On August 31, local time, the news that the U.S. government restricted the export of high-end GPU to China has attracted widespread attention.
As expected, on September 1, US chip stocks collectively fell. Nvidia fell 7.67%, AMD fell 2.99%, Qualcomm fell 1.78%, and caused Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to fall nearly 2%. Nvidia fell by more than 11% during the session, and its market value evaporated by about US$40 billion.
cut off supply of high-end GPU chips to China, which is the latest move by the United States to block the development of China's chip industry.
htmlOn August 31, Nvidia said in an announcement that U.S. officials have asked Nvidia to stop selling two top GPU computing chips A100 and H100 designed for artificial intelligence tasks to Chinese companies.
Due to the relevant ban, Nvidia may lose $400 million in sales.
At the same time, a spokesperson for another American chip company, AMD, also said that the company has received a new license requirement and will stop exporting MI250 artificial intelligence chips to China.
htmlOn September 1, Nvidia disclosed the latest progress in related events before the opening of US stock . It issued a statement saying that the US government has authorized export, reexport and domestic transfer to continue to develop H100 integrated circuits. The authorization also allows the company to provide the necessary export support to the A100's U.S. customers by March 1, 2023. The statement also stated that the U.S. government allowed the company to continue shipping and fulfilling A100 and H100 chip orders through its facilities in Hong Kong, China by September 1, 2023. But the statement failed to save Nvidia's share price.
Another report by Reuters , a Nvidia spokesperson pointed out that Chinese customers still need to obtain licenses for relevant technologies through the US government.
Image source: Visual China
In response to the US's continuous abuse of export control measures and restricting the export of semiconductor related items to China, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce made statements on the afternoon of September 1.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin pointed out that the US's approach is typical of technological hegemony. The US has repeatedly generalized the concept of national security, abused its national power, and attempted to use its own technological advantages to curb and suppress the development of emerging markets and developing countries, violated market economic rules and undermined the international economic and trade order.
Shi Jueting, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, stressed that the relevant practices of the United States deviate from the principle of fair competition and violate international economic and trade rules, which not only harm the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, but also seriously affect the interests of American companies, hinder international scientific and technological exchanges and economic and trade cooperation, and have an impact on the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain and the recovery of the world economy.
What is a GPU chip? Why did the supply of GPU chips to China at this time?
Chang'an Street Governor noted that GPU chips are often called the "heart" of graphics cards and are the core of many digital applications, such as artificial intelligence, image recognition, language processing, etc. High-performance GPUs are the core components that provide general computing power and have powerful parallel data computing capabilities. Song Changgeng, senior analyst of Xinmou Research, said in an interview with Tianmu News that the chips that are restricted this time are the highest-end chips in terms of calculation accuracy and speed. For example, some supercomputers need to use this type of GPU for accelerated computing, and some companies doing AI research and development need this type of GPU for model training.
Some analysts also said that there are currently few GPU chips in China, and the relevant ban on the US side is mainly to curb the development prospects of China's high-end industries. Why does
restrict the export of GPU chips to China? According to a document filed by Nvidia to SEC , the U.S. government asked the company on August 26 to address the risks that its products may be used for "military purposes" in China.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Commerce did not want to disclose specific policies in response to the relevant ban, but said that other policies and practices related to China are being reviewed to "prevent advanced technology from the wrong hands" to protect the US national security and foreign policy interests."On the surface, the U.S. government wants to avoid exporting the next generation of advanced chips, namely chips with 7 nanometers and below for military end uses in China."
Source: Visual China
Using national security as an excuse to engage in "technical decoupling" from China is the usual routine of the United States. At present, the United States is launching a comprehensive "encirclement and suppression" of China's chip industry.
internally, US President Biden signed the "Chip and Technology" bill, while providing huge subsidies to the US local chip industry, it clearly stipulates that companies that receive US subsidies shall not engage in any "major transactions" with China or other countries that "worry the United States" within 10 years.
To the outside world, the United States gathered allies to form the so-called "chip four-party alliance" and continuously upgraded sanctions and embargoes on China, and carried out further pursuit and interception in the fields of memory equipment, advanced process equipment 14 nanometers and below, advanced EDA tools, etc., including pressure from the Dutch government to ban Asmay from selling deep ultraviolet lithography machines to China.
Although Americans invented chips, the current situation in the United States in the chip field is quite embarrassing. According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS), the U.S. share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has dropped from 37% in 1990 to around 12% in 2020.
In contrast, China is currently the largest chip market in the world. In 2021, China's imports account for as much as 77.8%.
Major chip companies are highly dependent on China in terms of market demand, and American companies are no exception. Take Intel as an example. In 2021, Intel achieved revenue of US$74.7 billion, of which revenue in China is about US$20 billion, accounting for nearly 30%.
This has to make Biden shout out to American business leaders and government officials: "The United States has invented semiconductors, and it is time to take it home!"
Biden data map. Source: Visual China
In the eyes of the United States, stuck with chips will jammed China's "neck" in the field of high-tech development, but is this really the case?
According to data from China Semiconductor Industry Association , the total sales of Chinese chip-related companies increased by 18% in 2021, reaching a record high of over 1 trillion yuan.
Bloomberg data shows that in the past four quarters, 19 of the world's fastest-growing chip industry companies were from China in each quarter, compared with 8 in the same period last year. According to reports, the revenue growth rate of these Chinese chip industry companies is several times that of world-renowned semiconductor companies such as Asmay.
If the United States adopts a "technological hard decoupling" policy to China, it will completely ban American chip companies from exporting products to China. According to Boston consulting company (BCG), American chip companies will lose 18% of their global market share and 37% of their revenue, and reduce 15,000 to 40,000 high-skilled jobs.
At the same time, the US encirclement and suppression is forcing the domestic chip industry to quickly deploy, and many chip companies are accelerating their layout, and the independence of domestic chips is accelerating.
Looking back on history, the development of China's cutting-edge technology has never been smooth sailing, but has been constantly exploring and innovating through repeated "siege and blocking", ultimately breaking foreign technology blockades and technology monopoly and achieving a breakthrough against the trend.
