The US has also banned the export of chip design software to China.

The US government notified manufacturers to interrupt exports... with the aim of blocking China's self-reliance in AI chips.

It is reported that the Donald Trump administration has expanded the export control measures for hardware such as chip products and equipment to the software field. On the 23rd, the Bureau of Industry and Security under the US Department of Commerce issued a notice to major electronic design automation (EDA) companies, requiring them to stop selling related products to Chinese enterprises. EDA is core software used in the chip design process, and US companies dominate the majority of the global market share. In other words, to prevent China from achieving self-reliance in artificial intelligence (AI) chips, it is necessary to add technical-level restrictions on top of restricting product or equipment exports.

It is reported that the export control targets this time include the three major global EDA companies, namely Cadence Design Systems of the United States, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA under Siemens AG of Germany. These three companies account for more than 70% of the global market and 80% of China's market share. It is not yet publicly known whether this control measure involves a complete ban on all software sales or an expansion of the export control product list. Bloomberg reported: "In fact, it may be possible to ban all business in China."

The purpose of this measure by the Trump administration is to further exert pressure on China in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). After the US government banned the export of advanced chips such as those from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to China, Huawei led the way in launching its own AI chips, attempting to break through US restrictions. The US government believes that to prevent China from achieving self-reliance in AI chips, simply restricting product exports is insufficient; additional technical-level restrictions are needed. In 2022, the previous Biden administration also restricted the export of chip design software to China, but these three companies have continued to sell low-end products to China. Regarding this, the UK Financial Times commented: "This is a tough move by the US to contain China's development of AI chips as a geopolitical rival."

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1833511958569991/

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