Commerce Gets 78 AI Export Bids as Trump Program Falls Short of Hundreds Expected
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Jul 12
Commerce Gets 78 AI Export Bids as Trump Program Falls Short of Hundreds Expected
2 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Jul 12
Summary
Seventy-eight applications reached the Commerce Department in the first round of its American AI Exports Program, far below the hundreds former officials said the agency had expected.
Tech companies and industry groups said the program’s financing, advocacy and licensing incentives have not clearly outweighed its complexity, especially because applicants had to assemble full AI export packages across chips, cloud, models and cybersecurity.
Anthropic’s briefly imposed foreign-access cutoff deepened concerns that U.S. policy could shift abruptly, making overseas customers question whether American AI infrastructure will remain reliably available.
Commerce’s trade arm said the submissions exceeded its expectations and spanned sectors from agriculture to autonomous logistics, but major participants remain unclear beyond Amazon Web Services while OpenAI and AMD have not confirmed involvement.
The weak turnout is an early setback for a Trump initiative launched last year to push U.S. AI abroad as Chinese firms such as DeepSeek and Alibaba expand low-cost alternatives.