The sanctions applied by the United States have not interfered with the development of the Chinese semiconductor industry. Recently, Washington even notified AMD and NVIDIA to stop sending advanced chips to Chinese manufacturers.
The country’s intention is to curb China’s advance in weapons production and development of Artificial Intelligence. As a way around the situation, NVIDIA presented “weaker” chips developed exclusively for the Chinese market and that meet the US set of restrictions.
Market analysts say this is seen as yet another reason for China to continue expanding its drive to become self-sufficient in the semiconductor market.
The AI ​​companies we spoke to seem to see this downside of “weaker” chips as relatively minor and manageable.
Chinese companies have also begun to develop chips that can compete with NVIDIA and AMD solutions, something that could have consequences for both in the long term. A chip industry executive told Reuters the US needed to be careful to prevent China from completely abandoning western chips.
They [os EUA] they had to draw the line somewhere, and wherever they draw it, they will face the challenge of not making a disruptive move.
China is a very important market for US technology companies and NVIDIA itself says so in its official statement. Thus, country sanctions cannot simply cut ties with companies like Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, for example.
NVIDIA’s custom chips give Chinese companies poor ability to calculate precise numbers and slower transfer speeds. However, an AI expert said, on condition of anonymity, that this is easy to get around.
There are ways around all this using improved algorithms. I don’t see that as being a limit for very long.
In this analyst’s opinion, the sanctions may end up forcing the Chinese to develop even more efficient codes to run on limited hardware, something that cannot be seen as a negative thing.
