U.S. announces stricter measures on Chinese chipmakers amidst rising technological rivalry. They are limiting Huawei AI chip production to 200.000 units.
According to Chosun, The Trump administration has formalized tough measures to curb China’s semiconductor ambitions.
Jeffrey Kessler, Vice Minister of the U.S. Department of Commerce, stated during a congressional hearing that, under the export control program, Huawei will only be able to produce fewer than 200,000 AI chips known as ‘Ascend’ this year. This level does not even reach the approximately 500,000 AI chips needed for the single project ‘Stargate’ data center being developed by OpenAI in Texas.
Vice Minister Kessler’s remarks effectively overturn the policies of the previous Biden administration. While the Biden administration placed Huawei and China’s largest foundry, SMIC, on the blacklist, it had been issuing special licenses allowing U.S. corporations like Intel and Qualcomm to export billions of dollars worth of system semiconductors. The measures that block this are intended to completely close any loopholes and slow down the pace of China’s technological pursuit.
Former CEO of ASML, Peter Wennink, notes that, “Pressuring China through export controls will ultimately lead them to become more innovative, such as developing their own equipment.”
He stressed that ‘Whether it takes time or not, they will eventually reach their own technological goals.”
In fact, China is expanding its investments across AI chips, semiconductor equipment, and design fields, and it is reported that after mass production of 5 to 7-nanometer chips, it is preparing to mass-produce 3-nanometer chips next year.
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