Just a day after AMD took a $800 million inventory charge because of the U.S. export controls and projections of a $1.5 billion total loss, the company's chief executive, Lisa Su, said that there must be a balance between the U.S. export controls on advanced processors and national security. China is the world's largest market and represents massive opportunities for American companies. Furthermore, if U.S. companies leave it, local entities will develop standards that compete with American ones.
"There should be a balance between export controls for national security as well as ensuring that we get the widest possible adoption of our technology," Su said in an interview with CNBC. "That is a good thing for U.S. jobs in the U.S. economy."
Last week, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, had a similar message for U.S. lawmakers. Nvidia currently holds a dominant position in the global AI computing landscape due to its CUDA software ecosystem and widespread deployment of its hardware in the U.S., Europe, and China. However, Huang warned that U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI processors could severely weaken Nvidia's global influence and accelerate the rise of competing ecosystems, especially from China.
Companies like Huawei, Biren Technology, InnoSilicon, and Moore Threads are developing capable AI processors, and Huawei, in particular, has built a full-stack alternative to CUDA called CANN, which is designed for its Ascend processors and CloudMatrix 384 systems. While these rivals currently face usability and compatibility challenges, their position is expected to strengthen if U.S. firms are locked out of key markets.
AMD is a significantly smaller player on the AI market than Nvidia and, therefore, will not suffer from the ban on sales of American processors to China as extensively as its bigger rival. Nonetheless, AMD is considered a strong contender for becoming a big AI player, so it clearly will suffer from strict U.S. export rules. More importantly, just like Nvidia, AMD promotes American AI technology standards, so its absence from Chinese or European markets will help competing standards to establish and thrive, eventually threatening American dominance in the AI sector.
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