ALBAWABA – American chip company executives met with top United States (US) White House officials on Monday to discuss China policy, the state department announced Monday.
The top semiconductor lobby group, SIA, has been urging the government to halt on more China policy tightening, news agencies reported.
Last year, China accounted for $180 billion in semiconductor purchases, according to Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
That is more than a third of the worldwide total of $555.9 billion and the largest single market, as reported by Reuters.
Earlier on Monday, US-based SIA called on President Joe Biden’s administration to "refrain from further restrictions" on chip sales to China.
The group also urged the administration to allow "the industry to have continued access to the China market, the world’s largest commercial market for commodity semiconductors."
A proposal is due by the end of August for the program to screen and possibly prohibit investment in China’s semiconductor, quantum-computing and AI sectors, unnamed sources have told Bloomberg.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted the limited scope of the plans in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday.
She underscored that restrictions would be “narrowly targeted.”
That will come as some relief for firms seeking an opening to China’s market or investors concerned with broader economic growth.
“These would not be broad controls that would affect US investment broadly in China, or in my opinion, have a fundamental impact on affecting the investment climate for China,” she said.
For their part, China sees the restrictions as an attempt to contain and isolate China just as its economy is faltering, according to Bloomberg.
The recent China policy has also angered US chip firms, including Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp., who rely in part on China’s massive market to drive revenue growth.
Their CEOs were in Washington on Monday in a bid to lobby White House officials not to go beyond existing curbs, the New York-based news agency reported.
The $39 billion CHIPS Act semiconductor manufacturing subsidy program was approved by Congress last year. The law also created a 25 percent investment tax credit for building chip plants, estimated to be worth $24 billion, as per Reuters.
