The Trump administration is weighing whether to bar imports of Chinese network components crucial to artificial intelligence data centers, three industry officials familiar with the internal deliberations told POLITICO on Tuesday — the latest potential move to challenge Beijing’s dominance amid a tightening global tech race.
U.S. scrutiny of this hardware, known as an optical transceiver, could lead to the administration placing the equipment on a list of foreign companies and gear that it deems a national security risk, said the officials, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic and deliberations.
The U.S. has used this process to hamper China in particular, barring Chinese telecom companies such as Huawei and ZTE from operating in the U.S. and more recently banning imports of foreign-made drones, routers, advanced humanoid robotics and a kind of power gear used in solar energy projects.
Reuters first reported the potential transceiver crackdown Tuesday.
