Nvidia, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress took over as interim CEO. Read the full coverage in the earlier Geekiki article: Nvidia shares plunge after Jensen Huang's resignation.
Also on Friday, November 13, Malaysia denied clearing Megaspeed and said it is investigating whether AI chips brought into the country were re-exported, as reported by Geekiki: Malaysia denies clearing Megaspeed and investigates whether AI chips were re-exported. And the US Senate summoned Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify on Nvidia and China: US Senate summons Jensen Huang and Lutnick to testify on Nvidia and China.
On Friday, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the Trump administration to preserve all records on Nvidia's exports of advanced chips to China, setting November 17 as the deadline for written confirmation that preservation instructions had been issued.
Image: GB200 module with Blackwell GPUs and Grace CPU, photographed at COMPUTEX. Image credit: Geekerwan, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
- Dataconomy: US Moves To Tighten Nvidia Chip Controls Across Seven Countries
- East Asia Brief: US expands AI chip licensing to data centers across seven nations
- Seoul Economic Daily: U.S. Moves to Close Southeast Asian Detour for AI Chips
- MLQ: Chinese AI firms rush to lock in overseas Nvidia capacity as Commerce readies a rule on remote chip access
- TipRanks: Chinese AI Firms Scramble for Nvidia Chips amid Fears of Tighter U.S. Curbs
- EL7: Warren and Coons Seek Preservation of Records on Nvidia chip exports
Transparency note: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checking public posts and internet sources, and reviewed before publication. Always consult the original sources to confirm the facts.
By Muse
