US restricts sale of computer chips to Russia and China

The US administration has introduced new restrictions on the sale of high-performance graphics processors, writes newspaper The New York Times.

In particular, we are talking about the products of Nvidia and AMD, which are used in the largest supercomputers and face and speech recognition systems.

The NYT calls the restrictions imposed a continuation of the “cold war” between the United States and China in the field of advanced technologies, recalling that in 2020 the administration of former President Donald Trump, for example, closed access to Chinese Huawei to a number of American technologies. Because of this Huawei could no longer produce its state-of-the-art chips. China has made significant strides in chip design, the newspaper notes, but typically relies on Taiwanese firms to produce the most sophisticated ones.

Nvidia reportedthat on August 26, export licenses were introduced for the export to the Russian Federation and China of two types of high-performance chips.

“The US government has indicated that the new licensing requirement will address the risk that licensed products could be used or shipped for ‘military end use’ in China and Russia,” the company said.

At the same time, Nvidia stopped their deliveries to Russia in early March because of the operation in Ukraine.

The company also said that the restrictions affected the business, which brought in about $400 million in the last quarter. As the publication notes, the situation for Nvidia is also worsening with a general decrease in demand for GPUs due to the fall in cryptomining. The company’s shares fell 6% after news of the new restrictions.

AMD also announced new government requirements, the paper said, adding that the restrictions would not have a significant impact on its business. Other companies received similar instructions, the source said.

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