‘America first’ was never a slogan – it was a policy doctrine. As Donald Trump returns to the White House for his second term, the question is not whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) export controls will be retained but how they will evolve. The Biden administration designed the ‘Small Yard, High Fence’ policy. While the small yard comprises advanced technologies such as quantum computing, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and advanced AI chips, the high fence denotes strict controls over the export of these technologies to adversaries, primarily the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite export restrictions, PRC’s Deepseek launched its R1 AI bot in January 2025, which sent shockwaves through the global AI industry—competing head-to-head with ChatGPT. Deepseek’s launch proved the PRC’s capability to develop advanced AI models despite the AI export controls introduced by the United States. President Donald Trump expressed his concern by calling the launch of Deepseek’s AI the ‘wakeup call’ to US tech firms.
Chips, clouds, and checkpoints: The new AI export battlefield under Trump 2.0
