The United States has imposed technology barriers against companies from China for the past four years on national security grounds. Among those imposed this year is the barrier to the purchase of the latest AI chips produced by AMD and NVIDIA because they are alleged to be used for military purposes. Before the stricter barriers were imposed, several Chinese technology companies such as Ali Baba, Baidu, Bytedance and Tencent reportedly wholesaled $5 billion worth of NVIDIA-produced AI chips.
According to a Financial Times report, $1 billion worth of chips will be received this year with $4 billion remaining in 2024. Among those ordered are around 100,000 NVIDIA A800 chips which are a reduced performance version of the NVIDIA A100 for export to China. Without these chips, the process of training more complex hazard models (LLM) would be slower and cost more.
President Biden today signed an executive order banning companies from the United States from investing in Chinese artificial intelligence, quantum engineering and semiconductor technology companies. Again the national security excuse was used.
The cold war between the Western bloc and the Warsaw bloc in the 90s was more towards the possession of nuclear weapons. In the new cold war between China and the U.S. it seems that it is more about the possession of the latest technology.