Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation on Friday to China, where the group plans to meet with top government and business leaders at a time of rising tensions between the United States and Beijing. Mr. Schumer, who has long taken a tough stand on China, said he would use the trip to appeal to the nation’s top leaders for better economic reciprocity for U.S. companies currently being iced out of Chinese markets and better policing of the export of…
Tag: Computer Chips
How the Big Chip Makers Are Pushing Back on Biden’s China Agenda
A year after the Biden administration took its first major step toward restricting the sale of semiconductors to China, it has begun drafting additional limits aimed at denying Beijing the technology critical to modern-day weapons. But in recent months, its progress has been slowed as American chip companies have pushed back with a blunt warning: Cutting sales to China would gut their businesses and derail the administration’s plan to build new semiconductor factories in the United States. Since July, Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm, three of the world’s largest chip makers,…
What the U.S.-China Chip War Means for a Critical American Ally
Samsung and SK Hynix, the semiconductor titans of South Korea, have spent over $52 billion to build up their operations in China. Business with China has long made up a sizable portion of their sales. But the ties between South Korea’s chip companies and China are under strain from geopolitics. South Korea, which relies heavily on its semiconductor sector for jobs and revenue, is wedged between China and the United States, South Korea’s longstanding ally, in their trade war over technology. To curb China’s access to advanced chips that could…
U.S. Issues Final Rules to Keep Chip Funds Out of China
The Biden administration on Friday issued final rules that would prohibit chip companies vying for a new infusion of federal cash from carrying out certain business expansions, partnerships and research in China, in what it described as an effort to protect United States national security. The regulations come as the Biden administration prepares to disburse more than $52 billion in federal grants and tens of billions of dollars of tax credits to build up the U.S. chip industry. The new rules aim to prevent chip makers that benefit from U.S.…
Senate Committee Backs Bill to Deepen U.S. Economic Ties With Taiwan
The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would deepen economic ties between the United States and Taiwan and effectively create a tax treaty that is expected to pave the way for more Taiwanese investment in the American semiconductor industry. The effort by Congress could inflame tensions between the United States and China at a time when the Biden administration has been working to stabilize the relationship. President Biden dispatched three cabinet officials to Beijing this summer to improve dialogue between the world’s two largest economies. In a…
Huawei Phone Is Latest Shot Fired in the U.S.-China Tech War
In the midst of the U.S. commerce secretary’s good will tour to China last week, Huawei, the telecom giant that faces stiff U.S. trade restrictions, unveiled a smartphone that illustrated just how hard it has been for the United States to clamp down on China’s tech prowess. The new phone is powered by a chip that appears to be the most advanced version of China’s homegrown technology to date — a kind of achievement that the United States has been trying to prevent China from reaching. The timing of its…
Intel Acquisition of Tower Semiconductor Is Scuttled by China
China has effectively scuttled a $5.4 billion deal by Intel, the Silicon Valley semiconductor giant, in the latest sign of the frayed business ties between China and the United States. Intel, which has long had operations in China, said Wednesday that it had “mutually agreed” to terminate a planned merger with Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli chip manufacturer. The announcement came after China’s antitrust regulators failed to rule on the transaction before a deadline set by the companies. The failure of Intel to complete the acquisition of Tower could send a…
The Sunday Read: ‘The Silicon Blockade’
Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher Last October, the United States Bureau of Industry and Security issued a document that, underneath its 139 pages of dense bureaucratic jargon and minute technical detail, amounted to a declaration of economic war on China. The magnitude of the act was made all the more remarkable by the relative obscurity of its source. In recent years, semiconductor chips have become central to the bureau’s work. Despite the immense intricacy of their design, semiconductors are, in a sense, quite simple: tiny…
Biden Orders Ban on U.S. Investments in China’s Sensitive High-Tech Industries
President Biden escalated his confrontation with China on Wednesday by signing an executive order banning American investments in key technology industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities, the latest in a series of moves putting further distance between the world’s two largest economies. The order will prohibit venture capital and private equity firms from pumping money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Administration officials stressed that the move was tailored to guard national security, but China is…
Biden to Restrict Investments in China, Citing National Security Threats
The Biden administration plans on Wednesday to issue new restrictions on American investments in certain advanced industries in China, according to people familiar with the deliberations, a move that supporters have described as necessary to protect national security but that will undoubtedly rankle Beijing. The measure would be one of the first significant steps the United States has taken in its economic clash with China to clamp down on financial flows. It could set the stage for more restrictions on investments between the two countries in the years to come.…