AI Daily: Department of Commerce rescinds Biden’s AI diffusion rule

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AI DIFFUSION RULES: On Tuesday, the Department of Commerce initiated a rescission of the Biden Administration’s AI Diffusion Rule, while announcing additional steps to strengthen export controls on semiconductors worldwide. The AI Diffusion Rule was issued on January 15, 2025, with compliance requirements that were set to come into effect on May 15, 2025. These new requirements would have stifled American innovation and saddled companies with burdensome new regulatory requirements, the DOC said, adding that the AI Diffusion Rule also would have undermined U.S. diplomatic relations with dozens of countries by downgrading them to second-tier status.

Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffery Kessler has instructed BIS enforcement officials not to enforce the Biden Administration’s AI Diffusion Rule, stating that, “The Trump Administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to American AI technology with trusted foreign countries around the world, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries. At the same time, we reject the Biden Administration’s attempt to impose its own ill- conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people.” In addition, BIS announced actions to strengthen export controls for overseas AI chips, including issuing guidance that using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world violates U.S.export controls; issuing guidance warning the public about the potential consequences of allowing U.S. AI chips to be used for training and interference of Chinese AI models; and issuing guidance to U.S. companies on how to protect supply chains against diversion tactics. Publicly traded companies in the space include AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Marvell (MRVL), Microchip (MCHP), Micron (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Texas Instruments (TXN).

HARVEY AI: Harvey AI, a fast-growing legal startup, is in advanced talks to raise over $250M in a new round of funding at a valuation of $5B, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, Anna Tong and Krystal Hu report. The funding round would mark a significant leap in Harvey’s valuation from $3B in just a few months. The startup, which began by partnering with Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI to build a custom-trained model for legal professionals, announced this week that it expanded its offerings by adding foundation models from Anthropic and Google (GOOGL) to its platform, the report notes.

NEW DATA CENTER: OpenAI is slated to announce a new data center in the UAE as part of its Stargate data center effort with SoftBank (SFTBY), The Information’s Anissa Gardizy reports, citing a person with direct knowledge of the talks. The move is part of a larger effort by the ChatGPT maker to grow its business in non-U.S. markets, the author notes.

COLLABORATION: Tempus AI (TEM) announced a new strategic collaboration to advance Boehringer Ingelheim’s cancer pipeline. The new, multi-year collaboration builds on foundational work the two companies have conducted in the last few years, leveraging data and AI to further advance therapeutic research and development. With this new collaboration, Boehringer will have access to Tempus’ de-identified database containing molecular, clinical, and imaging data and its analytical platform, Lens. The aim is to explore data derived from patient cohorts to guide biomarker development and patient stratification, develop drug combination hypotheses, support novel target discovery efforts, and educate on patients’ healthcare journey.