China wants the US to ease export controls on chips critical for artificial intelligence (AI) as part of a trade deal before a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Financial Times reported yesterday.
Chinese officials have told experts in Washington that Beijing wants the US to relax export restrictions on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
HBM chips, which help perform data-intensive AI tasks quickly, are closely watched by investors due to their use alongside AI graphics processors, particularly Nvidia Corp’s.
Photo: Reuters
The FT said China is concerned because the US HBM controls hamper the ability of Chinese companies such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to develop their own AI chips.
Successive US administrations have curbed exports of advanced chips to China, looking to stymie Beijing’s AI and defense development.
While this has impacted US firms' ability to fully address booming demand from China, one of the world's largest semiconductor markets, it still remains an important revenue driver for American chipmakers.
Separately, a social media account affiliated with China’s state media yesterday said that Nvidia’s H20 chips pose security concerns for China, after Beijing raised concerns over backdoor access in those chips.
The H20 chips are also not technologically advanced or environmentally friendly, the account, Yuyuan Tantian (玉淵譚天), which is affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, said in an article published on WeChat.
"When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it," the article concluded.
Yuyuan Tantian also said Nvidia chips could achieve functions including “remote shutdown” through a hardware “backdoor.”
Yuyuan Tantian’s comment followed criticism against Nvidia by the People’s Daily, another Chinese state media outlet.
In a commentary earlier this month, the People’s Daily said Nvidia must produce “convincing security proofs” to eliminate Chinese users’ worries over security risks in its chips and regain market trust.
Nvidia last week said its products had no “backdoors” that would allow remote access or control.
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