💼 China restricts export of AI models and chips
On October 16, 2026, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC proposed adding 40 technologies to the export control list, 23 of which are AI-related: language models, agents, chips, and clusters. The controls cover models with 2 trillion parameters or more, or those in the world's top 10 by performance and safety: their weights, code, and key components. Registration of export transactions is already mandatory, with the consultation period running until November 15.
🌍 Beijing is mirroring US chip restrictions by regulating the export of AI software and model weights; open-source code is excluded from controls.
👤 The export of weights and code for top Chinese models like Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8-Max will become subject to licensing, while access via API and open-source code remains available.
Source 1: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-16/china-proposes-export-controls-on-ai-models-chips-and-agents
Source 2: https://www.ft.com/content/e0a1295c-4492-4fdd-aaf5-55678a9ef9bf