The United States has been saying this for months too dependent comes from chips made in Asia. Of billions of investments the United States wants to improve its chip industry. New sanctions should ensure that the Chinese chip industry is limited.
The United States sees Chinese developments in chips and artificial intelligence as a major threat, both economically and militarily, reports Bloomberg. The new sanctions are reminiscent of the restrictions imposed on the Chinese tech company Huawei. It arrived in 2019 on the blacklist of the United States, after which the company quickly lost its leading position in the market.
Export restrictions for many companies
However, these new sanctions go further and threaten all of China’s chip-reliant industry, from electric car makers, to gadget makers, and even aerospace companies. The new sanctions ban US chip makers from selling artificial intelligence chips to China.
Nvidia warned last month that such a move would be a major blow to the company, which sells many of these chips in China. These concerns are also voiced by other American technology companies that do a lot of business with China.
The export restrictions also apply to US machines for making chips, from semiconductors to memory chips. Additionally, 31 Chinese companies have been added to the US black list – those companies are no longer allowed to do business with American companies. These include memory chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies. New companies could be added to that list within two months.
Consequences for ASML still unknown
It is not yet known whether or how the US sanctions will affect foreign chip companies. The Dutch ASML, for example, is the major manufacturer of crucial machines for the production of chips. ASML isn’t already supplying its most advanced EUV machines to China, but the US is rumored to have it earlier this year. He insisted stop exporting on less advanced DUV machines.
“We are evaluating the potential implications of the new regulations, if any, and we are unable to comment at this time,” said an ASML spokesperson. The Dutch tech firm’s share price plummeted after the announcement of the new US sanctions.
“Economic War”
Experts speak of the most far-reaching sanctions President Biden’s government has imposed on China to date. Countries are now officially in “economic warfare,” analyst Dylan Patel told Bloomberg. “This is the response from the United States, which shows they will react.” A Chinese analyst sees “no chance of reconciliation” after announced US sanctions.
“This takes Chinese development back in time,” says technology expert Jim Lewis of the CSIS think tank Reuters. He says these sanctions are reminiscent of the steps the United States took during the heyday of the Cold War. “China will not give up on producing potato chips, but this will slow them down a bit.”
China: ‘unfair, but we will overcome it’
China reacts furiously to US sanctions. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry called the moves unfair and warned of “damage to global supply chains and global economic recovery”.
“The truth is the US is determined to use chips as a way to contain China,” writes Gu Wenjun, head of the Chinese ICwise chip researcher. “US supremacy in science and technology will create some difficulties for China in the short term, but will ultimately make it stronger and stand alone in science and technology,” the Chinese nationalist newspaper Global Times wrote in a statement. . .
