Why the United States prohibits Qualcomm and Intel from exporting some chips to China

This article was originally published in English

The government of USA has recently communicated to the giants Intel and Qualcomm that they will not be allowed to export some chips to the Chinese smartphone tycoon Huawei.

Both American companies have been retired some licenses and permissions. However, it has not been confirmed which ones specifically.

Huawei this In the spotlight of the restrictions imposed by the US Government on technological exports since 2019mainly due to its alleged links with the Army and the Government of China.

There are also a number of fears that Huawei may be using its artificial intelligence and wireless technology in order to spy on American consumers on behalf of the Chinese government, which represents a potential threat for national security.

USA and China They are also immersed in a chip war and artificial intelligencein which Washington is making major moves to block Beijing’s access to high-performance chips, due to concerns about their potential use and impact on geopolitical issues.

However, until nowsome technology companies, such as Qualcomm and Intel, had been granted some room for maneuver, although always with the expectation that new restrictions could be imposed at any time. Intel was even allowed to export its ‘Core Ultra Meteor Lake’ central processing units (CPUs) to Huawei, for use in laptops. Other Chinese technology companies, such as Inspur, were also allowed to buy Intel processors.

This room for maneuver, however, was not very well received by several figures in the US Government, which has probably caused pressures increase and calls for a stronger ban on Intel and Qualcomm exports to China.

On the other hand, China It has been shown very against of this latest US measure, and its Foreign Ministry has stressed that Washington could be taking concerns about security and abusing export controls to unfairly subjugate Chinese technology companies.

The Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said in a statement: “Under my oversight, the Department of Commerce has finally responded to repeated demands from congressional Republicans to revoke export licenses for any U.S. company that exports to the notorious Chinese communist spy firm Huawei.”

“This action will bolster America’s national security, protect American ingenuity, and diminish Communist China’s ability to advance its technology. However, our job this far from finished“he added.

“I will continue to conduct critical oversight to ensure that the Bureau of Industry and Security takes its role as a national security agency seriously, adding more companies to the entity list and revoking additional licenses if necessary. We cannot provide to communist China no technology developed in USA that gives them advantage“, he stated.

US takes steps to reduce China’s dependence on chips

At the same time, USA try improve its own chip manufacturing capacity and thus reduce its dependence on China. An important step in this regard has been the announcement by the US Department of Commerce that it will provisionally grant financing of $6.14 billion to Micron Technology, an American semiconductor company. This funding would fall under the CHIPS and Science Act.

The US Secretary of CommerceGina Raimondo, stated in a press release: Cutting-edge memory chips are critical to all advanced technologies, and thanks to President Biden’s leadership, the United States is rebuilding its ability to produce these critical capabilities for the first time in nearly two decades.”

“With this proposed investment, we are working to meet one of the main goals of President Biden’s CHIPS program: offshoring the development and production of semiconductor technology more advanced memory, which is crucial to safeguarding our leadership in artificial intelligence and protecting our economic and national security.

“With these proposed investments, coupled with Micron’s historic private investment of up to $125 billion (€116.4 billion) in New York and Idaho over the next 20 years, President Biden is working to revitalize US technological leadership and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs,” he added.