Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm Talk With US Officials About China Market

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Meeting to address concerns about impending chip sales restrictions.

NVIDIA DGX platform
(Image credit: Nvidia)

CEOs from the US semiconductor industry have met with senior US government economics and national security figures on Monday. The topic under discussion was the growing strictness of sanctions placed on China, meaning chipmaker sales to the nation would encounter friction.

According to reports from Reuters, Bloomberg and Forbes , the CEOs from Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and others, met in person with officials from the Biden administration. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council director Lael Brainard and National Security Council director Jake Sullivan formed part of the delegation. Apparently, representatives of the tech CEOs have been strongly lobbying against trade curbs and barriers. In respect of trade restrictions things could get worse as new, stronger measures are set to be applied from the US in the coming weeks.

We don't have any press released or statements about the meeting to refer to, but we can make some educated guesses about the direction of the talks. Back in October, the US Commerce Department issued updated rules about the sales of certain tools and chips to China, and those are about to be enacted. The economics and security officials from the government would therefore surely be putting their case to the CEOs. Meanwhile, the likes of Gelsinger, Huang, and Amon would be looking for exporting "wriggle room", so they don't have to intentionally decimate their China business operations.

Potential Business Impacts

Of the three tech titans mentioned above, it looks like Qualcomm could potentially be the most adversely affected by strengthened restrictions implemented by the US. Bloomberg says that 60% of Qualcomm's business revenue comes from the region. On the other hand, Qualcomm chips seem to be largely sold into less-strategic areas. In other words it is the powerful AI accelerating chips, which are suspected as being useful for China's military developments, which are more the focus of the latest bout of trade restrictions. For Nvidia, about 20% of revenue is currently generated by sales in the region.

Also on Monday, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) called on the US and Chinese governments to cease the escalation of trade and technology export restrictions and to instead smooth relations through dialog. It previously voiced concerns about these measures in January.

Where was the AMD CEO?

Readers may have noticed that AMD's CEO, Dr Lisa Su, was conspicuous by her absence from the high level meeting. However, she is currently a long way from the US, in the midst of a business trip to Taiwan.

Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • digitalgriffin
    US Govt: It's to prevent them from running atomic and war game simulations
    NVIDIA/Qualcomm/Intel: But what about my executive bonus based the stock price?!?!?
    Reply
  • Charogne
    must be starting to feel the rare earth export ban by china ":

    July 5 (Reuters) - China said on Monday it will impose export restrictions on gallium and germanium products used in computer chips and other components to protect national security interests.
    The decision, widely seen as retaliation for U.S. curbs on sales of technologies to China, raised concerns that China might eventually limit exports of other materials, notably rare earths, whose production China dominates."
    looks like you cannot continue commercial attack without retaliation at some point.
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    Corporate is and has always been about squeezing as much money out of a given thing while caring about little else, like the environment, or national security, or people's lives(unless they are shareholders)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I have the least sympathy for Nvidia, who's already doing such brisk business they can't even keep up. I have a lot more sympathy for semiconductor tools makers, due to the downturn in that industry. However, they're already getting a nice gift in the form of the CHIPS Act.

    Ultimately, corporate interests aren't very closely tied to any nation. The US government should hear their concerns and perhaps try to minimize collateral damage on their operations or profits, but their interests and what's best for the US and its people will always be somewhat at odds.

    And please don't anybody trot out that tired old line about how American workers have their retirement savings invested in these companies. A lot of their stock is also owned by foreign investors, and there's nothing keeping US workers from putting their savings elsewhere.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Charogne said:
    must be starting to feel the rare earth export ban by china ":
    July 5 (Reuters) - China said on Monday it will impose export restrictions on gallium and germanium products used in computer chips and other components to protect national security interests.
    No, that doesn't even affect most of those companies named in the article. Those elements are used primarily in other things, like batteries, solar panels, and more specialized semiconductors. Not CPUs and GPUs, though.

    Charogne said:
    looks like you cannot continue commercial attack without retaliation at some point.
    Who's to say what's an attack and what's retaliation? Ultimately, there does need to be some sort of negotiated settlement, and it needs to be a lot more durable than those which came before.
    Reply