Taiwan adds AI servers to China export controls

Taiwan is expanding its list of controlled exports to include AI servers and the latest chips, aligning its rules with the United States, with smuggling punishable by up to five years in prison, Bloomberg reported.

Why it matters: The controls close a transshipment route for advanced computing hardware bound for China and tie Taiwan’s export regime to the reciprocal trade agreement it signed with Washington earlier this year.

Data as of Saturday, October 17, 2026, 08:42 ET. Developing item. Single-sourced: the Tom’s Hardware report, read in full, relays Bloomberg reporting and a statement by Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs; the text of the revised control list had not been published in the reporting opened, hence grade C.

Taiwan is expanding its list of controlled exports to include AI servers and the latest chips, in a move to align its policies with the trade bans of the United States, Bloomberg reported. Once the controls take effect, anyone caught smuggling the items will be charged under the Foreign Trade Act, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of around 92,500 dollars, or both.

“Going forward, some of our measures on controlled items will correspond to American ones because we have made quite some commitments in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs, Kung Ming-hsin, said. Under that agreement, signed earlier this year, the United States cut tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 percent in exchange for direct investment in the American technology industry, among other commitments.

Taiwan adds AI servers to China export controls

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