The U.S. is considering unilateral restrictions on China’s access to artificial intelligence memory chips and equipment capable of making those semiconductors as soon as this month, a move that would further escalate the tech rivalry between the world’s biggest economies.
The measure is designed to keep Micron Technology and South Korea’s leading memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics from supplying Chinese firms with so-called high-bandwidth memory chips, according to people familiar with the matter, who emphasized that no final decision has been made. The three firms dominate the global HBM market.
The Biden administration is working on several restrictions aimed at keeping vital technology out of the hands of Chinese manufacturers, including limits on sales of chipmaking equipment. This rule would deliver a new set of constraints against memory chips for AI, the latest arena of U.S.-China competition.