The administration of US President Joe Biden is considering moves that would restrict US investment in Chinese technology companies amid growing tensions between the two countries, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The investment curbs taking shape would likely come as an executive order to be signed by Biden in the coming months, one of the people said.
A separate action against TikTok, a hugely popular video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), is possible, but no action is imminent, the person added.
Photo: Reuters
The US Department of Commerce might place further restrictions on chips used for artificial intelligence computing, they said..
The White House is in discussions with the US Congress on legislation requiring companies to disclose planned investments in certain Chinese industries, the other person said.
Among options being discussed is the establishment of a system that would give the US government the authority to block investments outright, the second person said.
The executive order would be part of a broader strategy, they said, adding that the US recently curbed sales of semiconductors to China and Russia.
Last month, Biden signed into law a broad competition measure that includes about US$52 billion to bolster domestic semiconductor research and development.
The White House declined to comment on Friday.
TikTok representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The commerce department expects to by the end of the year have an update on steps to protect Americans’ data from foreign-owned apps, the department’s press office said earlier this week.
US companies are under increasing government scrutiny over what they sell to China, whose electronics factories and consumers make it the biggest buyer of chips.
Washington has been tightening restrictions on sales to the country, arguing that it represents a security risk.
Nvidia Corp shares tumbled on Thursday after the chipmaker said new rules on the export of some artificial intelligence chips could affect hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
The executive order might be intended to address some of the concerns contemplated in the draft “national critical capabilities defense act” introduced by US senators John Cornyn and Bob Casey, Biden administration sources said on condition of anonymity.
The US has up to now pursued a patchwork policy that has stopped short of flat-out locking Chinese firms out of the chip industry.
It has concentrated on singling out individual companies, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), that it has accused of being a threat to national security.
Both companies deny the allegations.
Recent steps indicate that the administration is leaning toward a more hawkish stance of banning Chinese access to whole swaths of technology, experts have said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan. The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for Congress said that according to the US Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, 41 US military personnel were assigned for duty in Taiwan. Although the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 included a vow to withdraw a military presence from Taiwan, “observers have indicated
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,