The U.S. Commerce Department quietly pulled its draft "AI Action Plan Implementation" rule on March 13, leaving global AI chip export policy in limbo for the foreseeable future.

The draft had been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on February 26 for inter-agency review, but was withdrawn without explanation. A U.S. official said the rule "was always a draft and remains a draft," adding that previously reported discussions were "preliminary."

What the Draft Would Have Done

The proposed rule was designed to replace the Biden administration's January 2025 tiered export framework, which divided the world into three categories: close allies with unlimited access, most of the world facing numerical caps, and restricted countries like China.

The Trump draft took a different approach — requiring foreign governments to invest in U.S. data centers or provide security guarantees before receiving exports of 200,000 or more advanced AI chips. Smaller requests of up to 100,000 chips would have needed government-to-government assurances.

Policy Vacuum Continues

The withdrawal marks the second time the Trump administration has stepped back from formalizing chip export rules. After announcing plans to replace the Biden framework last spring, no new regulation materialized.

A former official suggested the pullback reflects internal disagreements about how to balance AI dominance with national security. The Commerce Department has signaled interest in modeling new rules on bilateral deals — similar to agreements struck with Saudi Arabia and the UAE that tied chip access to U.S. data center investment.

The Biden-era framework, which the Commerce Department called "burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous," technically remains in place, but the absence of a clear replacement leaves chip exporters and foreign governments navigating an uncertain regulatory landscape.