Does card super count as a neck? Biden will restrict exports of chip manufacturing equipment below 14nm to China

Not long after the news that Nvidia A100 was banned, new U.S. sanctions came again...

According to people familiar with the matter, the Biden administration plans to Sanctions on China’s chip manufacturing sector were expanded in March.

In one sentence, it is prohibited to export chip manufacturing equipment to Chinese factories that produce advanced semiconductors below 14nm, unless permitted by the Ministry of Commerce.

One sword to seal the throat

It is said that the U.S. Department of Commerce is brewing, according to a letter previously issued to three U.S. companies. In addition to the restrictions mentioned, a completely new set of regulations was issued. Sources said the regulations could include additional actions against China.

Among them, the three American companies are KLA, Lam Research and Applied Materials.

It is worth noting that the ban issued by the Ministry of Commerce to Nvidia and AMD some time ago will also be included in this new set of regulations.

What is so great about these “informed letters”? They allow the Commerce Department to quickly put controls in place, bypassing the lengthy rule-writing process, but they only apply to companies that receive the letters.

However, if these "informed letters" now become "regulations", the scope of influence will be expanded many times, and American companies that produce similar technologies may be restricted.

Any company that tries to challenge NVIDIA and AMD’s position in the field of AI chips is in danger of being “stuck” by these regulations.

On Friday, a Commerce Department spokesman declined to comment on specific regulations, but reiterated that it was "taking comprehensive measures and implementing additional actions... to protect U.S. national security." and foreign policy interests,” including preventing China from acquiring U.S. technology suitable for military modernization.

A senior Commerce Department official has said: "As a general rule, we hope that any restrictions in the informed letter will be codified into law through regulatory changes."

Among the three companies that received the letter, Lam Research (Lam Group, or Lam Research) is responsible for the production, design, and sales of semiconductor products. The company masters many key technologies for semiconductor equipment, especially equipment and testing capabilities in etching and thin film deposition processes. Therefore, it is listed as an export controlled enterprise by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the sale of etching and thin film deposition products must be approved. It is one of the top three semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world, providing advanced technology and services to semiconductor manufacturers in various countries, with operating bases in 18 countries.

Applied Materials (Applied Materials, referred to as Applied Materials) is the world's largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and services. The main products are chip manufacturing related products, such as atomic layer deposition, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electroplating, etching, ion implantation, rapid heat treatment, chemical mechanical polishing, metrology and silicon wafer inspection, etc., and include supporting software, Quality inspection services are provided to operating customers, such as various semiconductor manufacturers in wafer fabs and screen factories.

KLA provides process control and yield management services related to semiconductor manufacturing. According to Bloomberg data, the world's five largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers in 2018 are Applied Materials (AMAT), ASML (ASML), Tokyo Power Technology (TEL), Lam Research (Lam Research), and KLA (KLA). The five major semiconductor manufacturers accounted for more than 70% of the global semiconductor equipment manufacturing industry in 2018 with their leading technology and strong financial support.

# Under these regulations, shipments of products containing targeted chips to China may require a license, one source said. Data center servers produced by Dell, HP and Super Micro Computer (SMCI) all contain Nvidia's A100 chip.

KLA, Applied Materials and Nvidia declined to comment, while Lam did not respond to requests for comment. AMD did not comment on specific policy moves, but reiterated that it does not believe the new licensing requirements will have a "substantial impact."

The fate of "stuck neck"

In specific technologies, the United States is still in a dominant position. The Biden administration’s plan is to use these technologies to stifle the possibility of China’s progress.

Jim Lewis, a technical expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the United States has discovered that chips are a "stuck" life gate - China is not only unable to manufacture chips, but also cannot even manufacture chips. The equipment used cannot be manufactured either.

As soon as news of restrictions on China emerged last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby group, had warned its members that restrictions on artificial intelligence chips and chipmaking tools were coming.

"We have heard that a series of rules, or an overall rule, will be introduced before the midterm elections. The Ministry of Commerce recently issued an "informed" letter to chip equipment and chip design companies. The guidance will be incorporated into these rules,” the Chamber of Commerce said.

The group also said the Commerce Department plans to add more Chinese supercomputer entities to the trade blacklist.

In July, the Biden administration was already planning to ban the export of chip manufacturing tools to Chinese factories that "manufacture 14-nanometer node and smaller advanced semiconductors."

Sources said that U.S. officials are already actively contacting allies to lobby them to formulate similar policies so that foreign companies can form alliances and comprehensively ban the sale of related technologies to China.

The above is the detailed content of Does card super count as a neck? Biden will restrict exports of chip manufacturing equipment below 14nm to China. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!