The U.S. Government is reportedly planning to add "a number of Chinese chipmaking companies" to its ever-expanding export blacklist, a move that could only be prevented by the prospect of a long-trade agreement with China. As reported by the Financial Times, the commerce department has compiled a list of companies to add to its list, notably including China memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory (CXMT).
The Financial Times claims the information comes from five people familiar with the matter, all of whom say the commerce department is proposing the addition of CXMT and others to the dreaded entity list.
The list, drafted by the Bureau of Industry and Security, reportedly includes subsidiaries of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, China's biggest chipmaker and memory chipmaker respectively, both of which are already listed.
The only reprieve for the company's could come from the recently-announced China and US trade deal. Announced in Geneva, the two have reached an agreement to rescind reciprocal tariffs for 90 days in the hopes of striking a more permanent and broader deal.
According to the report, officials have argued that adding more Chinese companies to the list could upset negotiations.
In March, the U.S. expanded the trade blacklist and closed subsidiary loopholes, adding some 80 entities to the list. 12 organizations including 11 in China are involved in AI and supercomputing, specifically tied to China's military. Seven of those were involved in quantum tech development for military application, while two had supplied restricted components to Huawei and HiSilicon, both of which are blacklisted.
It comes as the U.S. government also issued a global crackdown on the use of Huawei's Ascend AI chips, which it says violates export controls.
CXMT began producing DDR5 memory in December 2024, the first China-made DDR5 aimed at consumer PCs. CXMT was also one of a number of companies added to a list of Chinese companies allegedly linked to the People's Liberation Army by the U.S. Defense Department in January.
As the report notes, American companies are prohibited from selling to Chinese companies on the entity list without a license, due to concerns China is using American technology to support military development of hypersonic missiles and the modelling of nuclear weapons.
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