The Biden administration added 14 additional Chinese firms to the blacklist

Days after pushing to sweep AI chip export restrictionThe Biden administration added 14 more Chinese companies to the restricted trade list. That brings the full list of names up to 25, according to The Associate Press.

Sophgo is perhaps the highest profile supplement. The firm, an entity of Bitmain, made international headlines when it was identified as an intermediary between Chinese hardware giant Huawei and Taiwanese chip maker TSMC.

Doubts arose in December After the chip found in Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI processor was tied to the acquisition of Sophgo from TSMC. At the time, the Biden administration announced plans to blacklist the firm, a promise it has now followed through on.

The move coincides with a wave of activism in the waning days of the Biden administration. Monday’s response to the “Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Proliferation” drew a swift and sharp reaction from industry. American silicon AI giant Nvidia called for action “wrong.”

The statement praised the first Trump administration’s handling of artificial intelligence, while refusing to bash the outgoing administration.

In his final days in office, the Biden Administration is attempting to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory void, crafted in secret and without proper legislative review. This far-reaching overreach would impose bureaucratic controls on how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to falsify market outcomes and stifle competition—the lifeblood of innovation—the Biden Administration’s new rule threatens to erode America’s hard-won technological advantage.

Of course, Huawei’s blacklist, which barred Google from using American-built technologies, including Android and Qualcomm chips, came during the first Trump administration. It’s unclear exactly how this is happening, as the incoming administration continues to take a hard line on China’s position while appearing to promote American innovation in the AI ​​race.