March 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department

withdrew a planned rule on artificial-intelligence chip exports

on Friday, the latest backpedaling by the Trump administration

in its efforts to promote secure American AI dominance.

The department had sent a draft rule, to replace a January

2025 Biden-era regulation on global access to AI chips, to other

agencies for feedback late last month.

A notification for the "AI Action Plan Implementation" rule

was posted on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

website on February 26, saying the rule was pending review,

before it was pulled on Friday.

"This supposed rule was always a draft and remains a draft,"

a U.S. official said in a statement when asked about the

withdrawal. "All discussions that were previously reported were

preliminary."

Last spring, the Commerce Department said it was going to revoke

and replace the Biden-era rule with a much simpler one that

ensured American AI dominance, but no new regulation appeared.

The latest Trump draft considered requiring investments by

foreign countries in U.S. data centers or security guarantees as

a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more,

according to a document seen by Reuters last week.

Foreign firms that wanted up to 100,000 chips would need to

provide government-to-government assurances, the document said.

The plan departed ⁠markedly from the Biden approach, which

divided the world into three tiers: allies that could receive

unlimited chips; much of the world, which was subject to limited

numbers; and countries of concern that were blocked from

receiving the coveted chips. The Biden rule capped a four-year

effort by that administration to hobble China's access to

advanced chips while maintaining U.S. leadership in AI.

A former official said on Friday that the withdrawal of the

latest planned rule likely reflects differing views within the

Trump administration on how to achieve global AI supremacy and

address national security concerns.

The Commerce Department posted on March 5 on X that it was

"committed to promoting secure exports of the American tech

stack." It said there were internal government discussions about

formalizing the approach it took with deals to send U.S. chips

to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where ​both

countries agreed to ⁠invest in the U.S.

But it said the department would not return to the Biden AI

diffusion rule, which it described as burdensome.