The U.S. and South Korea launched a new working group this week to better harmonize the countries’ export control decisions and ensure a “level-playing field” for businesses. BIS said it hopes the working group will help both sides identify “specific actions” to “advance export controls cooperation.” The announcement comes about a month after the U.S. issued a range of new semiconductor-related restrictions on exports to China -- controls that the U.S. hopes to convince allies, including South Korea, to also impose (see 2210270047 and 2210070049).
The new U.S. chip controls against China (see 2210070049 and 2211010042) mark a “major escalation” in the U.S.-China technology war and will likely have a significant effect on China’s technology capabilities, Bank of America said this week. The bank also warned that the controls, which are “more comprehensive and stricter than what we have seen in the past,” could ultimately open the “door to more sweeping restrictions in other domains like leading edge manufacturing.”
In a reversal, Germany now plans to block the purchase of Dortmund-based semiconductor company Elmos by Sweden’s Silex, a subsidiary of China's Sai Microelectronics, Elmos said this week. Elmos said Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection had previously told both parties that the transaction was “likely to be approved,” according to an unofficial translation of a Nov. 7 statement. Elmos said the deal will “probably be prohibited in the upcoming cabinet meeting on November 9, 2022.”
Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology released a report this week examining China’s artificial intelligence workforce and shedding light on the country's efforts to invest in the AI industry. The report found that more than 30% of the Chinese job postings analyzed by the researchers could be considered AI or AI-related. The report argues that U.S. AI education and workforce policies need to “grow, cultivate, attract, and retain the world’s best and brightest,” and understanding China's AI workforce "could provide U.S. policymakers with important insight.” The findings come about a month after the U.S. announced new restrictions on advanced computing and semiconductor equipment tools, which could be used by China in AI applications (see 2210070049).
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.
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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.
As U.S. chip and technology companies continue to grapple with the U.S’s latest export restrictions on China (see 2211010042), a number of firms fear the controls will hurt their sales and exacerbate uncertainty in the semiconductor sector and the industry’s supply chains. In filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission this month, at least one firm projected revenue losses while others said they are still assessing the impact of the complex controls and whether they can secure export licenses.
Chinese technology companies are “scrambling” to hire engineers from foreign companies that are closing their business in China due to new U.S. export controls (see 2210070049), Nikkei reported Nov. 4. The report said Huawei, Alibaba and other chip developers issued job postings after they learned U.S. chipmaker Marvell planned to lay off hundreds of workers in China. Some Chinese companies are offering to pay a higher-than-expected salary for these workers because “chip talent has never been in more demand and competition for hiring is intense,” a Chengdu-based recruiter told Nikkei.
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.