February 15, 2026

Chip Manufacturing

China Hawks Face Setback With Trump’s Nvidia Deal, National Security Strategy– foreignpolicy.com

pgnewser December 16, 2025

Blurb:

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he will permit semiconductor giant Nvidia to export its high-end H200 chips to China, potentially handing Beijing a boost in the battle for artificial intelligence supremacy. In characteristic fashion, Trump is insisting on the U.S. government taking a 25 percent cut of the sales.

The H200 isn’t Nvidia’s most advanced chip, but it outclasses the cut-down models that Nvidia had designed especially for the Chinese market. The deal is undoubtedly a product of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s lobbying in Washington, but it also appears designed to curry favor with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom Trump hopes to secure a significant trade agreement.

The move comes amid a flurry of conciliatory behavior toward China. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, is reportedly tasked with blocking any U.S. government action that could jeopardize a potential trade deal with Beijing. Vice President J.D. Vance has been echoing Chinese rhetoric, and the administration effectively killed legislation that would have required U.S. firms to offer the government first-purchase rights on key chips.

Dutch government takes control of China-owned chip firm– www.bbc.com

pgnewser October 14, 2025

Blurb:

The Dutch government has taken control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker based in the Netherlands, in a bid to safeguard the European supply of semiconductors for cars and other electronic goods and protect Europe’s economic security.

The Hague said it took the decision due to “serious governance shortcomings” and to prevent the chips from becoming unavailable in an emergency.

Nexperia’s owner Wingtech said on Monday that it would take actions to protect its rights and would seek government support.

The development threatens to raise tensions between the European Union and China, which have increased in recent months over trade and Beijing’s relationship with Russia.

Can Lutnick’s Chip-for-Chip Idea Work?– warontherocks.com

pgnewser October 9, 2025

Blurb:

The Commerce Department’s imminent Section 232 investigation — launched in April and expected to conclude soon — may fundamentally shift how the United States acquires semiconductors. The chips America imports range from commodity devices embedded in household appliances to the expensive, high-performance AI processors that power the AI boom, designed in America by Nvidia, but manufactured in Asia.

Taiwan and Korea sit at the center of this challenge. Together, they produce the majority of semiconductors used by the United States across nearly every category. This concentration represents a major national security risk, given China’s preparations and repeated threats to use force against Taiwan and antagonism toward South Korea.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick phrased the situation thus in a recent interview: “If you can’t make your own chips, how can you defend yourself?”

Tariffs are one tool to address this exposure, designed to boost demand for chips manufactured in the United States. But they are not enough. Lutnick offers a second measure, called “chip for chip.” It would tie tariff waivers directly to verifiable domestic production milestones, incentivizing U.S. firms to act more in the national interest.

However, Lutnick’s ‘chip-for-chip’ framework could succeed only if Washington pairs it with enforceable production benchmarks and demand-side incentives. Otherwise, it risks becoming another half-measure in America’s decades-long struggle to rebuild semiconductor sovereignty.

Nvidia CEO disappointed after reports China has banned its AI chips– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser September 18, 2025

Nvidia CEO disappointed after reports China has banned its AI chips– www.cnbc.com
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Excerpt:

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has weighed in on the U.S. tech giant’s struggles in China after a report claimed the country has banned its artificial intelligence chips.

Huang said he was “disappointed” after the Financial Times on Wednesday reported that the Cyberspace Administration of China had ordered companies including TikTok parent company ByteDance and Alibaba not to buy Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip that was made for the country.

In response to a question on the FT report, Huang said Wednesday that “we can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be.”

“We probably contributed more to the China market than most countries have. And I’m disappointed with what I see,” Huang said. “But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.”

It comes after a tumultuous few years for Nvidia’s business in China, which Huang described as “a bit of a roller coaster.”

“We’ve guided all financial analysts not to include China” in financial forecasts, Huang told reporters Wednesday at a press briefing in London. “The reason for that is because that’s largely going to be within the discussions of the United States government and Chinese government.”

