The two authors of a bipartisan bill to boost U.S. technology competitiveness were lukewarm this week about the prospect of allocating more export control resources to the Commerce Department and stopped short of promising it more money, with one calling on the agency to be more efficient with what it has. And while they said they support Commerce’s updated China-related semiconductor export controls, they also said the U.S. should devote as much attention to expanding trade with close allies as it does to restricting trade with adversaries.
The U.S. likely will face challenges trying to place export controls on RISC-V, an open-source semiconductor architecture that policymakers fear China may use to evade export restrictions and leapfrog their U.S. competitors, Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology said this week.
The House Select Committee on China has sent letters to the chief executives of U.S. chipmakers Intel, Nvidia and Micron Technology asking them to testify before the panel about the challenges their industry faces, a person close to the committee said Jan. 12, confirming a Financial Times report. A hearing date has not yet been determined, the person said.
The Commerce Department plans to announce a “department-wide” strategy in the “weeks ahead” that will address its major priorities in national security, Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves said on Jan. 9.
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The U.S. should push for export controlled semiconductors to be installed with a mechanism that would automatically bar those chips from being used in ways that violate U.S. export restrictions, researchers said in a new report this week. They said this would significantly aid export enforcement efforts and could potentially allow compliant chip companies to sell to a broader range of customers.
The Bureau of Industry and Security published a new set of frequently asked questions for its recently updated semiconductor export controls (see 2310170055), offering guidance on the agency’s new export notification requirement, its controls on U.S. persons activities, the scope of its end-use controls, direction for electronic export information filers and more. The FAQs also give input on several export scenarios that may require a license and preview at least one export control revision that BIS plans to make.
The Netherlands “partially revoked” an ASML export license that allowed the Dutch chip equipment maker to send certain advanced semiconductor equipment to China, ASML said Jan. 1. The company said it now faces new restrictions on exports of NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China, which it said will affect a “small number” of customers in the country.