Taiwan places export controls on Huawei and SMIC

Chinese companies Huawei and SMIC may have a difficult time accessing resources needed to build AI chips, due to Taiwanese export controls.

Bloomberg reports that Taiwan’s International Trade Administration placed the two companies and their subsidiaries on an updated list of entities designated as strategic high-tech commodities. That means Taiwanese businesses will need government approval before they can ship anything to either company.

As a result, Huawei and SMIC will lose access to Taiwan’s plant construction technologies, materials, and equipment, potentially setting back China’s efforts to develop new AI semiconductors, Bloomberg says.

“On June 10, we added some 601 entities from Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Myanmar and mainland China including Huawei and SMIC to the entity list to combat arms proliferation and address other national security concerns,” the trade administration said in a statement.