Biden’s administration has expanded the list of Chinese companies on its trade blacklist with a fresh addition of 14 entities, taking the total count to 25, reports The Associate Press.
Sophgo, a subsidiary of Bitmain, is the most noticeable name in the new list. It gained global attention when connected as an intermediary between beleaguered Chinese tech giant Huawei and Taiwanese chip maker TSMC. A particular chip found in Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI processor was linked back to a purchase made by Sophgo from TSMC. This sparked suspicion in December and led to plans to blacklist Sophgo, a move that has now been actualized.
This action is part of a series of undertakings by Biden’s administration in its closing days. The newly introduced “Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” has met with immediate criticism from the industry. Nvidia, the American silicon AI behemoth, labeled the move as “misguided.”
The first Trump administration’s approach to AI was praised, however, the Biden administration’s policy was not spared. The latter is criticized for trying to undermine America’s lead with 200+ page regulatory changes formulated in secrecy and without appropriate legislative scrutiny.
The Trump administration’s blacklisting of Huawei, depriving the company of access to American technologies like Google’s Android and Qualcomm chips, still prevails. The forthcoming administration seems determined to maintain a hard line on China while nurturing American innovation amidst the AI technology race.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
