The US wants to further restrict China’s access to fast AI chips

• Nando Castellijn

  Teacher Technology

It has become even more difficult for China to acquire advanced chips for AI (artificial intelligence). The US has announced new restrictions which mean, in effect, US chipmaker Nvidia is no longer allowed to sell its fastest chips tailored to the Chinese market. Nvidia is currently the main supplier of AI chips.

It is a new step in a larger and long-running conflict between the US and China over who has the technological power. U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo told U.S. media that the new restrictions are aimed at preventing China from achieving new developments that could be used by the military with the help of these types of AI chips.

Companies that want to sell certain chips in the Chinese market must notify the US. The government will let you know within 25 days whether they will get a sales license. Most rules take effect in 30 days.

The rules are said to be designed so that advanced chips for phones, laptops and electric cars can still be sold to Chinese customers. This restriction mainly applies to advanced chips used in data centers.

Other parties such as chipmakers Intel and AMD are also likely to be affected by these moves. Both companies were in the negative after the US stock market opened on Wall Street.

The latest tightening comes a year after the US announced far-reaching trade restrictions. They also attacked chipmaker Nvidia at the time. Then the company decided Create custom versions Its main AI chips are the A100 and H100. The versions for the Chinese market, the A800 and H800, are limited in bandwidth, effectively reducing system power. He told US media that the chips would no longer be sold.

Nvidia is currently enjoying a peak due to the huge hype surrounding artificial intelligence. As far as we know, the company is yet to respond to the new measures. The market share fell nearly 7 percent on the stock market and later recovered slightly. It posted record turnover and profit last quarter and its stock market value has more than tripled in a year.

CEO Jensen Huang announced in May this year In the Financial Times He also warned against new far-reaching measures. He fears “huge damage” and said that if Chinese companies can’t buy from Nvidia, they will make the chips themselves. “The US needs to be careful. China is a very important market for the technology sector.”

The new measures did not have any major consequences for Dutch chip machine maker ASML. The company said in a statement that the measures will have an impact on the medium and long term in which the company can sell machines. In other words, it expects to sell fewer machines to China.

At the same time, ASML insists that this will not affect the turnover expectations provided earlier. The company is struggling with a huge order backlog worth 40 billion euros earlier this year.