By Alexandra Alper and Stephen Nellis
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday plans to launch a new program to entice foreign firms to buy U.S. AI tools with billions in export financing, according to a document seen by Reuters, as it seeks to beat China in the race to expand worldwide use of its technology.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is expected to approve the plan later on Thursday to provide financing for foreign purchases of American artificial intelligence tools,
according to a one-page description of the program obtained by Reuters.
Under the program, which follows through on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last July, the Commerce Department would have to sign off on specific licenses for sensitive AI technologies such as advanced chips like those made by Nvidia before financing deals could be inked.
Financial support from EXIM would include insurance and loan guarantees for medium-term transactions and direct loans and loan guarantees for long-term deals, the document showed.
"The ExportAI Initiative strengthens American AI leadership by modernizing EXIM financing tools and supporting the export of trusted U.S. AI technologies across industries of the future," the document said.
It was not immediately clear which countries and companies would benefit from the new program, but the move shows the Trump administration continues to see U.S. AI exports globally as critical to winning the AI race against China.
China's DeepSeek last month released a free and open-source AI model tailored for chips made by China's Huawei, a move that some AI advocates say shows China is vying for global influence in both the hardware and software used to create AI systems.
DeepSeek's models have become widely used over the past year because they are competitive with the capabilities of U.S. models, though some U.S. firms have accused DeepSeek of piggybacking off their technology.
The Biden administration had barred access to advanced U.S. AI chips made by Nvidia and AMD for China and many countries seen as high risk for diverting the prized technology to China over fears Beijing could use the technology to supercharge its military.
EXIM's board is scheduled to vote on the program later on Thursday morning.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper in Washington and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jamie Freed)
