The U.S. government has been imposing export restrictions on China to limit its ability to produce high-quality silicon for years, but the crackdown has not stopped Huawei from making competitive chips for training large-scale AI models.
The Chinese tech giant, which suffered a temporary reprieve from US sanctions half a decade ago, sent samples of its latest AI device, called Ascend, to customers in September, according to the South China Morning Post. Companies testing Ascend reportedly include ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, which is they say it’s education a great example especially using Ascend. Baidu, China’s leading search engine maker, has recently developed a self-driving car made an order for Huawei chips by switching from the US giant Nvidia, according to Reuters. (Nvidia declined to comment.)
Export restrictions aimed at curbing China’s AI sector began under the first Trump administration. In 2019, several Chinese AI companies were added to list of entities, meaning that US companies, including chip makers such as Nvidia, will need to obtain a special license to do business with them. This was followed by restrictions on the sale of US-made chips to Huawei, China’s largest telco and smartphone maker.
The Biden administration approved the regulations in October 2022, limiting Chinese exports of high-end GPU chipsincluding those developed by Nvidia, a move aimed at limiting the ability of any Chinese company to train the most powerful AI models. Laws it was reinforced It’s been a year since they closed the barriers that still allow Chinese companies to access more chips.
It can be tricky to assess the effectiveness of US sanctions, and some experts question whether the sanctions are encouraging China to make rapid progress in its own production, reducing its dependence on American companies.
By the end of 2023, Huawei unveiled the Mate 60a smartphone with an advanced chip from China SMIC. The announcement caused a stir in Washington, as SMIC is said to have made significant progress in improving its manufacturing processes. (Another analysis showed that Huawei and SMIC remained dependent exporters.)
But a published report this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC-based think tank, said that the Chinese government had already started raising funds for domestic chipmaking before the US government began to block the country’s access to advanced semiconductors. He noted that China has made significant progress in sectors that are not subject to export controls, such as the production of solar cells and electric vehicles.
Leave a Reply