China has proposed to restrict export of some AI technologies but quickly moved to allow some of its champion companies to continue shipping their wares abroad. Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce announced the restrictions in mid-October by revising its Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export in China. The restrictions mean that Chinese companies must apply for a license to export their tech. New entrants on the list included “23 technologies related to large-scale models, intelligent agents, computing clusters, and information processing.” Tech issued under open source licenses is exempt from the restrictions. Last Friday, Chinese state media reported that two companies – named elsewhere as DeepSeek and MiniMax – received authorization to continue exports. Both companies are credible challengers to American AI vendors, so letting them sell their wares abroad meets China’s goals of creating export industries and enhancing its tech sector. The expanded Catalogue also gives Beijing the ability to stop exports of any AI it feels represents important sovereign capacity, such as tools that are potent bug-finders or have military uses. China is not alone in restricting exports of AI technology: the USA has imposed on-again, off-again, bans on sales of advanced GPUs to China. AI datacenter bubble wobbles in Australia
If the AI datacenter building bubble bursts, two recent Australian incidents may prove instructive. The first took place on October 9, when a company called Firmus called off its initial public offering. Firmus already operates four datacenters, two in Australia and a pair in Singapore. It plans several more, plus expansions of its existing bit barns. Meta has committed to spend over $700 million with the company. Private investors had already ploughed over $2 billion into the company. The float would have been Australia’s largest for 20 years and aimed to raise around $5 billion, giving Firmus a valuation over $40 billion. In the days before the float, investor sentiment suddenly soured. Would-be buyers reportedly asked Firmus to lower its share price and therefore valuation by perhaps a quarter, as they feared the company’s prospectus made very optimistic revenue predictions. Not helping matters was that one of Firmus’ founders did time after being convicted of insider trading. The company eventually cancelled its IPO. The other incident took place on Wednesday, when established datacenter operator NEXTDC announced [PDF] reduced revenue forecasts because its chosen power supplier suspended work “because of community and stakeholder opposition.” That opposition related to installation of poles and wires needed to bring juice to an existing datacenter NEXTDC intends to expand. Protestors have blocked access to the site, and the local council has decided not to allow the power company to use relevant roads while community consultation continues. NEXTDC, which readers may recall designed one of its datacenters to resemble sets from Sean Connery flick The Hunt For Red October , slashed its revenue forecast and then saw its share price slump almost 40 percent. The company told investors it will be at least February before its power supplier can resume work. Hyperscalers mostly use third party datacenters in Australia…