A wide-ranging set of potentially punitive rules similar to those levied against Huawei could hamper China's AI and supercomputing sectors.
The US government is ostensibly set to announce large-scale measures limiting Beijing's access to advanced semiconductor technology, according to reports in both the «Reuters» and the «New York Times» (paywall) on Monday.
The NYT cited several people familiar with the matter as indicating that any company using American technology would be blocked from selling to a number of Chinese companies or government research labs targeted by the Biden administration. The list of entities is as yet unknown, the newspaper said.
According to the publication, the current steps, which could be announced later this week, are a significant expansion of the foreign direct product rule created and first used by the former Trump administration that subsequently had a severe impact on China telecom maker Huawei from 2018 onwards by preventing companies worldwide from sending them products with American technological components or software.
No US Tools
The US government is also expected to limit the sale of US-made tools used in the semiconductor industry and curtail sales of microchips to supercomputers and data centers, the newspaper reported, potentially obstructing the activities of academic institutions and the likes of Alibaba and Tencent, as it will make it far more difficult for them to source the necessary components.
In addition, the Biden administration is preparing an executive order that allows US authorities to scrutinize American corporate investments abroad for security risks, the NYT reported. The newspaper's sources indicated that memory chip maker YMTC (Yangtze) could face punitive measures.
A US government spokesperson declined to comment on the reports.
