Get free updates on US-China relations
I will send myFT Daily Digest E-mail summarizing the latest information US-China relations News every morning.
The Biden administration is considering new export controls on artificial intelligence chips as Washington ramps up efforts to make it harder for China to obtain technology for military use.
Three people familiar with the matter said the U.S. Commerce Department had announced a sweeping move introduced last October that could make it difficult for companies like Nvidia Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to sell advanced chips to China. It is said that it is preparing to update its export controls.
The move will have a big impact on Nvidia. Nvidia has responded to the October 7 regulations by designing new graphics processing unit chips called the A800 and H800 to replace the more advanced chips restricted by the new rules.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently told the Financial Times that current export restrictions could cause “tremendous damage” to the US tech industry. He said he left Silicon Valley Group with “hands tied behind its back” after blocking it from selling cutting-edge chips to China.
The A800 and H800, although slower than the chips they replaced, are still the most important technologies driving AI research and development for China’s tech giants.
Chinese conglomerates including Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance ordered more Nvidia chips when the generative AI wave exploded in China this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The new move marks the latest effort by President Joe Biden to make it harder for China to obtain advanced technology, including AI chips that could be used for everything from hypersonic weapon research and development to nuclear weapons modeling. becomes.
In March, the FT reported that Chinese companies, including a U.S.-blacklisted AI oversight group, were seeking ways to circumvent export controls, including renting access to A100 chips.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration’s approach would allow the Chinese military to use U.S. technology to undermine U.S. security interests. He said it would put a “high fence” around a “small garden”.
Beijing has accused the United States of trying to “contain” China. In a May move most experts see as retaliation, China banned Chinese infrastructure operators from buying chips from Idaho-based chip maker Micron.
Mr. Biden is also preparing to issue an executive order to create a mechanism to screen investments in China to reduce the likelihood that U.S. investors will cooperate in supporting China’s military.
In recent months, the US and EU have emphasized that they are working to “de-risk” the subject area and not promote broad decoupling. Chinese Premier Li Qiang criticized the policy this week, saying any attempt to de-risk China is a “wrong proposal”.
An update to the export controls is expected sometime this summer. That will come as the United States and China continue to seek to stabilize relations that have plummeted to their worst levels since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1979.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited China last week and met with President Xi Jinping, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi.
Xi and Blinken described the visit as “constructive.” But an early-stage effort to “settle” the relationship was swift when Mr. Biden described Mr. Xi as a “dictator” in an impromptu remark at a presidential campaign fundraising event last week. I was frustrated.
The U.S. Department of Commerce and Nvidia declined to comment on the expected update, first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
follow Demetri Sevastoplo on Twitter
