US to announce additional restrictions on supplying chip technology to Chinese firms
The new limitations are intended to make it more difficult for Beijing to manufacture sophisticated weaponry and surveillance systems.
The US is expected to announce a new set of restrictions on Chinese companies' access to cutting-edge chip manufacturing technology that enables high-performance computing.
Several people familiar with the matter told the New York Times that the US Commerce Department would soon release a set of regulations to control which semiconductor technology may be sold to China.
The new limitations are intended to make it more difficult for Beijing to manufacture sophisticated weaponry and surveillance systems. They would expand upon a directive issued by the Trump administration in 2019 that dealt a blow to the Chinese telecom giant Huawei by forbidding American businesses from delivering Huawei products made using American machinery, software, or technology.
The individuals who spoke to the NYT said the Biden administration is likely to impose similar limitations on other Chinese firms, government research facilities, and other organisations.
After the curbs are announced, it will be forbidden for any company, anywhere in the world, to sell technology developed in the United States to the targeted organisations.
According to the NYT sources, Washington also intends to restrict the sale of microchips created in the United States to China's most advanced supercomputing and data centre projects.
While the majority of applications for supercomputing are beneficial, some have malign purposes, like the creation of weapons or surveillance.
As supercomputer performance levels improve over time, experts believe new US restrictions may substantially impede China's capacity to create the potent number-crunching technology that serves as the foundation for advancements in a variety of sectors, including the artificial intelligence, biosciences and missile engineering.
Supercomputers are currently used by several Chinese universities, state-run businesses, and internet companies. Some supercomputers in China have been used to power intrusive monitoring programs that target ethnic minorities. Beijing has also used supercomputers to simulate nuclear explosions and create next-generation weapons that could evade American defences.
In August, Nvidia and AMD said they had received notification letters from the Commerce Department directing them to halt exporting their most sophisticated chips to China, arguing that they could be used in artificial intelligence systems.
Nvidia said the new directive would affect exports of its A100 and future H100 chips, which are designed to speed up machine learning processes. The company also disclosed that the US government is demanding a new licence, effective immediately, to address the risks that the covered products may be utilised in, or diverted to, a 'military end user' in China.
AMD said that the company had received additional licencing requirements that would prevent the shipment of its MI250 artificial intelligence processors to China. AMD added it does not foresee any impact on sales of its MI100 chips.
The Chinese authorities criticised the move. Beijing urged the US to "immediately stop its wrongdoing, treat companies from all over the world including Chinese companies fairly, and do more things that are conducive to the stability of the world economy."