The Biden administration has imposed new restrictions on the sale of some sophisticated computer chips to China and Russia, the latest attempt by the US government to use semiconductors as a tool to slow rivals’ advances in fields such as highperformance computing and artificial intelligence.
The new limits affect highend models of chips known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, sold by Silicon Valley companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. These products were originally developed to render images in video games, but over the past decade they have been widely deployed on the largest supercomputers used by scientists and Internet companies for applications such as speech and object recognition in photographs.
Supercomputers are used in applications including weapons development and intelligence gathering, and some large systems in China have been linked to surveillance of the country’s Muslim minorities. AI technology is also increasingly being used for purposes such as identifying faces in video footage.
The restrictions are part of a cold war between China and the United States for primacy in advanced technologies. The Biden administration, building on limits initiated under former President Donald J. Trump, has adopted measures aimed at restricting access by companies such as China’s Huawei to advanced chips and foreign semiconductor manufacturing. China has designed many chips on its own, but generally relies on factories in Taiwan to make the most advanced models.
In statements on Wednesday, Nvidia and AMD acknowledged the new restrictions.
Nvidia, by far the largest GPU maker, said the federal government would now require it to seek export licenses to sell two highend chips used with server systems in data centers. The government said the new requirement would address the risk that these products could be used or diverted to military use in China and Russia, according to the company.
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Nvidia has many customers in China, but does not currently sell in Russia. He said the new measures hit a business that generated about $400 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal quarter.
AMD said the measures appeared to affect sales of one of its highend GPUs in China and Russia. He said he did not believe the restrictions would have a material effect on his business.
The scope of the government’s actions appears to go beyond Nvidia and AMD. Other companies that make design tools or software have received similar letters in recent weeks informing them that highend technologies they export to China have been restricted, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked to maintain anonymity to talk privately. deliberations
A spokesman for the Commerce Department said it was conducting a review of Chinarelated policies and could adopt new measures to keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands.
Without commenting specifically on the chip restrictions, the spokesman said possible future steps include “preventing the acquisition and use of American technology by China in the context of its militarycivilian fusion program to fuel their military modernization efforts, carry out human rights abuses, and enable other malign activities.”
In recent years, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has tightened restrictions on the supply of certain U.S. technologies to China, arguing that the products were sold through civilian supply chains but ultimately they were earmarked for military uses, such as weapons, aircraft and surveillance technology. . Companies can apply for a license to sell restricted items to specific customers, but most such applications are denied.
Statements from Nvidia and AMD indicated that they did not expect licenses to be granted in most cases. AMD said it expected the measures to “prevent” the sale of a product called MI250 in China and Russia.
Nvidia said the measures affected an existing product, the A100, as well as a product expected to be available later this year, the H100. It added that the restrictions could harm its ability to complete development of the H100 in a timely manner or support existing A100 customers and may require the company to transition certain operations out of China.
The measures come at a difficult time for Nvidia. Demand for GPUs used in gaming and cryptocurrency mining has fallen sharply, and in early August, Nvidia posted quarterly revenue well below what it had predicted in May.
Shares in Nvidia fell more than 6 percent on Wednesday afternoon after confirming the new government restrictions, which had been the subject of earlier reports in Chinese media.
Paul Mozur provide reports