If there was any doubt that geopolitics has come to play an outsized role in the fortunes of the US artificial intelligence industry, look no further than the recent upturn in the fortunes of leading AI chipmaker Nvidia.
The company’s stock market value has just surged by more than half a trillion dollars in the space of a week on the back of US policy that seemed geared to the needs of the country’s AI companies. At first glance, that might look like a strong “buy” signal for US AI, but the whiplash effect on tech stocks from the erratic opening months of the Trump White House makes such optimism premature.
The chipmaker’s hot streak on Wall Street started with the news that the new administration was about to suspend measures designed to slow the spread of advanced AI around the world. The so-called AI diffusion rule, announced late in the Biden presidency and due to take effect this week, would have restricted the free sale of the most sensitive AI technologies to 18 close US allies.