The U.S. is curbing the sale of chip-making machinery central to China’s efforts to develop advanced semiconductors, measures designed to prevent Beijing from receiving technologies that it could use to strengthen its military, especially in the field of AI, according to The New York Times.
The updated rules "will increase effectiveness of our controls and further shut off pathways to evade our restrictions," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement earlier this week. "We will keep working to protect our national security by restricting access to critical technologies, vigilantly enforcing our rules, while minimizing any unintended impact on trade flows."
Nvidia, which makes sought-after AI chips, has said the restrictions will block sales of the H800 and A800, high-end AI chips it created for the Chinese market.
"The licensing requirement may impact the Company's ability to complete development of products in a timely manner, support existing customers of covered products, or supply customers of covered products outside the impacted regions, and may require the Company to transition certain operations out of one or more of the identified countries," it said in an SEC filing Tuesday.
The sale of deep ultraviolet lithography machines to China are also being restricted, meaning Dutch firm ASML, which dominates the lithography market, will curb exports.
The measures are set to take effect in 30 days.
China branded the move "forced de-coupling for political purposes."
"The US needs to stop politicizing and weaponizing trade and tech issues and stop destabilizing global industrial and supply chains," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing. "We will closely follow the developments and firmly safeguard our rights and interests."
The Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents most of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue, said in a statement that the new measures are "overly broad" and "risk harming the U.S semiconductor ecosystem without advancing national security as they encourage overseas customers to look elsewhere."
The new restrictions "are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of these controls, close loopholes, and ensure they remain durable," the Department of Commerce said in a press release.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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