Wednesday, July 6, 2022

How the Chinese Military Is Buying American AI Chips

Despite measures to limit U.S. technology export to the Chinese military, chips designed by US companies still end up in PLA hands

  • 97 unique high-end Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips the PLA ordered
  • Nearly all of them were designed by Nvidia, Xilinx, Intel, and Microsemi
  • Researchers could not find any public records of PLA purchasing AI chips from Chinese companies
  • China has poured tens of billions of dollars into its own semiconductor industry but still cannot catch up to the US design firms

Dodging Export Control

  • The Trump administration created, and the Biden administration has maintained, controls designed to curtail technology exports to military end-users in China.
  • These end-user controls, however, do not apply to items made outside the United States.
  • Moreover, the Department of Commerce maintains an Entity List, through which the U.S. government can deny orders placed by the entities on the list.

CCP's Military-Civil Fusion Strategy

  • The CCP's military-civil fusion strategy is making it almost impossible for U.S. regulators to distinguish between military and nonmilitary end-users in China.
  • China imports the majority of AI chips from the US, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
  • The fusion model allows the Chinese military to bypass the US export control.

Using Front Companies to Purchase American AI Chips

  • PLA uses front companies to get what it needs

US Chip Design Firms Might Lose Revenue from China

  • Curtailing the CCP's access to U.S. technology has associated political and economic costs
  • To compensate for the loss of Chinese market access, the CHIPS for America Act of 2022 offers significant incentives for semiconductor companies to build fabrication facilities in the United States

 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-the-chinese-military-is-buying-american-ai-chips-report_4575419.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge 

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