OpenAI has retreated from advocating for strict US chip export controls to China ahead of the lame-duck session, aligning its position closer to that of Donald Trump, according to Politico1.
For much of last year, OpenAI advocated for strict limits on chip exports to China. The shift represents a reversal of that stance. Nvidia Corp. stands as a beneficiary of OpenAI's changed position, according to the same reporting.
Separately, Beijing is proposing export controls on its own AI models and chips2. Unlike the US approach, China's proposed controls differ in structure: US restrictions target competitors' access to advanced chips, while Beijing's measures, according to Chip Briefing, likely aim to keep chips domestic.
ANALYSIS OpenAI's policy reversal and Beijing's own export-control proposal land in the same window, creating a more fluid diplomatic environment around AI chip trade than existed when OpenAI was pressing for tighter restrictions.
Chip stocks, meanwhile, have fallen for eight consecutive trading days in the longest losing streak since 2006, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Stock Index down 12% over that span. Short sellers have been profiting from and contributing to the decline, with a more difficult macroeconomic environment and higher interest rates cited as the proximate cause. Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang has said that "all of this is going to pass" because AI is "going to be transformative".
Despite the equity selloff, AI infrastructure investment shows little sign of slowing. Anthropic is offering Blackstone yields above 10% on a $60 billion debt package to purchase Google TPUs, with Blackstone funding $9 billion of the deal.
Nvidia Corp. has separately committed nearly $10 billion to European AI infrastructure, including investments in four German startups announced on October 19[2].
ANALYSIS The gap between falling chip equities and rising infrastructure commitments from Anthropic, Blackstone, and Nvidia Corp. suggests that capital deployment into AI compute continues even as public-market sentiment sours.