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The Trump administration is drafting a ban on U.S. imports of new models of Chinese data center components, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as it seeks to protect the infrastructure that undergirds the AI boom.
The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the U.S. telecom industry, is working on the measure to bar imports of new Chinese optical transceivers, which allow data to travel over fiber-optic cables at the speed of light within data centers. Officials hope to publish it this year, when it would take effect.
The move, not previously reported, aims to prevent Chinese firms from stealing data, installing malware or disrupting service at U.S. data centers, which house the chips to train and run AI models.
The FCC could still modify or shelve the restriction, the sources stressed, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. But it is the latest example of the Trump administration trying to limit Chinese technological incursions into cutting-edge U.S. industries before they become embedded in the supply chain.
"Transceivers definitely pose a risk," said Divyansh Kaushik, an AI policy expert at Washington, D.C., advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies. "As the data center buildout scales up, you want to make sure the data center supply chain is secure from the get-go," he added.
A U.S. ban on new models of Chinese data center devices would likely hit China’s Zhongji Innolight 300308.SZ, one of the biggest global sellers of transceivers, which was added to the Pentagon’s list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies in June. The list can be a harbinger of tougher action. Innolight did not respond to requests for comment.
A ban could also raise costs for American cloud firms such as Amazon Web Services AMZN.O, as it may force them to transition to other producers such as U.S.-based Coherent COHR.N and Lumentum LITE.O, which stand to benefit from the measure.
Innolight has a leading 27% share of the global data center transceiver market, according to Counterpoint Research. Coherent and Lumentum sell competitive technology but lack the scale to replace Chinese vendors, according to a report by the Foundation for American Innovation. Innolight generates 90% of its revenue outside China, the report added.
AWS, Coherent and Lumentum did not respond to requests for comment.