US Chip Giant CEOs Reported to Lobby Against Washington Curbs on China

BEIJING, July 17 (TiPost)— Heads of American semiconductor giants were reported to lunch a lobbying in Washington, highlighting the industry-wide deep concern on increasing tech curbs on China.

Credit：Visual China

The chief executive officers (CEOs) of three leading U.S. chip companies–Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp. are planning their private visits to Washington this week, with an aim to lobby against further restrictions on semiconductor-related exports to China, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter. These chief executives don’t expect prevent introduction of all the curbs, but they found it is an opportunity to convince the Biden administration that extension of restrictions will be harmful for latest diplomatic efforts of White House to improve high-level dialogue and establish a more productive relationship with China, according to the report. Fortune reported that the CEOs are making their last –ditch effort to stop new curbs on their sales to China.

A Reuters report also cited its unanimous sources about chip leaders’ trip this week. It said CEOs of Intel and Qualcomm planned to travel to Washington and hold meetings with officials to discuss market conditions, export controls and other matters affecting their businesses. The sources didn’t reveal whom these CEOs are going to meet.

In its statement on Monday, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) of the United States called on Beijing and Washington to ease tensions and seek solutions through dialogue, not further escalation. The industry body urged U.S. government to refrain from further restrictions until it engages more extensively with industry and experts to assess the impact of current and potential restrictions. It warned that the restrictions imposed by the Biden administration “risk diminishing the U.S. semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China”.

The reported lobbying came as more and more signs signaled U.S. government would soon announce new curbs on China. Chipmakers including Nvidia, a dominator of the market for artificial intelligence (AI) chips that empower systems behind ChatGPT, fear a permanent loss of sales as the industry has large amounts of business in China, Reuters noted.  

The Wall Street Journal reported late June that the Biden administration is considering new curbs on the exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, including stopping the chip shipments made by U.S. companies to customers in China and other countries concerned without first obtaining a license,. The U.S. Commerce Department could reportedly announce the move as soon as early July, affecting all the American chipmakers such as Nvidia, AMD and Micron Technology. And the restrictions the department is reportedly mulling would even ban sales of A800 without a license. Nvidia has modified some of flagship products including A100 and H100 for exports to China earlier this year, including an alternative A800 chip, as the U.S. regulators last year banned it from selling its most advanced chips to the country.

The United States and the Dutch are set to deliver a one-two punch to China this summer by further restricting sales of chipmaking equipment, Reuters reported late June. While the Netherlands announced new restrictions on exports of certain equipment from ASML and other companies based in the country soon after the report, the U.S. could reportedly introduce new curbs by late July to withhold even more Dutch-made equipments exported to Chinese chipmakers. 

Earlier this month, another Wall Street Journal report said the U.S. government is weighing a new rule that could require Amazon, Microsoft and other American cloud service providers to apply for government permission if they want to continue their services used for AI chips to Chinese customers, and the Department of Commerce could unveil the rule in the upcoming weeks. The rule was said to aim to close a significant loophole in U.S. chip export controls. Cloud services allow Chinese companies to gain computing capabilities even they didn’t import cutting-edge technologies from U.S., such as A100, a powerful AI chip made by Nvidia, according to the report.

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