Biden administration set to halt shipment of AI chips to China

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WASHINGTON: The Biden administration said today that it plans to halt shipments to China of more advanced artificial intelligence chips designed by Nvidia and others, part of a suite of measures aimed at stopping Beijing from getting cutting-edge US technologies to strengthen its military.

The rules, described by senior administration officials in a press briefing yesterday evening, restricted a broader swathe of advanced chips and chipmaking tools to a greater number of countries including Iran and Russia, and blacklisted Chinese chip designers Moore Thread and Biren.

The new measures aim to hamper China’s military development by closing loopholes in regulations released last October and will probably be updated “at least annually,” according to commerce department secretary Gina Raimondo.

The goal is to limit China’s access to “advanced semiconductors that could fuel breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and sophisticated computers that are critical to (Chinese) military applications,” she said, stressing the administration was not seeking to hurt Beijing economically.

The US and China are locked in a years-long technology war, but the sweeping curbs released last October further escalated tensions between the superpowers.

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