The Biden administration is expected to impose further restrictions on China’s AI chip development.
Bloomberg quoted an industry insider and reported on the 11th (local time) that the Biden administration is considering additional restrictions on access to chip technology used in China’s AI.
According to the source, the measures under discussion aim to limit China’s ability to utilize a cutting-edge chip architecture known as Gate All Around (GAA). GAA is a type of transistor architecture that improves chip performance and reduces power consumption. The source revealed that it is unclear whether these restrictions will limit China’s ability to develop its own GAA chips or block American chip manufacturers and other foreign companies from selling their products to Chinese companies. The government has yet to determine when a final decision will be made.
On the other hand, leading semiconductor companies including NVIDIA, Intel Corporation, and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as chip manufacturers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung, have previously announced their goal to mass produce chips using GAA within the next year.
According to Bloomberg, there were also some initial discussions about restricting the export of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips. HBM chips, made by South Korea’s SK Hynix and Micron Technology, help accelerate AI applications and are used by companies like NVIDIA. Due to concerns that China could use the technology to strengthen its military power, the U.S. has been tightening trade restrictions to limit Beijing’s access to advanced AI chips designed by NVIDIA. After the U.S. partially revoked export permissions to customers in China, companies including Intel and Qualcomm Incorporated have stated that they expect to take a hit to their revenues. This tightening of regulations on the export of advanced semiconductors to China is already proving to be a stumbling block for semiconductor companies.
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