March 24, 2024
(Reuters) - China has introduced guidelines to phase out U.S. microprocessors from Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab and AMD (AMD.O)
, opens new tab from government personal computers and servers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft's (MSFT.O)
, opens new tab Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favour of domestic options, the report said.
Government agencies above the township level have been told to include criteria requiring "safe and reliable" processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said.
China's industry ministry in late December issued a statement with three separate lists of CPUs, operating systems and centralised database deemed "safe and reliable" for three years after the publication date, all from Chinese companies, Reuters checks showed.
The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for the council, China's cabinet, did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
Intel and AMD did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
The U.S. has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor output and reduce reliance on China and Taiwan with the Biden administration's 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.
It is designed to bolster U.S. semiconductors and contains financial aid for domestic production with subsidies for production of advanced chips.
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Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, William Mallard and Lincoln Feast.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
China already has stolen gobs, reams, mountains of proprietary information from US companies. They didn't invent industrial espionage, but they have certainly taken it to a whole new level. The don't need Intel's chips (at least not the older ones); they have already cloned them. With this ban they're just protecting their own domestic manufacturing from competition.
...But do they also forbid Taiwanese chips which, supposedly, have the most advanced technology? (Seeing as how they consider Taiwan to be part of China)
@racocn8 I don't know how they are treating Taiwan vis-a-vis advanced chips. We know their long-term thinking about Taiwan (that the island nation's claim of sovereignty is bollocks). But in the short term it's probably just garden variety economic protectionism.