New US Chip Regulation Introduced: AI Industry Facing a Cold Winter

Recently, the U.S. government officially announced new chip export control regulations targeting China, which are much stricter than market expectations. The new regulations primarily use computing power as the standard and almost encompass all high-performance chips, including consumer-grade gaming graphics cards from a well-known manufacturer. Even chips that are slightly below the control standards must notify the government before export. This means that all high-performance chips are restricted, including AI chips that were previously developed specifically for the Chinese market.

The new regulations take a dual approach, preventing China from obtaining chips from third countries while also limiting its ability to manufacture advanced chips. The Ministry of Commerce will also restrict China's access to cloud computing power. This policy reflects the extreme position of the United States towards China.

The industry has mixed reactions to the new regulations. Industry associations representing the majority of chip companies believe that overly broad regulations will harm the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. However, some politicians argue that the measures are not strong enough and are calling for actions to prevent circumvention of the restrictions.

Chip companies faced setbacks in lobbying efforts, failing to influence policy-making. The business operations of several companies were severely impacted, and their stock prices fell accordingly. This indicates that the influence of chip companies in the area of export controls has significantly weakened.

Some scholars refer to the U.S. approach as "weaponized dependency," which involves the abuse of its dominant position at critical nodes in the global supply chain. This practice may accelerate China's efforts to enhance its domestic chip capabilities.

For China, developing advanced chips has become a mandatory question. Currently, domestically produced alternative chips have certain strengths, but they still struggle to meet the huge demand for computing power in the market. Although chip restrictions may slow down the pace of development, they will not completely hinder the progress of China's artificial intelligence sector. This challenge may ultimately drive China to become stronger in the chip field.