US considers new curbs on China’s access to AI memory chips

Measures are meant to prevent Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung from supplying Chinese firms with high bandwidth memory chips for AI programmes

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The Micron offices in Shanghai, China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:00am, 1 Aug 2024Updated: 5:20am, 1 Aug 2024

The US is considering unilateral restrictions on China’s access to AI memory chips such as those made by Micron Technology and South Korea’s SK Hynix and equipment capable of making such semiconductors, as soon as next month, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The measures are meant to prevent Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung from supplying Chinese firms with high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that are essential in helping run complex generative artificial intelligence programmes, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The companies and the US Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Memory chips by South Korean semiconductor supplier SK Hynix on a computer circuit board. Photo: Reuters

If enacted, the new rule would capture HBM2 and more advanced chips including HBM3 and HBM3E, as well as the tools required to make them, the report said, adding that no final decision on the restrictions has been made.

HBM chips are needed to run AI semiconductors such as those sold by market leader Nvidia and aspiring competitor AMD.

Micron will be largely unaffected as the chip maker has held back from exporting its HBM products to China after Beijing banned its memory chips from critical infrastructure in 2023, the report said.

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