US officials reportedly revealed the government will extend one-year exemptions on restrictions blocking companies from exporting advanced semiconductors and chipmaking machinery to China, as voices in the industry warned of the long-term damage such controls could have on companies doing business in the nation.
Nikkei Asia reported the US plans to extend exemptions for Samsung, SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co which are set to expire in October. The length of the new waivers was not revealed, but the news outlet stated there is a push to make them permanent.
In June, The Wall Street Journal reported the US was considering extending the waivers.
The exemptions allow chipmakers to expand their operations in China by importing US equipment and supplies.
With the US considering widening its export controls beyond the most-advanced AI chips, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said on an earnings call the company believes the current restriction is achieving the intended results.
But she stressed any controls prohibiting the sale of its data centre GPUs to China in the long term “will result in a permanent loss of an opportunity for the US industry to compete and lead in one of the world’s largest markets”.
Kress added Nvidia does not expect additional export restrictions would have an immediate material impact to its financial results in the short term.
US restrictions prompted Nvidia to re-configure its high-end offerings for China.
Current restrictions ban silicon with a chip-to-chip data transfer rate of 600GB/s or high.
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