In light of industry lobbying to maintain existing rules, two US lawmakers leading a committee on China have called on the Biden administration to strengthen export restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican and chair of the House of Representatives select committee on China, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat and ranking member of the committee, wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urging for further enhancements to the broad set of export control rules that were implemented in October 2022. These rules severed China’s access to leading AI chips developed by US companies including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel.
The lawmakers’ letter recommends a stricter approach than what was previously reported by Reuters. The existing October 2022 rules impose two performance limits on the export of AI chips to China: one on interconnect speeds between chips and another on processing speeds. However, despite these restrictions, Nvidia has developed special chips for the Chinese market with lower interconnect speeds, and Intel has recently announced the creation of an AI chip for sale in China. Critics argue that the US export controls have not effectively slowed China’s progress in the AI sector.
In response to reports of potential rule tightening focusing solely on processing speeds, which could impact Nvidia’s chips, the CEOs of Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm visited Washington to meet with administration officials to discuss China policy. The Semiconductor Industry Association, a US-based industry group, also weighed in, urging the Biden administration to allow continued access to the Chinese market, which is the largest commercial market for commodity semiconductors.
Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi propose an even more stringent approach than what has been previously discussed, recommending a lower speed limit on interconnect speeds to prevent any engineering workarounds to bypass current regulations. They also call on the administration to consider cutting off Chinese firms’ access to advanced computing chips in the cloud, where major US companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google offer these chips as part of their cloud computing services. The lawmakers emphasize the need to prevent advanced US technology and expertise in computing and semiconductors from being used against the United States.
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