Always Be Closing – deals to grab that sweet, sweet renminbi:
The US semiconductor industry wants to have its cake and eat it, or rather it wants to have continued access to the huge Chinese market despite Washington's ongoing campaign to limit Beijing's access to advanced chip technology.
This latest turn in the chip wars is due to concern among US chipmakers over the rules governing what investments companies will be able to make in China. These need to be clearer, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), so that the companies know where they stand.
The SIA wants clear "guardrails" regarding the rules Washington plans to attach to the subsidies it will dole out as part of the CHIPS Act funding designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in America.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo last year warned that companies receiving CHIPS Act cash would be forbidden from building advanced technology plants in China for a period of 10 years, and would only be allowed to expand any mature node facilities in China for the purpose of serving the Chinese market.
In an interview with Bloomberg, SIA president and CEO John Neuffer claimed that China was the semiconductor industry's biggest market: "Our view is that we need to play in that market."
The SIA said it just wants "clear rules of the road" so that what the US government deems a national security concern is well defined and the companies are able to take heed and plan ahead accordingly.
It isn't just US companies that are unhappy with strings attached to CHIPS Act funding. Semiconductor giant TSMC is said to be seeking up to $15 billion in subsidies to help build two chip fabrication plants in Arizona, but has expressed concerns about rules that may require it to share profits from the fabs with the US government as well as provide detailed information about its operations.
The 10-year ban on Chinese investments is a bone of contention for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix too.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 06, @03:33PM (4 children)
Our business was getting 70% of our revenue growth on the 20% of our revenue that comes from China, before the recent unpleasantness set in. (Yes, our China revenue was growing 10x faster than our other areas revenue - that's the difference between penetrating a new market or growing a 40 year old established market.)
So far, China has just slowed down for us, dramatically, but at least it's not shrinking (yet). For us it is mainly due to changes in Chinese policies that were made in response to changes in US policies.
I'm sure our shareholders would be (more) P.O.ed if we were thrown into negative growth directly by changes in US policies.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Sunday May 07, @12:59AM (1 child)
The US's position seems to be "as long as we need to have a terrible stagflation economic crash caused by our inability to govern fed policy appropriately for 15 years now, we might as well try to burn China along the way too"
Unfortunately that strategy seems to be built on the assumption that Chinese people are all stupid and can't read the same science/tech journals we do. Some kind of believing our own bullshit about "innovation" problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 07, @12:02PM
>Some kind of believing our own bullshit about "innovation" problem.
That's how the isolationist policies are being sold politically, IMO.
I think the actual motivations behind the policies are somewhat smaller minded, as in: my buddy here can make a pile of cash if we do this, and who cares about anything but that?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday May 07, @12:40PM (1 child)
It slowed to negative growth for us in the software business over the last few years thanks to the new directive in China that told everyone there not to buy external services and concentrate on local. In effect, China growth was lowest, almost double digit negative. The other parts of Asia-Pacific are doing better.. Latin America business for us has now surpassed China. China was flat since even before Huawei was banned by US.
China was actually not that much larger than Russia but Russia business is now closed. Obviously.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 07, @06:15PM
>over the last few years thanks to the new directive in China that told everyone there not to buy external services and concentrate on local.
I believe that's the one that's hitting us hardest, but we're multi-national with some R&D and manufacturing in China, so we aren't completely shut down there.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Saturday May 06, @04:51PM (1 child)
To mangle the quote, "
The Internettechnology interpretscensorshipsanctions as damage androutesfinds a way around it."(Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday May 07, @12:54PM
The problem with China is that China does one thing and says another. At least with US policy, you get what you see. In China, not so much.
Furthermore, these are not sanctions. These are conditions of receiving subsidies in US. If they don't take subsidies, they can build plants in China.
Sanctions are what Huawei received. And you don't want to side-step sanctions, or you'll get sanctioned too.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday May 06, @06:26PM (2 children)
Is anyone actually surprised at this? Do you really think any multimillionaire gives two shits about his country?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday May 06, @07:23PM
Multimillionaires are probably aware that the administration's policies have little to do with the good of the country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06, @09:07PM
No more than the people who reelect politicians that take their bribes...