China is planning to speed up its efforts to build a legion of talent and win the battle to develop homegrown technologies, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) pledged at the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade National Congress on Sunday, but new US restrictions issued a week earlier are already undercutting those plans.
The latest salvo of sanctions by US President Joe Biden’s administration includes restrictions on so-called US persons supporting the development, production or use of integrated circuits at some chip plants in China.
Effective from Wednesday last week, the measures are broad enough to encompass holders of US green cards, as well as US residents and citizens, capturing a wide swath of senior executives at Chinese semiconductor firms.
Foreign-born designers and engineers, along with Chinese with foreign passports or residency, have long played an instrumental role in the nation’s technological development.
In consumer electronics, Huawei Technologies Co (華為) accelerated its efforts to catch up to the iPhone by hiring former Apple Inc creative director Abigail Brody as its chief designer in 2015. The company also recruited internationally to build up its in-house chip and audio engineering and 5G wireless technology.
Six of the seven key research and development executives of China’s leading semiconductor equipment maker Piotech Inc (拓荊科技) are US citizens, it said in its Star Markets filing early this year.
Many in Piotech’s top management, including its chairman and general manager, are also Americans.
Previously, US measures to rein in China’s ascent have focused on a particular technology — such as banning Huawei from accessing advanced chipmaking by the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) — but the new personnel restriction aims to deprive China of a deep pool of experience obtained in the US.
“The control on ‘US person’ is the biggest surprise to us from the announcement,” Bernstein analysts, including Stacy Rasgon, wrote. “Some Chinese companies have been progressing better, often thanks to founding members or executives bringing their experience from years of working in the US. Many of them hence are US citizens or green card holders.”
Anyone falling under the classification now requires a license to continue working in China or in support of chipmakers there, with a heavy burden of proof to show that their work will not go toward military end uses.
Given the variety of applications for any given semiconductor, it is challenging for Americans to prove that they would not be aiding China’s military, Bernstein said.
Firms such as Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV have now prohibited US staff from supporting Chinese customers, dashing hopes in Beijing that international chip industry players would remain neutral.
Meanwhile, Beijing-based semiconductor equipment maker Naura Technology Group Co (北方華創科技集團) has told its US employees in China to withdraw from component and machinery development to comply with Washington’s restrictions, the South China Morning Post reported.
Citigroup Inc analysts said in a note about the new set of US rules that Naura and fellow domestic chipmaking gear provider Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc (中微半導體設備) “both believe that even though it applies to their staffs with US citizenship or Green Cards, those staffs should still be allowed to participate in the development or production of mature-node ICs.”
Still, the US curbs are a roadblock for China’s bid to achieve technological self-sufficiency. The measures not only cut the country’s access to advanced chips used in supercomputers and artificial intelligence research, such as those provided by Nvidia Corp, but also impede the arrival of researchers and engineers capable of designing such systems within its borders.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
RSS