Indo-US Working Group on Technology Policy: AI Export Controls and the Indo-US Tech Corridor

This session of the Indo-US Working Group on Technology Policy examined the implications of recent U.S. AI export control actions for both countries.

On June 12, 2026 the U.S. Commerce Department issued a directive to Anthropic requiring a license before any export or transfer of its top AI models to foreign persons. Anthropic determined it was not technically feasible to block access only by foreign persons on short notice and disabled the models for all users worldwide. A follow-on letter issued June 26 exempted certain trusted partners from the license requirement. Participants described these actions as notable because, for the first time, export controls applied not just to chips and hardware but to AI models themselves.

A central topic of discussion was the gap between how these actions were understood and what they actually authorized. Participants noted that the authority Commerce used to impose controls on foreign national access to AI models was legally uncertain, with the department's own prior advisory opinions having used the same regulatory provision to conclude that remote access transactions were not subject to export controls. Participants discussed how the broader policy response in India, including debate over AI sovereignty and compute infrastructure, is taking shape around an action whose legal scope remains contested. They also noted that Congress is actively considering legislation that would give the Commerce Department clearer statutory authority over remote access to AI models.

Participants discussed the costs of the current ad hoc approach. Several noted that bilateral actions taken without a consistent or transparent framework create uncertainty for businesses and governments in both countries trying to make long-term investment decisions. A restrictive but stable and predictable policy, some participants argued, would be preferable to one that is nominally permissive but subject to abrupt change.

The session also addressed the concept of Indian AI sovereignty. Participants noted that as long as frontier AI systems depend on a small number of U.S. chip suppliers, the practical limits on sovereignty are structural, regardless of policy choices. Participants also discussed a potential framework for a durable U.S.-India AI compact built around tiered access covenants for designated strategic democracies, India-based inference options, joint technical working groups for model evaluation and cybersecurity coordination, and preferential access to next-generation hardware for validated joint ventures.

The Indo-US Working Group on Technology Policy is a Track II dialogue convened by The Dialogue and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Session summaries do not attribute comments to individual participants.