U.S.-China chip war: How Trump’s Nvidia-AMD deal has redefined Washington’s export control policy– fortune.com

pgnewser August 14, 2025

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Excerpt:

 

Under both the first Trump and Biden administrations, Washington argued that it needed to limit China’s technological development by barring more and more sensitive products from being exported to its strategic rival. Now, Trump’s decision to allow Nvidia and AMD to sell their advanced AI chips to China in exchange for a 15% cut of their revenue turns the export control regime into something like a bargaining chip.

The Trump administration is already positioning the deal as a playbook for other products and industries. “Now that we have the model and the beta test, why not expand it?” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

China buys banned NVIDIA AI chips on black market: Report– www.theblaze.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025

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Excerpt:

Less than a day after the Trump administration announced its ambitious plan to lead the world in the AI industry, news broke that China has accessed high-tech AI chips on the black market despite U.S. industry protections, threatening America’s competitive advantage in the cutthroat industry.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that China has been selling and receiving cutting-edge AI chips on the black market despite Trump’s export controls and tariffs to curb Chinese access to leading technologies.

‘Trying to cobble together data centers from smuggled products is a losing proposition, both technically and economically.’

The report went on to say that more than $1 billion worth of NVIDIA B200 chips has been sold on the black market in China. Lawyers familiar with the trade rules told FT that while it is legal to sell and receive restricted chips within China, on the condition that the proper tariffs are paid, entities selling and sending them to China would be violating U.S. regulations.

The report indicated that NVIDIA was not aware of these illegal sales by third parties.

China sees surge in Nvidia AI chip repair businesses despite export bans– www.techspot.com

pgnewser July 25, 2025

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Excerpt:

In brief: There’s a strange situation occurring in China: despite Nvidia’s high-end AI chips being restricted from export to the country, businesses that repair these GPUs are experiencing a boom in demand. One company now handles up to 500 AI chip repairs every month.

The US has restricted the export of Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips to China since 2022 over fears that they could be used for military purposes.

Although these chips aren’t officially available in the Asian nation, a booming repair business has emerged. Reuters reports that one firm in the country, which began fixing gaming GPUs 15 years ago and started including AI chips in 2024, created a new company to handle all accelerator-related customer repairs, which now account for 500 repairs per month.

The company has been advertising its extensive facilities on social media. It even boasts a room that can pack 256 servers to simulate customers’ data center environments.

It’s a lucrative business, with the firm charging between 10,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan ($1,400 to $2,800) to fix one of these GPUs depending on the complexity of the repair.

Nvidia CEO downplays role in lifting US ban on chip sales to China – Chicago Tribune– www.chicagotribune.com

pgnewser July 17, 2025

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Excerpt:

 

BEIJING — The head of Nvidia downplayed his role in getting the U.S. government to lift a ban on selling an advanced computer chip in China and said it will take time to ramp up production once orders for the AI-processor come in.

CEO Jensen Huang, speaking Wednesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, was upbeat about the prospects for the H20 chip, which was designed to meet U.S. restrictions on technology exports to China but nonetheless blocked in April.

He met U.S. President Donald Trump before his trip and his company announced this week it had received assurances that sales to China would be approved.

“I don’t think I changed his mind,” Huang told a cluster of journalists, many of whom asked for his autograph or to take selfies with him.

A carefully organized press conference at a luxury hotel descended into a crowd scene when Huang arrived in his trademark leather jacket and started taking questions randomly in his characteristic casual style.

Export controls and tariffs were something companies must adapt to in a world he said was reconfiguring itself. He described his role as informing governments in the U.S. and elsewhere of the nature and unintended consequences of their policies.

The decision to lift the ban on the H20 chip was entirely in the hands of the American and Chinese governments and whatever trade talks they had, he said.

Chinese firms accused of poaching Taiwan’s chip engineers using bogus front companies – Computerworld– www.computerworld.com

pgnewser April 1, 2025

Chinese firms accused of poaching Taiwan’s chip engineers using bogus front companies – Computerworld– www.computerworld.com
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Excerpt:

 

The statement provided three examples, the most prominent of which was Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s largest chip maker, which is partially owned by the Chinese state. The company had started recruiting staff via a front company set up in Taiwan as a subsidiary of a separate entity apparently based in the island of Samoa, the MJIB claimed.

