"Biden to add semiconductor latch to China...Impact of up to 200 companies"

The U.S. administration of Joe Biden is set to announce new export restrictions on semiconductors targeting Chinese companies next week, Reuters said.

Citing an email sent to members by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the 22nd local time, Reuters reported that the introduction of the regulation is expected to add up to 200 Chinese semiconductor companies to the "trade restrictions list."

Listing on the trade restrictions will block transactions with most U.S. companies, with related sources explaining that the new restrictions will likely include restrictions on sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.

The new restrictions are expected to be announced 28 days in advance, and separately, another one is expected to be announced next month to restrict shipments of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to China as part of restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, Reuters added.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment in this regard, and the U.S. Commerce Department declined to comment.

In August 2022, the Biden administration banned the Chinese military from exporting related semiconductors to Nvidia and AMD, saying they risk abusing semiconductor products such as GPUs used for military purposes.

As a result, exports of Nvidia's A100 and its upgraded version of the H100 to China have been put on hold.

Since October of the same year, it has also restricted the export of equipment needed to manufacture advanced semiconductors, services and components needed to operate them to China.

In September, a new system was established to designate key emerging technologies such as quantum computing and advanced semiconductor manufacturing as export controls, which experts interpreted as a measure aimed at China.

In the meantime, the announcement of new restrictions on exports of semiconductors to China shows that the Biden administration is pushing ahead with plans to further block China's access to semiconductors before the start of the second Donald Trump administration, Reuters analyzed.