US chip-export ban throws wrench into China AI works

The development of China’s artificial intelligence sector is likely to be slowed within the coming few years with the United States’ brand new ban on exports of several expensive chips made by Nvidia and AMD, state Chinese IT professionals.

Nvidia said last Friday it had been informed by the ALL OF US government that it must stop exporting the graphics processing unit (GPU) chips, namely A100 and H100, to China plus Russia. It said its DGX, an AI server, seemed to be barred from being shipped to The far east if an unit contained the two chips.  

At the same time, media reports said the united states had also limited sales of AMD’s MI250 Accelerator AI chip to The far east.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the US had typically exerted its “sci-tech hegemony” plus violated the rules of the market economy with its latest chip-export restrictions.

Most IT columnists and professionals in mainland The far east said the prohibit would deal great blow to China’s AI sector, which usually currently relies on Nvidia and AMD chips. A few said that, due to the ban, Chinese IT giants would enhance expenses in research and development to make their own AI chips.

Last October, US Industry Representative Katherine Tai said the US would “deploy all equipment and explore the introduction of new ones, including through collaboration to economies and countries, ” to address essential concerns related to China’s trade practices.

Tai said Tiongkok had already dominated the world’s metal and solar cell production through the “unfair” policies plus was planning to the actual same in the semiconductor industry by 2030.

She said the US had to have a new, holistic plus pragmatic approach in the relationship with China and taiwan.

US Trade Representative Katharine Tai. Photo: US-China Business Council

Last 30 days, the US Department associated with Commerce’s Bureau associated with Industry and Safety banned the export to China associated with electronic computer-aided design (ECAD) software  that is used for designing 3-nanometer (nm) chips.

Handel Jones, owner and chief executive of International Business Methods (IBS), wrote in a report that the prohibit would have an impact for the trade between China and the US more than the combined influence of all other activities taken to date.

Jones said the limitation on software program affected certain EDA tools for gate-all-around, a transistor framework, including the 2nm technology of TSMC plus Intel as well as the 3nm and 2nm systems of Samsung Electronics.

He additional that the restriction would certainly also hurt ALL OF US companies as they would lose sales in the China market.

In early 2020, Washington had already ended the Netherlands from exporting its extreme ultraviolet (uv) (EUV) lithography apparatus to China, meaning that China could not bulk produce high-end potato chips between 22 nm and 7nm since then.

Hong Shibin, an IT industry expert, wrote in an article on August 15: “The US desires China to be stopped at 5-nm in chip design and 7-nm in nick manufacturing so China’s growth in high-speed computing and AI will slow. ”

On Aug 9, US Leader Joe Biden agreed upon the CHIPS and Science Act to improve domestic semiconductor production and scientific research to enhance US competition vis-a-vis China. The new law grants US$54 billion of financial assistance and tax advantages to US-based nick makers over the following five years.

Last week, when the US government ordered Nvidia and AMD to stop exporting their GPU and AI potato chips to China plus Russia, it told Nvidia that the A100 and H100 chips could be utilized in, or diverted in order to, a “military finish use” or “military end user” in the two countries. -nvidia said it failed to sell products in order to customers in The ussr.

Chinese IT columnist Li Wei stated China’s internet giants would no longer be able to get the most cutting-edge potato chips from Nvidia and AMD, meaning that their developments in high-speed computing and AI would be slowed. Li said it would be challenging for these companies to maintain their advantages in the global AI sector.

In the 3 months ended July 31 this year, Nvidia’s revenue from the data center segment jumped 61% to US$3. 81 billion from a year ago. That accounted for 57% from the company’s total income.

Statistic. com said Nvidia generated 26. 4% of its revenue from China in the fiscal year ended January 30, compared to 31. 7% through Taiwan and sixteen. 2% from the ALL OF US.

Nvidia includes a eighty. 6% share in the global market for artificial intelligence processors used in the cloud and in data centers within 2020, according to Omdia, a data company.

In recent years, several AI chip manufacturers have been emerging in China domestically. Cambrian Technologies Corp and Changsha Jingjia Microelectronics Co Ltd have been listed in Shanghai in china and Shenzhen, correspondingly. Newcomers include Biren Technology, Moore Strings, Iluvatar CoreX plus Shanghai Enflame Technologies.

Zhao Lidong, chief executive and creator of Shanghai Enflame Technology, said in the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in china on September one that Chinese chip makers were lagging behind their alternatives in the US and Europe, which had invested decades in research and development.

Zhao Lidong, chief executive and founder of Shanghai Enflame Technology. Photo: Yicai Global

However , Zhao additional that he believed Chinese language chip-design firms would certainly succeed one day when they continued to innovate over the long run.

Guo Yiwu, Secretary-General of Shanghai Incorporated Circuit Industry Organization, said it would have a very long time for Chinese language GPU makers in order to catch up with Nvidia. Guo said Chinese potato chips could only contend with the international ones in a few areas.

Chinese media reports mentioned Cambrian, established in 2016, had been an increasing star in the industry a couple of years ago as its neural processing unit (NPU) module was used as a part of Huawei Kirin 970 in 2017.

They said Cambrian got burnt more than two billion yuan (US$288 million) in R& D between 2017 and 2020 however the company had confronted a widening loss after its main customer Huawei Technologies shifted to use its very own Da Vinci AI chip architecture within 2020.

An IT columnist declared that what Chinese chip makers lack is not really the technology required to design high-end chipsets but , rather, a good ecosystem that could assistance their growth.

Since Chinese internet giants now can not obtain the most advanced GPUs from the US, he or she said, they will enhance their investments to help make their own AI chips. He said Baidu’s Kunlun, Alibaba’s RISC-V and Tencent’s Zixiao AI chips are usually catching up.

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Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at  @jeffpao3