Chinese A.I. stocks fall as U.S. reportedly weighs curbs on chip exports

China’s artificial intelligence stocks fell Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. is planning to impose recent curbs on shipments of AI chips to China.

In line with the Journal, U.S. chip makers akin to Nvidia might be affected by the move which could occur as early as July.

Nvidia produces graphics chips chargeable for driving the technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Bard chatbots.

China’s CSI artificial intelligence index fell 3% on that news on Wednesday in Asia. The Shenzhen-traded shares of Inspur Electronic Information Industry slumped 10% and Chengdu Information Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences dropped nearly 8%. These firms primarily produce computers and software.

Other Chinese AI plays also fell. Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba — which launched its own version of the viral chatbot ChatGPT — dropped about 1.6%, and Tencent, which is constructing its own AI model, declined 1.58%.

Citing sources acquainted with the matter, the WSJ said the U.S. has growing concerns about China’s ability to make technological advancements with AI.

In line with the report, the U.S. Commerce Department could “stop the shipments of chips made by Nvidia and other chip makers to customers in China and other countries of concern without first obtaining a license.”

The Commerce Department didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comments outside regular business hours.

Such a move will expand Washington’s efforts to dam China from advanced chip technology.

The U.S. implemented rules to chop China off from advanced chip equipment in October.

In May, Beijing banned Chinese operators of critical information infrastructure from buying products from Micron Technology, saying the U.S. memory chipmaker poses a “major security risk.” 

Washington also reportedly urged South Korea not to permit its domestic chip makers fill Micron’s void in China.