US Imposes AI Chip Export Restrictions to China

The United States has issued an export restriction of high-performance computer chips to both Russia and China. 

In the growing race to produce advanced semiconductor chips, the United States has restricted the sale to China of select AMD and Nvidia advanced graphics card chips (GPU), primarily used in artificial intelligence (AI) programs, and supercomputers.

A.I.-Specific GPUs Restricted from China 

On September 1st, US Department of Commerce officials ordered Nvidia to stop exporting A100 and H100 GPUs, and AMD’s MI250 datacenter GPU to China. These are the fastest GPUs used in AI processing datacenters. A Commerce Department official announced that they are taking a “comprehensive approach” to implement actions necessary to protect US national security and foreign policy, as well as to prevent the use of advanced US technologies in Chinese military applications.

How This Impacts Advanced Chip Development 

By halting the export of advanced computer chips and chip design software to China, the U.S. is curbing China’s ability to not only utilize but also develop their own advanced semiconductors. This slows down tech advancement considerably, as China will have to procure older GPU units. 

According to a Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) report, an analysis of purchasing records from China found that the Chinese military relies heavily on American chip technology produced in Taiwan and South Korea. Many of those chips are designed by Nvidia, AMD, Intel, or Microsemi.

Reduce Procurement and Supply Chain Risk 

SiliconExpert’s data team is constantly monitoring disruptive events and updating risk levels for certain components that may be impacted by those events. Users can get instant alerts if inventory levels have dropped below a certain threshold, allowing proactive measures to be taken to avoid a disruption in the supply chain. 

To learn more about SiliconExpert’s BOM Manager and how to implement proactive risk-mitigating strategies, contact us for a free trial: