The US notice to chipmakers could harm Chinese firms’ ability to perform advanced functions such as image recognition and disrupt Nvidia’s business in the country.
The US notice to chipmakers could harm Chinese firms’ ability to perform advanced functions such as image recognition and disrupt Nvidia’s business in the country.
Chip designer Nvidia Corp. said this week that the United States asked China to restrict exports of two computing chips to China for artificial intelligence work, the latest in a broad government effort to hinder China’s access to the most sophisticated semiconductors. Step.
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News of the letter to Nvidia, and a similar one to rival AMD The Commerce Department’s August announcement to curb exports of materials and software used to make the next-generation chips follows Reuters’ recent reporting on other actions under consideration, which could be a global threat to the Chinese semiconductor sector. But it will make it very difficult to compete. scale.
The US notice to chip makers could harm Chinese companies’ ability to perform advanced functions such as image recognition and disrupt Nvidia’s business in the country.
While a Commerce Department spokesperson did not shed much light on the letters in a statement, he suggested it was part of a broader effort aimed at China: “While we are not in a position to outline specific policy changes at this time, we Taking a comprehensive approach to implementing the necessary additional actions relating to technologies, end-uses, and end-users to protect US national security and foreign policy interests.”
As before, the agency said it wanted to block China’s access to technology that could be used “to boost its military modernization efforts”.
At the same time, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has stated that the agency is pursuing strategies such as “nearshoring” and “friendshoring” so like-minded partners are integrated into our supply chains … as we do with our supply chains. As we rebuild, we can “not depend on foreign countries that don’t share our values for our critical chip components.”
In a move interpreted as aimed at China, the department in August adopted new export controls on technologies that support the production of advanced semiconductor and gas turbine engines that the United States says are posing a threat to national security. is important.
Controls include ECAD, a class of software tools used to validate integrated circuits or printed circuit boards “that could advance many commercial and military applications, including defense and communications satellites,” the department said at the time. was.
Soon after, Biden signed a bill to boost US competition with China’s science and technology efforts by subsidizing US chip manufacturing and expanding research funding. The law aims to “reduce the reliance on weak or highly concentrated foreign production for both leading and mature microelectronics.”
The United States is also considering limiting shipments of American chipmaking equipment to memory chip makers in China, including Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC), four people familiar with the matter told Reuters. This is part of a bid to halt the progress of China’s semiconductor sector.
If approved, the action would include halting shipments of American chipmaking equipment to factories in China that manufacture advanced NAND chips.
Tensions between China and the United States over the tech sector deepened under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump and have continued ever since. Reuters reported in July that Biden’s administration is also considering a ban on shipments to China of equipment to make advanced logic chips to hamstring China’s largest chipmaker, SMIC.