Washington: US President Joe Biden is preparing to curb exports to China of semiconductors used for artificial intelligence and chipmaking tools from next month. Several people with knowledge of the matter said the Commerce Department intends to set the new rules based on the sanctions stated in letters sent earlier this year to three US companies KLA Corp., Lam Research Corp., and Applied Materials Inc. . However, no information has been given about the plan of these new rules yet.
According to the news agency Reuters news, in this letter, companies were prohibited from exporting chipmaking equipment to Chinese factories that make advanced semiconductors from sub-14 nanometers without the license of the Commerce Department. These rules will also include restrictions imposed in Commerce Department letters sent to Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices last month. These companies were asked to stop exporting artificial intelligence computing chips to China until the license is granted.
Some sources said that the new rules are likely to take very harsh action against China. Restrictions can also be changed and rules can be published at a later time than expected. A source said the rules could also apply to licenses on China’s exports of products that contain targeted chips. Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Super Micro Computer make data center servers that contain Nvidia’s A100 chip.
A Commerce Department spokesperson declined to comment on these rules. He said that this step has been taken to prevent China from acquiring American technology and its use for military modernization to protect America’s national security and foreign policy interests. Jim Lewis, a technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International, said that this strategy is a preparation to strangle China. America has found that chips are a choke point. China cannot make this stuff. Along with this, there is a plan to add Chinese supercomputing institutions to the business blacklist.
