French media: Why did the US approve NVIDIA's resumption of exports of advanced chips to China

Before the CEO of the American tech giant NVIDIA, Huang Renxun, visited Beijing, his company announced the resumption of sales of an advanced electronic chip used for artificial intelligence. So why did Washington lift this chip export ban now?

At the time when Trump launched a trade war on April 2nd, and the confrontation between the US and China escalated step by step, Huang Renxun was constantly traveling between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. In April, he visited China and discussed with Shanghai the establishment of an advanced chip research and development center. In May, during the Taipei International Computer Show, he directly pointed out that the policy decided in the Biden era to restrict the export of advanced chips to China had "failed."

Huang Renxun said, "50% of the AI researchers in the world are Chinese, you can't stop them, you can't prevent them from advancing AI development." He also worried, "In this era of global diffusion of AI technology, if we don't compete in China, let China build up a strong technical ecosystem, then emerging platforms will no longer be American, and China's technology and leadership will spread around the world."

In business terms, Huang Renxun said that the additional ban on H20 chips cost the company a high price.

So why did the US government allow it? Sachs, Trump's AI advisor, defended it on Tuesday, saying on CNBC that the H20 chip is an "outdated component" and "far from representing the essence of today's technology."

Is this an excuse? The H20 is not the most advanced chip, but it is still quite advanced.

He said that the "remarkable progress" of Chinese companies in chips may threaten the dominant position of American giants, which is also the reason for the US to make changes.

This reason is consistent with NVIDIA's logic.

China is an important market for NVIDIA, but recent US export restrictions have intensified competition from Chinese domestic companies such as Huawei.

Sachs said, "We don't want to sell our most advanced technology to China, but I think we should at least make it difficult for Chinese companies to develop their research."

This should be the most genuine intention of the US government.

Sachs finally said, in short, resuming the export of chips to China is related to the ongoing Sino-US trade negotiations.

It sounds a bit helpless, but it is a very important factor.

During the most intense period of Sino-US trade confrontation, the US suddenly agreed to sit down for negotiations in early May. A very important reason was related to China's rare earth export ban, a metal indispensable in semiconductor, military products, and automotive industries.

According to reports, in the current negotiations, China has also made the resumption of chip exports by the US a condition for resuming rare earth exports.

Will the US permanently lift the chip export ban to China? The founder of the Chinese professional website eetrend told AFP: "Chinese enterprises should continue to focus on developing their own advanced chips in the future, because the Trump administration can suddenly change its policies, so it is difficult to predict how long this opening will last."

Source: rfi

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1837760648102912/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.