Days after pushing for sweeping AI chip export restriction, the Biden administration has added an additional 14 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list. This brings the full list up to 25 names, according to reporting from The Associate Press.
Sophgo is, perhaps, the highest profile addition. An entity of Bitmain, the firm sparked international headlines when it was identified as an intermediary between embattled Chinese hardware giant Huawei and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC.
Suspicions arose in December after a chip found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI processor was tied to a purchase Sophgo made from TSMC. At the time, the Biden administration announced plans to blacklist the firm, a promise on which it has now made good.
The move comes among a flurry of activity during the waning days of the Biden administration. Response to Monday’s “Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” drew a swift and sharp response from the industry. American silicon AI giant Nvidia called the action “misguided.”
The statement praises the first Trump administration’s handling of AI, while refusing to hold punches against the outgoing administration,
In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review. This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition — the lifeblood of innovation — the Biden Administration’s new rule threatens to squander America’s hard-won technological advantage.
Of course, the Huawei blacklisting that has blocked the company from utilizing American-founded technologies including Google’s Android and Qualcomm chips, arrived during the first Trump administration. How, precisely, this plays out isn’t clear, as the incoming administration looks to continue a tough on China stance, while appearing to foster American innovation amid the AI race.
