China has for years relied on expats and foreign talent to drive forward its semiconductor industry. President Biden has put a stop to that
In its ongoing tech war with China, the United States has taken multiple steps in the past decade to hamper Beijing’s ascendance in the technology sector.
Since the early-2000s, China’s semiconductor firms have relied heavily on foreign talent, including expats educated in the West and engineers from neighbouring Taiwan. US President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a signing event for the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, United States, August 9, 2022. Chinese semiconductor firms have long relied on foreign talent to catch up with their Western peers such as Intel and Qualcomm.
Washington is banking on its leverage over the global semiconductor supply chain to stop China from acquiring the capability of making chips at nodes of 14 nanometers or beyond. “The US is preventing EDA tool vendors from selling to chip design firms in China that are designing advanced chips, such as AI chips. Without the EDA software, it will be very difficult to design these chips.”