US looking to impose new round of sanctions on chip exports to China

Huawei made big headlines with the launch of its Mate 60 series phones, namely for the Kirin 9000s chip powering the new devices. Despite the US sanctions, Huawei managed to equip its latest Mate phones with 5G capable chipsets manufactured in China which raised plenty of concerns. Several teardowns revealed even more components that Huawei had no business accessing under the current sanctions like SK Hynix RAM. A new report from Reuters claims that the Biden administration is now looking to implement a new round of sanctions to avert chip exports to China that were not previously blacklisted.

Huawei Mate 60 Pro motherboard with Kirin 9000s chip

The report cites an unnamed U.S. official and claims that AI chips will be the main target in the new round of sanctions. According to the new report, the US will impose its upcoming chip bans based on technical parameters targeting a wider array of AI chips from being exported to China.

Chips meant for consumer electronics devices will not be targeted by the new curbs but US-based semiconductor manufacturers will need to inform the US Commerce Department when they are filling orders for their most powerful products to companies based in China. The agency will then look at each case and decide whether the chip exports may pose a threat for national security. The US is also looking to establish a new “performance density parameter” for chip exports that will aim to prevent future workarounds on chip exports to China.

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