THE Biden administration plans to halt shipments to China of more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips designed by Nvidia Corp. and others, part of a raft of measures released Tuesday that seek to stop China from receiving cutting-edge U.S. technologies. The rules, which go into effect in 30 days, restrict a broader swathe of advanced chips and chipmaking tools to a greater number of countries including Iran and Russia, and also limit exports to two Chinese artificial intelligence chip firms Shanghai Biren Intelligent Technology Co. and Moore Threads Intelligent Technology Beijing Co., which are seen as rivals to Nvidia. The new measures close loopholes in regulations released last October and will probably be updated “at least annually,” U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters late Monday. China resolutely opposes the United States placing export restrictions on semiconductors destined for China, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing said yesterday in a statement, adding that the United States should cancel the export control measures as soon as possible. The new measures demonstrate the Biden administration is struggling to slow the flow of chips and chipmaking tools into China. In a statement following publication of the rules, top U.S. AI chip designer Nvidia said it complies with regulations and does not expect a meaningful hit to near-term results. Nvidia’s business has soared since the imposition of last year’s rules because its China-only chips are still better than alternatives. The firm is currently selling almost every chip it can procure as worldwide demand outstrips supply, but would be hurt in the long term as Chinese chip firms look elsewhere to fill any voids left by U.S. companies. The company has made chips such as the A800 and H800 that walked up to the line of the previous rules to continue selling to China, and AMD, also impacted by the rules, has said it plans a similar strategy. The new U.S. rules will exempt most consumer chips used in laptops, smartphones and gaming, though some will be subject to licensing and notification requirements by U.S. officials. The previous rules imposed a two-pronged test that measured both a chip’s computing performance and its ability to communicate with other chips, an important measure in AI supercomputers where thousands of chips are strung together to chew through huge amounts of data. (SD-Agencies) | 