The Biden administration is preparing a new round of measures that could make it harder for China to obtain some of the technologies needed to build advanced artificial intelligence systems. People familiar with the matter told WIRED that the announcement is expected on Monday, though the exact details were still changing earlier this week.
What the new controls could include
The measures are expected to focus on several parts of the semiconductor supply chain. According to people familiar with the matter, the controls could include sanctions on dozens of Chinese companies that make equipment used to produce semiconductors.
The package could also place restrictions on a handful of chip manufacturing plants. Some of those plants have ties to Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that has remained central to Washington’s concerns about advanced chips and AI capability.
Another major area under discussion is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. The US Department of Commerce has discussed controls on sales of this advanced 3D-stacked memory component, which is often used in high-performance GPUs and customized AI chips.
Bloomberg previously reported that the Biden administration was considering limits on China’s access to HBM chips. In the measures now expected, the restrictions are said to block access to HMB3 and impose some limits on the previous generation, known as HMB2.
Why high-bandwidth memory matters
The reported focus on high-bandwidth memory shows how export controls are moving beyond headline AI processors alone. Powerful AI systems depend on more than one kind of chip. Memory components also matter because they support the performance of GPUs and customized AI chips used to train large models.
The expected HBM restrictions appear aimed at slowing China’s ability to develop domestic chips capable of training very large and powerful AI models. That makes memory access part of the larger contest over whether Chinese firms can build competitive AI infrastructure without relying on US-linked technology.
The new controls would not only affect component sales. They could also expand the list of Chinese organizations that face licensing hurdles when dealing with companies that provide software or products from the United States.
In total, the Biden administration could add around 200 Chinese firms to the entity list maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency within the Commerce department. Companies that want to supply listed firms with US software or products would need special licenses.
Huawei remains at the center
Huawei is one of the key companies in the background of the expected rules. The company was temporarily crippled by US sanctions half a decade ago, but it has continued to work on advanced chips for AI training.
According to the South China Morning Post, Huawei sent samples of its latest AI training chip, called Ascend, to customers this September. Companies testing Ascend reportedly include ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, which is said to be training a large model primarily using Ascend.
Reuters also reported that Baidu, which makes China’s leading search engine and has developed autonomous driving systems, recently placed an order for Huawei’s chips. That order was described as a shift away from US chip giant Nvidia. Nvidia declined to comment.
Those developments matter because they suggest previous restrictions have not fully stopped Chinese companies from pursuing alternatives. The US government has imposed export controls on China for years, with the stated effect of limiting access to advanced silicon, but Huawei’s recent chip activity has kept pressure on Washington to respond.
A longer export control campaign
The current expected measures fit into a broader US strategy that began before the Biden administration. Export restrictions aimed at curbing China’s AI sector began under the first Trump administration.
In 2019, several up-and-coming Chinese AI firms were added to the entity list. That meant US companies, including chipmakers such as Nvidia, needed special licenses to do business with them.
Restrictions later targeted sales of chips made with US technology to Huawei. The Biden administration then escalated the controls in October 2022, limiting exports to China of cutting-edge GPU chips, including those made by Nvidia. Those rules were intended to curb any Chinese company’s ability to train the most powerful AI models.
The controls were tightened a year later to close loopholes that still allowed Chinese firms to access some advanced chips. The expected new package would continue that pattern by covering more firms, more equipment makers, more manufacturing plants, and potentially a critical memory technology.
The debate over impact
The impact of US chip sanctions is still difficult to measure. Some experts question whether the controls are encouraging China to advance its own chipmaking capabilities faster, reducing reliance on American companies over time.
Huawei’s Mate 60 became a major example in late 2023. The smartphone featured an advanced chip from SMIC, and its unveiling caused concern in Washington because it suggested SMIC had made substantial progress in its manufacturing techniques. Further analysis indicated that Huawei and SMIC were still reliant on foreign suppliers.
A report published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC-based think tank, argued that the Chinese government had already begun increasing investment in domestic chipmaking before the US government started tightening access to advanced semiconductors. The report also noted that China has made bigger strides in sectors not subject to export controls, including solar cell and electric vehicle manufacturing.
China has objected strongly to the expected measures. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said at a regularly scheduled press conference earlier this week: “China is firmly opposed to the US overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export control measures and making malicious attempts to block and suppress China,”
A spokesperson for the Commerce department declined to comment. Huawei did not immediately return a request for comment.