US imposes broader restrictions on chip exports to Chinese companies

The US has issued export restrictions requiring US companies wishing to export chips and/or chip manufacturing equipment to China to apply for a government license. Chips made with US tech are also subject to the restrictions.

According to the US Department of Commerce, the new export restrictions should ensure that certain chip technologies do not fall into the hands of the Chinese military and Chinese intelligence services. The US government states in its official documentation regular computer chips, chip manufacturing equipment and semiconductors intended for use in ‘supercomputers’, but the government also makes reference to military equipment that uses semiconductors.

The US government defines a supercomputer as a computer system that has a maximum computing power of 100 petaflops. This is if it is a 64bit system. In the case of a 32-bit system, a maximum of 200 petaflops is the benchmark for a supercomputer. According to sources who was able to speak to the editors of Reutersthis also puts Chinese commercial data centers in major cities such as Beijing in the crosshairs.

The new restrictions come after the US government announced earlier this year had imposed a restriction to US companies KLA Corp, Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials. These companies were no longer allowed to export chip production equipment to Chinese companies that make sub-14nm chips in their factories, unless they are licensed to do so. The American companies AMD and Nvidia were also told last summer that they were no longer allowed to export certain accelerators for AI to China. This was only possible if they had permission from the American government.

Update, 10.20 am: Introduction modified. There was no mention that the new measures also apply to US exports of chip production equipment.