US lawmakers press Biden for plans on Chinese use of open chip technology
02/11/2023 08:00
By Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A wider bipartisan
group of U.S. lawmakers is asking the Biden administration about
its plans to respond to China's rising use of RISC-V chip design
technology after Reuters last month reported on growing concerns
about it in both houses of Congress.
RISC-V, pronounced "risk five," is a free open-source
technology that competes with costly proprietary technology from
British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings
O9Ty.F ARM.O and Intel Corp INTC.O . It can be used as a
key part of anything from a smartphone chip to advanced
processors for artificial intelligence.
U.S. firms such as Qualcomm QCOM.O and Alphabet's
GOOGL.O Google have embraced RISC-V, but so too have many
Chinese companies.
Reuters last month reported that at least four influential
U.S. lawmakers view Chinese use of the technology as a potential
national security threat because RISC-V is not captured by the
sweeping export controls the U.S. has imposed on sending chip
technology to China.
Now, a broader group of 18 lawmakers that includes five
Democrats is asking the Biden administration for how it plans to
prevent China "from achieving dominance in ... RISC-V technology
and leveraging that dominance at the expense of U.S. national
and economic security," according to a letter the group sent to
Raimondo and seen by Reuters.
The lawmakers include the Republican chairman and ranking
Democrat from a select committee on China in the House of
Representatives as well as Democratic lawmakers from New Jersey,
Florida, Michigan and Indiana. They also asked the Biden
administration about how it might apply an existing executive
order to require U.S. companies to get an export license before
working with Chinese companies on RISC-V technology.
"While the benefits of open-source collaboration on RISC-V
promise to be significant for advancement and development of the
U.S. semiconductor industry, it can only be realized when
contributors are working with the sole aim of improving the
technology, and not aiding the technological goals and
geopolitical interests of" China, the group of lawmakers wrote
in the letter.
A Commerce Department spokesperson said Raimondo had
received the letter and would respond through the appropriate
channels.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Jamie
Freed)
((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))