Chip War
The new Cold War » China's Big Fund | The CHIPS Act | America's fab renaissance | Roots of the conflict | The impact in 2023 | The impact in 2022
Semiconductors power everything from PCs and data centers to cars, lightbulbs, and refrigerators. Control over their manufacture means control over billions of dollars and the world economy -- and the US, China, Taiwan, and others are waging a geopolitical battle for exactly that. Welcome to the chip war.
Major moments
May 8, 2024: The U.S. government has withdrawn select export licenses from Intel and Qualcomm, effectively preventing them from supplying processors to Huawei.
Mar. 9, 2024: China is assembling the third phase of its Big Fund investment in semiconductor projects, a $27 billion investment to counter U.S. sanctions.
Jan. 27, 2024: The Department of Commerce (DOC) introduced a proposal to prevent foreign entities, particularly from China, from using U.S. cloud computing for AI model training, a new level to the conflict.
Nov. 02, 2023: The Nvidia RTX 4090 -- The fastest gaming GPU -- will no longer be available for export to China starting Nov. 17.
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Oct. 24, 2023: The DOC sped up the implementation of its latest export curbs, immediately blocking Nvidia from shipping A100, A800, H100, H800, and L40S GPUs to China.
Oct. 7, 2023: Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner demand a limit to China's access to American RISC-V innovations.
Aug. 10, 2023: President Joe Biden signed an executive order restricting U.S. investments in Chinese tech sectors, including AI, semiconductors, and quantum computing.
Aug. 01, 2022: The U.S. extended its ban on chipmaking equipment produced by domestic firms that are sold to Chinese companies.
Dec. 18, 2020: The DOC blacklisted SMIC along with 60 other Chinese companies citing ties with the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Latest about chip war
Trump says Taiwan should pay US for defense — 'They did take about 100% of our chip business'
By Andrew E. Freedman published
In a Bloomberg interview, former President Donald Trump said that the US should be paid to protect Taiwan from China, and highlighted the island's dominance in chipmaking.
US, China Chip War may continue for decades, says former ASML CEO
By Dallin Grimm published
The Chip War is fought over ideology, not factual basis, says tech boss
China beat the U.S. in generative AI patents by 6-to-1 for the past ten years — almost 10,000 Chinese patents filed last year alone
By Jowi Morales published
China has more patents than the six top nations in generative AI research.
Samsung Texas fab delayed for 2nm upgrade to face-off with TSMC and Intel, according to Korean media
By Jowi Morales published
Industry sources say that one of the reasons for the delay of Samsung's Texas fab is that it is considering upgrading it from 4nm to 2nm.
China only produces 1% of critical litho chipmaking tools, exposing it to harsh US sanctions
By Jowi Morales published
Only 20% of China's chipmaking tools are domestically made, putting the country at the mercy of external forces.
U.S. delays Nvidia, AMD AI GPU export licenses to Middle East
By Anton Shilov published
U.S. does not want AMD and Nvidia sell their advanced AI and HPC GPUs to Middle East countries as these processors could be resold to China, or accessed by Chinese entities from the cloud
Microsoft offers to relocate nearly 10% of China-based staffers to the US or allied nations — AI and cloud engineering exodus from China begins
By Jowi Morales published
Microsoft offers over 700 AI and Cloud Computing engineers and other staffers in its China operation to move to the U.S., Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand.
US to increase tariffs on Chinese semiconductors by 100% in 2025 — officials say it protects the $53 billion spent on the CHIPS Act
By Jowi Morales published
The U.S. will increase import tariffs on Chinese semiconductors from 25% to 50% in 2025.
US attacks China's Quantum research, spy balloons by adding 37 companies to ban list
By Dallin Grimm published
The US government has broken its record for most Chinese entities on the Entity List at once, with quantum research in China and elsewhere receiving fresh new sanctions and blockades.
Intel issues revenue warning after US revokes Huawei export licenses — further efforts to restrict China's access to AI chips
By Anton Shilov published
The U.S. government has revoked export licenses for select processors for PCs and smartphones — Intel and Qualcomm can no longer ship to Huawei.
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