The Commerce Department on Dec. 11 announced its first federal grant under the Chips Act, saying it will award defense contractor BAE Systems about $35 million to improve its chip production facility in Nashua, New Hampshire. The funding was announced about three months after the agency finalized its guardrails for the grants (see 2309220035), which are designed to improve the state and capacity of American semiconductor manufacturing and innovation.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is urging Congress to revisit legislation that would require U.S. firms to report outbound investments that could threaten American national security.
U.S. export controls will slow China’s innovation efforts, but they'll never “stop” the country from advancing technologically, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is studying ways it can place potential export controls on access to advanced open-source software, including artificial intelligence-powered models similar to ChatGPT-4, as well as certain cloud computing services, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said. Although Estevez said no controls are imminent, the agency is working to form a set of export control policy options to address both.
American chip designer Nvidia is working with the Biden administration to make sure its products comply with U.S. export restrictions, CEO Jensen Huang said during a news conference in Singapore this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to overhaul its export control policies to stem the flow of U.S. national security technology that is fueling China’s military modernization, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a report marking the end of a 90-day review of the agency (see 2210030068).
Three days after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her Bureau of Industry and Security needs more funding to handle a surge in export licensing requests (see 2312040041), three key House Republicans said on Dec. 5 that BIS must strengthen its export controls before they will support a budget increase for the agency.
New analysis from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology includes a table of more than 100 types of semiconductors and whether they’re subject to U.S. export licensing requirements. CSET also said a new red flag recently published by the Bureau of Industry and Security could cause foundries to ask more questions of customers seeking to produce advanced chips.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. this week announced new sanctions and export controls against a host of companies and people for violating export restrictions against Russia, including a Belgian businessman and his defense component procurement network. Along with new Treasury Department sanctions, DOJ said it was preparing to release two indictments against the man, Hans De Geetere, and the Bureau of Industry and Security added De Geetere, his affiliated companies and other unrelated parties to the Entity List for illegally supplying Russia’s military and defense industrial base.