The US further restricts the import of microchips and puts the Artificial Intelligence market on alert

The US further restricts the import of microchips and puts the Artificial Intelligence market on alert

The United States announced on Monday new export rules for advanced computer chips used to Artificial intelligence (IA), in a new effort by the Joe Biden government to make it difficult for China and other rivals of Washington to access these components.

The restrictions are in addition to those announced in 2023 on the export of certain AI chips to China, a country that the United States sees as a strategic competitor in the field of advanced semiconductors.

“The United States leads the world in AI now, both in developing AI and designing chips for AI, and it is critical that we continue that way,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters.

This decision sparked an angry reaction from Beijing as well as criticism from the industry and warnings about an impact on US competitiveness.

China declared on Monday that the new restrictions imposed by the United States are a “flagrant violation” of international trade rules.

The announcement “is another example of the generalization of the concept of national security and the abuse of export control, and constitutes a flagrant violation of international economic and trade rules,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

For his part, the executive director of the Semiconductor Industry Association, John Neuffer, said in a statement: “We are deeply disappointed that a change of this magnitude and impact is being made days before a presidential transition and without any significant input. (requested from) the industry”.

He added that the decision could cause “lasting damage to the US economy and global competitiveness” by ceding key markets to rivals.

The giant of the sector, Nvidia, He noted in a blog that “disguised as an ‘anti-China’ measure, these rules will do nothing to improve US security.”

These new rules will take effect in 120 days, Raimondo said. Republican Donald Trump will take office next week, on January 20.

The new regulations update controls on chips, requiring special authorizations for their export, re-export and transfers within the United States, while including a series of exceptions for countries considered allies.

Meanwhile, AI data centers will have to comply with strengthened security parameters to be able to import chips.

Found visions

According to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the new rules make it “difficult” for “strategic competitors (of the United States) to use smuggling and remote access to evade export controls.” “.

They also create “incentives for our friends and allies around the world to use trusted providers of advanced artificial intelligence,” he stated.

Nvidia, meanwhile, indicated that the first Trump administration showed how the United States “wins through innovation, competition and sharing our technologies with the world, not by hiding behind a wall of government power.”

Although Trump imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese imports during his first term – a scheme that threatens to become widespread for US trade during his second presidency – his supporters in Silicon Valley could see the new rules dictated by an outgoing Democratic administration as a unnecessary obstacle to their ability to export products.

Source: Ambito

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