US media disclosed that US chipmakers are still seeking more involvement in the Chinese market under pressure from Washington. After NVIDIA launched a number of "special supply" chips for China, (AMD) also tried to bypass the White House policy to penetrate the Chinese market, but its latest chip product was not approved by the US Department of Commerce for export. Many parties believe that this restrictive behavior of the United States will eventually backfire and will further stimulate the independent research and development of China's artificial intelligence (AI) chips. In the government work report of the two sessions of China this year, "artificial intelligence" was highlighted and became the focus of attention of deputies and committee members. Experts interviewed by the Global Times believe that the technological crackdown in the United States is a kind of "boomerang" that destroys the global production and supply chain, and eventually American enterprises themselves will be hurt.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has turned a red light on AMD.

Bloomberg reported on the 5th that the United States has been trying to restrict China's access to cutting-edge semiconductors that can develop large models of artificial intelligence, as well as the tools used to make these chips. In October 2022, the U.S. government issued a policy to restrict the export of the most advanced AI chips to China, and further tightened the export restrictions on AI chips to China in October last year. But this did not dismiss the US chip giant's intention to export products to China. The Wall Street Journal reported that Avida has introduced three "downgraded" products based on its AI chip H100: H20, L20 and L2 in response to the Biden government's export restrictions. However, these special chips developed for the Chinese market have not been recognized by the market. The lack of performance is generally considered to be the main reason for the cold of Nvidia's "special supply" chip.

After Nvidia, AMD, another US chip giant, is also trying to find a way to sell "customized AI chips" MI309 to China. The chip, which had lower performance than the chips AMD sells outside China, was designed to bypass U.S. export controls and was eventually stopped by the U.S. Commerce Department. U.S. officials told AMD that the performance of the chip is "still too powerful" and must obtain permission from the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is responsible for export control policy under the U.S. Department of Commerce, to sell it.

Regarding the reason why the US Department of Commerce prevented AMD from exporting chips to China, Luo Guozhao, director of the China Laboratory of the CHIP Global Test Center, told the Global Times reporter on the 6th that the US crackdown on China has spread from the trade field to the high-tech field. The United States seems to want to impose a technology blockade on China in all possible places, regardless of the needs of companies.

AMD repeat the mistakes of Nvidia?

Bloomberg said that Washington had previously flashed red lights on almost all of Nvidia's high-end chips made in China, causing Nvidia to repeatedly try to bypass the controls and was warned by U.S. Commerce Secretary Raymond. Washington has made it clear that it wants to prevent the development of artificial intelligence in China, but AMD has not learned from Nvidia's "lessons learned". The only answer that can be explained is that the Chinese market is too attractive to give up. AMD CEO Su Zifeng once said at the company's earnings call, "China is a very important market for us." She said that she is convinced that there is an opportunity to provide products to Chinese customers, and AMD is working in this direction.

Luo Guozhao told the "Global Times" reporter that as a veteran American chip company, AMD has experienced several ups and downs, and now there are signs of turning over with the help of artificial intelligence chips. China is clearly the world's largest market, and at a time when the United States is facing fierce competition from Nvidia, China is the most important bargaining chip for it to turn around.

Is it counterproductive for the United States to suppress China?

Before the US restrictions were implemented in October last year, Nvidia warned that further export restrictions from Washington to China could "permanently lose" the leading position of US semiconductor companies in China, one of the world's largest markets. Bloomberg said that these restrictions have weakened Nvidia's revenue in China. The company's fourth-quarter net profit fell by nearly 53% from the previous quarter. AMD also warned in a document in January that any further restrictions The modification may threaten the export of its low-speed chips.

Bloomberg believes that the U.S. move will likely stimulate China's independent research and development of artificial intelligence chips. The report also mentioned that Shenzhen-based Huawei is China's technology leader and is working to develop local artificial intelligence chips.

The Wall Street Journal quoted analysts at Wall Street investment firm Bernstein as saying that Huawei, one of the major players in China's artificial intelligence field, has been developing a series of "domestic replacement" chips. Now, Nvidia's constraints from the U.S. Department of Commerce have given Huawei the opportunity to attack the city. The report also said that Chinese cloud computing companies are no longer keen to buy Nvidia's chips customized for the Chinese market, because in the short term, the performance gap between these reduced versions of chips and China's local alternative chips is narrowing. Alibaba, Tencent and other Chinese cloud computing companies are transferring some orders for high-performance artificial intelligence chips to local companies. According to Bloomberg, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun expressed the same view and has already regarded Huawei as its strong competitor.

The government work report of the two sessions of China in 2024 also proposed to carry out "artificial intelligence" action. In terms of financial support, it is planned to issue ultra-long-term special treasury bonds for several consecutive years starting from this year, which will be specially used for the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas. Min Weidong, a representative of the National People's Congress and a professor at the School of Mathematics and Computer Science of Nanchang University, said, "Artificial intelligence is a new quality productivity and future industry. It can nurture new business formats and new models, inject new momentum into economic development, and bring innovative development opportunities to various industries. It will promote the leap-forward and high-quality development of my country's digital economy." Luo Guozhao said that with the rise of Huawei, Moore Thread and other enterprises, the gap between China and the United States is narrowing.