Trump administration could add CXMT and other Chinese chipmakers to ever-expanding export blacklist
According to those familiar with the matter, it includes subsidiaries of SMIC
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.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
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.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
-
urn66 It is sad the USA cannot compete and always reports to the flimsy excuse of "national security" to kneecap China.This has been going on for years.Reply
Step 1 - Unblock chip sales to everywhere but China to help Nvidia, AMD & Intel happy
Step 2 - Double-down on the China sanctions to try to isolate it
Step 3 - Add CXMY to the Huawei" pariah list for special focus in US government war against innovation
Pathetic. Why? It won't work. As Jensen Huang recently noted, China is on par or leading in many areas, and thus was done the hard way, not as a copy-cat.
Long-game wins. China produces a high multiple of STEM graduated or USA & EU combined each year and US dirty-tricks is no challenge for this human capital. -
EyadSoftwareEngineer Reply
Well said!, the US is declining and lost it place as a super power to China, specially regarding manufacturing capacity,urn66 said:It is sad the USA cannot compete and always reports to the flimsy excuse of "national security" to kneecap China. This has been going on for years.
Step 1 - Unblock chip sales to everywhere but China to help Nvidia, AMD & Intel happy
Step 2 - Double-down on the China sanctions to try to isolate it
Step 3 - Add CXMY to the Huawei" pariah list for special focus in US government war against innovation
Pathetic. Why? It won't work. As Jensen Huang recently noted, China is on par or leading in many areas, and thus was done the hard way, not as a copy-cat.
Long-game wins. China produces a high multiple of STEM graduated or USA & EU combined each year and US dirty-tricks is no challenge for this human capital.
US can't enforce it law on sovereign countries to not use China chips, and this is even leading more to decline of the dollar as now countries finding aways and solutions to avoid using it.