Meanwhile, Chinese networking chip company Cloudnix, had “aggressively recruited talent from major global firms such as Intel and Microsoft since its establishment in 2020,” the MJIB said. The company had set out to hide its Chinese control by registering itself in Taiwan, and later, to avoid deeper scrutiny, as being owned by an entity based in Singapore.

A third, Shenzhen Torey Microelectronics Technology, had tried to hire Taiwanese from inside the country while keeping its presence on the island a secret.

US. Looks to develop inhouse chip industry on Taiwan’s dime

pgnewser March 4, 2025

Taiwan’s top chip maker, TSMC, looks to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years in what promises to be, for the U.S., technological development, and, for Taiwan, an invested partner capable of defending them from Mainland China.

TSMC, the Chip Giant, Is to Spend $100 Billion in U.S. Over the Next 4 Years– www.nytimes.com
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Excerpt:

President Trump on Monday said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, will spend $100 billion in the United States over the next four years to expand its production capacity and bring its most advanced semiconductor processes to its operations in Arizona.

The investment will allow TSMC to begin making artificial intelligence and smartphone chips in Arizona, Mr. Trump said.

With the commitment, TSMC brings its planned total spending in the United States to $165 billion. The money will expand the company’s footprint in Arizona from three manufacturing plants to six, add 25,000 jobs and create a research and development center to develop future production processes.

TSMC’s expansion comes after years of work to rev up domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. For more than five years, Washington officials have been concerned that TSMC’s dominance of the chip industry had created a national security risk. They feared that the United States could lose access to those advanced chips, which were produced in Taiwan, because Beijing wants to reclaim the island as part of China.

The previous Trump administration began to lobby TSMC to build plants in the United States. The Biden administration advanced those efforts by passing the CHIPS Act, a bipartisan bill that provided $39 billion in federal funding for the construction of new and expanded manufacturing facilities to make the tiny electronics that power everything from cars to iPads.

During a White House event, Mr. Trump said that TSMC’s investment would reduce America’s national security risk and encourage other companies to make more of their products in the United States.

“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy, and really without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories, with American skill and American labor.”

Appearing alongside Mr. Trump, C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chief executive, said the company would begin making A.I. chips and smartphone chips in the United States. He added that the factory expansion had been supported by American customers, including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Mr. Trump said the investment would help TSMC avoid tariffs of 25 percent or more on chips manufactured in Taiwan. Since taking office in January, he had threatened tariffs of 100 percent on Taiwanese chips and criticized the CHIPS Act for failing to get companies like TSMC to make more chips domestically.

Since Mr. Trump took office in January, TSMC and Taiwanese officials have been scrambling to respond to his tariff threats. In January, Mr. Wei met with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, about investments that TSMC could make. They explored the possibility of TSMC’s investing in the U.S. chipmaker, Intel, in a deal that would see it take over the Silicon Valley icon’s manufacturing operations. Taiwanese officials also traveled to Washington and floated deals to invest in the United States.

The investment more than doubles TSMC’s commitment to the United States and increases the capabilities of the chips it produces in Arizona.

Under the CHIPS Act, TSMC had committed to invest $65 billion to build three factories in Arizona. The production process it had committed to bringing to the United States is a legacy technology that makes less sophisticated chips than the ones it produces in Taiwan. It received $6.6 billion in federal funding to support the project.

With its appearance on Monday, TSMC will become the latest in a string of companies to visit the White House and make investment commitments. In January, OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank promised to spend $500 billion on data centers over the next four years. Last month, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, met with Mr. Trump before the company committed to spending $500 billion over four years, with some of that support going to a new factory in Houston to make artificial intelligence servers.

“They’re coming here in huge size because they want to be in the greatest market in the world, and they want to avoid the tariffs,” Mr. Lutnick said at the event on Monday. “If they’re not here, they’d have to suffer.”