The US Just Made It Way Harder for China to Build Its Own AI Chips

image via WIRED

December 2, 2024, 10:00 AM

• •The US Department of Commerce has introduced a sweeping package of export controls on China designed to weaken the country's domestic semiconductor ecosystem and undermine its ability to manufacture advanced chips locally.
• •The new regulations prevent China from accessing 24 types of chip-manufacturing equipment and three software programs, and place restrictions on the sale to China of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, an advanced kind of 3D-stacked computer memory component that is often used in customized AI chips.
• •The measures are likely to enrage Beijing, which has given tens of billions of dollars worth of subsidies and tax breaks to semiconductor firms in the hopes of building out its own chips sector.

The US Department of Commerce introduced a sweeping package of export controls on Monday designed to weaken China’s domestic semiconductor ecosystem and undermine the country’s ability to manufacture advanced chips locally. The new regulations prevent China from accessing 24 types of chip-manufacturing equipment and three software programs, and place restrictions on the sale to China of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, an advanced kind of 3D-stacked computer memory component that is often used in customized AI chips.

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