Semiconductor companies Nvidia and AMD are expected to pay the U.S. government a portion of the profits they earn from selling certain controlled chips to China, an arrangement that has sparked concerns and questions among exporters, lawmakers and former government officials.
The Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to promote exports of AI technologies to close trading partners, especially those in Asia, a senior White House official said last week at a meeting of ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member states.
U.S. export controls have so far helped American chip companies maintain technological dominance over Chinese ones, a technology policy expert said this week, which suggests the Trump administration should rethink its decision to allow sales of H20 chips to China (see 2507150013).
A former employee of Tokyo Electron, a leading semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, was involved in the recent theft of trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Tokyo Electron said Aug. 7.
The head of a tech policy nonprofit urged the leaders of three congressional committees Aug. 7 to hold a hearing to examine the “large-scale smuggling” of advanced American AI chips into China in violation of U.S. export controls.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has begun legal proceedings and taken “strict disciplinary actions” against former or current employees involved in stealing sensitive technology from the company (see 2508050043), it confirmed this week.
Nvidia chips don’t have and shouldn’t be required to have so-called “kill switches” that would allow exported chips to be remotely disabled without the user’s consent, the semiconductor company said this week.
Taiwanese authorities have detained three people after accusing them of stealing technology trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., according to multiple reports. The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office said Taiwan detained the people late last month after a TSMC internal investigation revealed that former and current employees had illegally obtained information from the company, Reuters reported. TSMC fired the workers, who allegedly stole sensitive chip technology, Nikkei Asia reported.
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The U.S. last week arrested and accused two Chinese nationals of using a California-based company to illegally export tens of millions of dollars' worth of advanced AI semiconductors to China, including by first transshipping the chips through Malaysia and Singapore.