US has warned that any company using Huawei-made artificial intelligence chips anywhere in the world could attract criminal penalties for potentially violating US export controls
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US President Donald Trump’s administration has warned that any company using Huawei-made artificial intelligence chips anywhere in the world could attract criminal penalties for potentially violating US export controls.
The directive from the US Commerce Department is supported by the notion that
Huawei
chips, especially Ascend 910B, 910C and 910D, are made using US technology.
The department’s Bureau of Industry and Security clarified Tuesday (May 13) that the new measure was part of the administration’s more stringent approach to foreign AI chips. It is to be noted that the bureau has not issued any rule but has merely widened the interpretation of US export controls.
“The guidance is not a new control, but rather a public confirmation of an interpretation that even the mere use anywhere by anyone of a Huawei-designed advanced computing [integrated circuit] would violate export control rules,” Kevin Wolf, a veteran export control lawyer at Akin Gump, was quoted as saying by Financial Times.
Which Huawei chips are targeted by US?
According to the Trump administration, Huawei Ascend chips — the 910B, 910C and 910D — are subject to the guidelines. It maintains that these chips have been “designed with certain US software or technology or produced with semiconductor manufacturing equipment that is the direct produce of certain US-origin software or technology, or both”.
The punitive measure against the Chinese chip giant comes as policymakers in Washington have been left stunned by the pace Huawei developed these chips and started delivering advanced AI chip “clusters” to clients in China.
Threat to Nvidia
Huawei claims its advanced AI chip cluster outperforms the comparable product made by US rival Nvidia.
The Chinese system is made up of a large number of 910C chips. While these chips may not be able to match the performance of Nvidia chips individually, Huawei claims the chip cluster may offer superior performance collectively.
US alarmed
There is increasing concern in the US that China’s leading AI company might soon sell AI processors in China and abroad, competing with products from Nvidia and other American companies.
Last month, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang described Huawei as “one of the most formidable technology companies in the world” and mentioned that US policies should support his company in competing globally.
The announcement coincided with Trump’s visit to
Saudi Arabi
a, where he revealed several deals, including a promise by the kingdom’s new state-owned AI company, Humain, to build AI infrastructure using hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips.
