The Biden administration has threatened Russia with cutting it off from its semiconductor supply should it invade Ukraine.

According to Axios, the idea is unprecedented and would damage Russia's economy, but could also affect U.S. companies.

The strategy, Axios reports, is to threaten to use government regulations to block not only U.S.-made chips, but also chips from foreign companies relying on American designs, equipment, tools or software.

Since U.S. technology is ubiquitous in chip-making, this could be a staggering blow to the Russian economy. Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst for Raymond James, told Axios that ''semiconductors are the new weapon. If you can link arms and deny a country access to semiconductors, their ability to function as a modern economy is eliminated.''

A person familiar with the White House's approach told Axios on Tuesday that chip restrictions could either be aimed at Russia as a whole or more narrowly targeted at certain industries.

A senior administration official said last week that these restrictions focus on areas that Russian President Vladimir Putin says are important to Russia strategically, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

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