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.
Photo: Reuters
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) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
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