The US is preparing to curtail Chinese companies’ access to cloud computing services including Amazon.com Inc’s and Microsoft Corp’s, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Washington is considering requiring cloud providers to seek government permission before serving Chinese firms that employ such platforms to train artificial intelligence (AI) models, the Journal reported.
Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are the global leaders in the business of providing Internet computing to enterprises, and compete in China with the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) through local, state-affiliated data center partners.
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The administration of US President Joe Biden plans to tighten export controls announced in October last year to restrict sales of some AI chips to China, seeking to contain its rival’s development of a technology considered key to the country’s geopolitical and economic future.
Part of the measures under discussion included restricting cloud access for Chinese AI developers, which was first reported by the Journal last week.
Under the broader US Department of Commerce proposal, expected for next month, the US would revise export controls to make it harder to sell some chips to China without a license.
The move is aimed in part at Nvidia Corp’s A800 chip, which the US-based company designed after the earlier controls were announced. The product’s configuration comes just within those limits.
The US and China are escalating their technological conflict. On Monday, Beijing slapped controls on the export of metals critical to the chip, electric vehicle and defense industries, showing it has some power to retaliate against moves by the US, Japan and Europe to cut Beijing off from advanced technology.
The controls on metals, which China said were aimed at protecting national security and its interests, will require exporters to seek permission to ship some gallium and germanium products.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the