U.S. semiconductor company Nvidia is offering a new advanced chip to Chinese customers that complies with the Commerce Department’s new export restrictions (see 2210070049), a company spokesperson said Nov. 8. The person said Nvidia's new A800 chip, which recently went into production, is designed to meet U.S. licensing requirements. "The NVIDIA A800 GPU, which went into production in Q3, is another alternative product to the NVIDIA A100 GPU for customers in China," the spokesperson said in a Nov. 8 email. "The A800 meets the U.S. Government’s clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it." The spokesperson declined to say if Nvidia had confirmed with Commerce whether the chip complies with U.S. export regulations. Reuters first reported the new chip.
A U.S. hardware supplier said it may have violated U.S. export controls by selling to a Chinese foundry on the Entity List. MaxLinear, which sells highly integrated radio-frequency analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, disclosed it submitted an "initial notification" of voluntary self-disclosure to the Bureau of Industry and Security in October and its sale may have violated the Export Administration Regulations because it never obtained a license.
Beijing-based lawyer Robert Lewis and Lexology on Nov. 3 published a summary and an outline of a recent Chinese webinar on the new U.S. semiconductor and advanced computing export controls (see 2210070049). The webinar, hosted by Chinese law firm Chance Bridge and Renmin University last month, discussed strategies for Chinese companies to manage the new restrictions. Speakers discussed how the new controls differ from restrictions placed on Huawei, what types of technology are subject to the new restrictions, how Chinese companies can work around the controls and more.
U.S. chip companies may need to wait as long as nine months before the U.S. can come to an agreement with allies on multilateral China chip controls, Bloomberg reported Nov. 3. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, speaking last week to Lam Research, KLA and other chip companies, said the U.S. is working on an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan, but such a deal could take six to nine months, the report said.
Qualcomm this week said it’s not affected by the U.S.’s new semiconductor export controls against China (see 2210070049) and that its business operations in the country remain steady. “The latest set of restrictions, we were not impacted by those,” CEO Cristiano Amon said during a Nov. 2 earnings call. “We have seen our business in China continue to expand.”
The U.S. and the Netherlands are planning this month to hold a new round of discussions on export controls, including restrictions to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductor technologies, Bloomberg reported Nov. 2. Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez will travel to the Netherlands as part of the talks, the report said, as will senior U.S. National Security Council official Tarun Chhabra. The U.S. will try to convince the Netherlands to expand its export controls on shipments of chip technologies to China, the report said, although officials don’t expect an agreement to come from the discussions. The meeting comes as BIS tries to convince allies to join the U.S in imposing new export restrictions designed to restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors (see 2210070049). A BIS spokesperson declined to comment, and the White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Japan has begun “internal discussions” on whether it should join the U.S. in imposing export controls on advanced semiconductors and other technologies destined to China, Nikkei reported Nov. 1. Officials in Tokyo are “weighing which restrictions can be adopted in Japan, and will watch how other U.S. allies such as the European Union and South Korea respond,” the report said. Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez recently said he’s confident U.S. allies will eventually impose similar controls (see 2210270047), which set sweeping new license restrictions to limit China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors (see 2210070049).
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently posted a written version of its Oct. 13 live briefing on its new China-related export controls (see 2210130009 and 2210070049). The document includes BIS's rationale for imposing the new restrictions, an overview of what the license requirements cover and some "general" questions and answers.
The Biden administration is discussing new export controls to further limit China’s ability to acquire powerful emerging computing technologies, Bloomberg reported Oct. 20. The discussions, which are at an “early stage,” could lead to new controls on quantum computing technologies and artificial intelligence software, the report said, and industry experts are providing input on “how to set the parameters of the restrictions.” The White House and Commerce Department didn’t comment.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 19 completed interagency review for a final rule that would implement certain export control decisions made during the 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement cycle. The rule, sent for review Aug. 4 (see 2208080021), will revise the Commerce Control List and corresponding parts of the Export Administration Regulations, including License Exception Adjusted Peak Performance, BIS said.