Washington

In a broader government effort to hamper China's access to the most sophisticated semiconductors, the United States told chip designer Nvidia Corp to restrict exports to Beijing of two computing chips for artificial intelligence work.

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Following an August announcement from the Commerce Department curbing exports of materials and software used to make next-generation chips, the US notice to chipmakers could cripple Chinese firms' ability to carry out advanced work like image recognition.

"While we are not in a position to outline specific policy changes at this time, we are taking a comprehensive approach to implementing additional actions necessary related to technologies, end-uses, and end-users to protect US national security and foreign policy interests," said a Commerce Department spokesperson.

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"The agency is pursuing strategies like 'nearshoring' and 'friendshoring,' so like-minded partners are integrated into our supply chains... As we rebuild our supply chains, we can’t be dependent on foreign countries that don’t share our values for our critical chip components," according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Supporting the production of advanced semiconductors and gas turbine engines, the US said that the new export controls on technologies are critical to its national security.

Aiming to "reduces reliance on vulnerable or overly concentrated foreign production for both leading-edge and mature microelectronics," the US bill boosted competition with China's science and technology efforts by subsidising chip manufacturing and expanding research funding.

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As a part of the bid to halt China's semiconductor sector advances, the US is also considering limiting shipments of American chipmaking equipment to memory chip makers in China as per a Reuters report.

Barring the shipment of US chipmaking equipment to factories in China that manufacture advanced NAND chips, the crackdown will further escalate tensions between the two superpowers.

(With inputs from agencies)

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