Arm's cutting-edge chip technology cannot be exported to China because it is not approved by the United States and the United Kingdom, a big blow to high-tech companies such as Alibaba



Arm Holdings , a semiconductor design company under the SoftBank Group, is developing the Arm architecture that is used in chips for various devices, from smartphones to supercomputers. It was reported that Arm's cutting-edge chip technology ' Neoverse V ' series could not be exported to China due to US and UK regulations.

Export controls hit China's access to Arm's leading-edge chip designs | Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/257b39c4-f146-41ae-af75-dfea955ff462

China's Access to Arm's Advanced Chip Designs Limited by US Export Controls | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-access-to-arm-advanced-chip-designes-limited-by-export-controls

Arm processor tech caught up in the US chip war with China • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/14/arm_processor_technology_china/

What Arm sells is not the chip itself, but the license of the design technology used for various chips. Since the Arm architecture is a low-power design, it is often used for smartphone SoCs, etc., and the cutting-edge 'Neoverse V' series is a chip design for High Performance Computing (HPC) for clouds and supercomputers. .

However, the Financial Times reported that it became clear that the Neoverse V series could not be exported to China in response to the tightening of restrictions on chip exports to China by the United States. The Wassenaar Arrangement , a multilateral agreement on the export control of conventional weapons and technologies that can be diverted to military use, also controls exports of semiconductor-related technologies. It is said that the Neoverse V series cannot be exported to China.



Arm can apply for a license to sell the Neoverse V series to China, but the Financial Times points out that it is highly unlikely that the application will be approved according to US government policy. The UK government did not comment on individual license applications, saying: 'We are helping British businesses and academic institutions to engage with China in a way that reflects British values and respects national security concerns. I promise I will,' he replied.

This is expected to be a big blow as many Chinese companies, like technology companies around the world, rely on Arm architecture. For example, Alibaba Group , China's leading technology company, is also involved in cloud computing business, but cannot use Neoverse V series technology for cloud chips. On the other hand, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has already adopted Neoverse V1, announced in 2021, as a cutting-edge cloud computing chip.

An engineer at T-Head, a chip-making subsidiary of Alibaba Group, told the Financial Times, 'I feel that we are seen as 'second-class' people by Western countries. They won't sell it,' he said.

In response to inquiries from overseas media The Register, Arm said, 'As a global company, we are committed to complying with all applicable export-related regulations in the regions where we operate. Alibaba and other Chinese partners have performance requirements. We have processes in place to provide optimized solutions that are responsive to and fully compliant with the latest export controls.' Alibaba, meanwhile, declined to comment.

It is reported that the Chinese government is urging Alibaba and Tencent to develop chips using the open source architecture `` RISC-V '' in response to strict export restrictions by Western countries.

China's semiconductor technology is rapidly developing against US sanctions, and it is reported that the Chinese government is urging Alibaba and Tencent to develop RISC-V chips - GIGAZINE



in Hardware, Posted by log1h_ik