[Source/Observer Network, Wang Yi] Faced with China's consecutive major breakthroughs in the field of advanced chips, the flustered Trump administration has set its sights on the software used to design chips, hoping to suppress the "Chinese chip" through this means. The Financial Times reported on May 28 that the US government has taken measures to restrict the sale of such products to China.
The American Bloomberg also obtained relevant information, citing sources familiar with the matter as saying that the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security sent letters to some leading US electronic design automation (EDA) companies on the 23rd, requesting them to suspend shipments to Chinese customers. The Financial Times said that Synopsys of the United States, Cadence, and Siemens EDA are all giants in the industry, and it is unclear whether every US EDA company received the letter.
After related reports were released, Cadence's stock fell by 10.7% on the same day, the largest single-day drop since March 2020. Synopsys' stock also fell by 9.6%.
Bloomberg said that it is currently unknown how extensive the impact of the latest US government restrictions will be, but this may mean banning these companies from doing business in China. Synopsys earns 16% of its revenue from China, while Cadence has approximately 12% of its business in China.
Sassine Ghazi, CEO of Synopsys, said on a financial report conference call on the 28th that they had learned of the report, but Synopsys had not yet received a notice from the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. "We cannot speculate on the impact of notices we have not yet received," he said. Cadence declined to comment, and Siemens EDA did not immediately respond to media requests for comments.
Photo of Sassine Ghazi, CEO of Synopsys [file photo]
"The Ministry of Commerce is reviewing exports of strategic importance to China," the US Department of Commerce responded. "In some cases, the Ministry of Commerce suspended existing export licenses during the review period or imposed additional license requirements."
The Financial Times reported last month that the Trump administration was planning to place some Chinese chip manufacturers on a blacklist, making it extremely difficult for US companies to provide them with technology. However, the newspaper said that some US officials were concerned that this would affect trade negotiations between the two countries at the time, so the decision was postponed.
Christopher Johnson, who previously served as a Central Intelligence Agency analyst on China affairs, believed that the latest restrictive measures indicate that although the two sides temporarily agreed to a tariff ceasefire, the Trump administration wanted to retain and continue to demonstrate its ability to suppress China.
He said that China's successful use of rare earth elements brought the United States to the negotiating table in Geneva, which made the hardline anti-China factions in the Trump administration "eager to prove that their export control weapons are still effective."
The Financial Times pointed out that although EDA software accounts for a relatively small share of the entire semiconductor industry, it allows chip designers and manufacturers to develop and test next-generation chips, making it a critical part of the supply chain.
EDA refers to the design method of using computer-aided design software to complete the functional design, synthesis, verification, physical design (including layout, routing, layout, design rule checks, etc.) of very large-scale integrated circuit chips, and is called the "mother of chips".
A chip designer once explained to the Securities Times of China that chip design is like "building skyscrapers on a hair", and without EDA software, designing advanced chips for chip designers would be equivalent to manually drawing blueprints for millions of construction sites, which is obviously a pipe dream.
When Trump first took office as president, he banned Chinese technology enterprises such as Huawei from using US EDA software to curb the development of advanced chips by Huawei. After Biden took office, the US went to great lengths to suppress China's ambition to develop advanced chips, cutting off China's access to equipment for manufacturing the most advanced electronic components, and gradually expanding the scope of chip export controls to ban the most advanced chips from entering China. This year, the second Trump administration initiated another round of restrictive measures, banning NVIDIA from selling its H20 chips to Chinese customers, and recently issued an announcement stating that "using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world violates US export controls."
Despite this, many analysts and industry insiders, including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, believe that US restrictions on chips against China have failed. Huang said that this has caused far more harm to American companies than to China, and NVIDIA has lost $15 billion as a result.
Paul Triolo, partner and senior vice president of DGA Group for the China region, said that US export control measures "are creating competitors for yourself while cutting off leading enterprises from China's vast market." "Control measures incentivize China to achieve self-sufficiency in the supply chain."
At the beginning of this year, China's AI large model DeepSeek emerged, achieving comparable results to global top models at an extremely low price, causing a huge earthquake in the AI research field. Now, this breakthrough achieved by China in the AI field is bringing new changes to the semiconductor industry and the EDA niche field.
Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, recently told the Securities Times that AI can optimize the chip design process through machine learning algorithms, improving design efficiency and accuracy. For example, AI algorithms can be applied to simulation verification, placement and routing, and other stages of EDA tools, accelerating the design process and reducing error rates. AI can also help EDA companies achieve intelligent transformation, enhancing product competitiveness and market share.
It was reported that many Chinese EDA vendors are stepping up their layouts, adopting AI technology. Currently, the progress of domestic EDA exceeds expectations.
In response to the US abuse of export control measures, He Yongqian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said on May 15 that the US side abused export control measures, imposing unwarranted restrictions on Chinese chip products, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, seriously threatening the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain, and severely undermining market rules and international economic and trade order. This move by the US side is detrimental to long-term, mutually beneficial, and sustainable cooperation and development between both parties.
"The Chinese side urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous practices and will take firm measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," He Yongqian said.
This article is an exclusive article by Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7509753503070306867/
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