Microsoft Lobbies Trump Administration to Block Import Ban on Chinese Optical Transceivers

Microsoft is lobbying the Trump administration and the Federal Communications Commission to halt a planned ban on imports of Chinese optical transceivers used in artificial intelligence data centers. Regulators have considered restrictions over national security and espionage concerns since at least August. Industry groups warn that an immediate ban would cause supply bottlenecks and leave high-performance AI chips idle, as Chinese manufacturers control roughly two-thirds of the global market. Microsoft has 35 U.S. data centers under construction and 134 planned. To ease supply pressures, regulators are weighing a 3.2 terabit-per-second performance threshold to delay major impacts until 2028.