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LeMonde
23-05-2025
- Business
- LeMonde
AI race: US-China chip war heats up
It did not take long for tensions to flare once again between the world's two largest powers. No sooner had a truce on tariffs been declared on Monday, May 12, in Geneva between the United States and China than the battle over the strategic sector of artificial intelligence (AI) reignited. As early as May 13, the Trump administration began outlining its strategy to slow China's progress in semiconductor technology, sparking outrage in Beijing. The reason: According to a directive from the Bureau of Industry and Security, the division of the US Department of Commerce responsible for controlling sensitive exports, using Huawei Ascend chips "anywhere in the world" may violate US export control regulations. Washington explained that the latest chips from Chinese manufacturer Huawei, the Ascend 910 models, had been designed or produced with certain software or equipment originating from the US. The phrase "anywhere in the world" has since been removed from the Commerce Department's statement, but the damage was done. "The recent attempt at a complete blockade of Chinese chips is a blatant act of unilateralism and intimidation," condemned Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on May 20. The already fragile atmosphere of dialogue emerging from the 90-day trade truce agreed on the shores of Lake Geneva had begun to unravel. According to Beijing, Washington had "seriously undermined the Geneva consensus." Criminal prosecutions worldwide China warned that anyone complying with US measures would be suspected of violating its own law against foreign sanctions. The result: Any company worldwide purchasing the latest Huawei chips would come under US scrutiny, while those obeying US directives could face criminal prosecution in China.
Epoch Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Malaysia Says Government Not Involved in AI Project Using Chinese Huawei Chips
The Malaysian government appears to be reconsidering its previous announcement that its Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure project would run on DeepSeek and Huawei Ascend chips, which the U.S. Commerce Department recently The Malaysian Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI) on May 21 published a statement addressing media reports that questioned whether the project would violate U.S. export control laws. 'The said initiative was not developed, endorsed, or coordinated by the Government of Malaysia, nor does it form part of any Government-to-Government agreement or nationally mandated technology programme,' MITI The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security had on May 13 issued a reminder that Huawei Ascend chips were likely developed in violation of U.S. export controls, and that the Chinese makers used restricted U.S. technology to create the AI chips. Malaysia's statement notes that AI-powered government infrastructure would first go through 'appropriate due diligence and uphold highest standards of applicable global laws' and that 'Malaysia remains committed to full compliance with all applicable export control laws,' referencing the World Trade Organization and affirming its right to set sovereign policies. The statement did not address DeepSeek or the Huawei Ascend chips directly. Related Stories 5/15/2025 5/14/2025 Huawei told Reuters it has not yet sold Ascend chips to Malaysia-based technology infrastructure company Skyvast, its partner in the Malaysia infrastructure project. MITI and Skyvast did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time. Global AI Race At a launch event on May 19 at the St. Regis Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Communications Teo Nie Ching announced a 'transformative' national AI strategy in collaboration with Huawei, Skyvast, Chinese battery maker Leadyo, and Shanghai Free-Trade Zone executives. In a Ching said there would be a phased rollout of 3,000 Ascend chips by 2026, forming 'the backbone of Malaysia's national AI grid.' She said that for years, Malaysia was kept out of the front of the race by 'foreign infrastructures, cloud dependencies, and barriers to high-performing computing' but that the infrastructure the tech partners were bringing would change all that. 'We are not merely adapting to the age of Artificial Intelligence. We are shaping it, securing it, and leading it. And we are doing so on our terms, with trusted partners, and with the wellbeing of our people at heart,' Ching said. She touted Malaysia's relationship with China, saying the project 'advances one of Malaysia's most strategic bilateral partnerships' and co-develops a new model of 'cross-border AI governance' as the Southeast Asian nation would become China's first international AI partner. Meanwhile, the United States is set to roll out a new AI diffusion rule to position the American AI tech 'stack' as a first choice for international partners. The Malaysia–China partnership was announced a week after the United States revealed AI partnerships with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. David Sacks, the Trump administration crypto and AI czar, said on social media platform X that Malaysia's announcement was a 'harbinger of things to come.' 'As I've been warning, the full Chinese stack is here. We rescinded the Biden Diffusion Rule just in time. The American AI stack needs to be unleashed to compete,' Sacks The Biden administration had finalized an AI diffusion rule in January that would have sorted countries broadly into three tiers, with different levels of access to American AI technology. The Trump administration rescinded the rules days before they would have gone into effect in May, and has been in favor of promoting global adoption of American AI technology with a much broader approach than the previous administration, as seen with President Donald Trump's recent multibillion-dollar AI deals in the Middle East. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have Reuters contributed to this report.
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Malaysia backtracks on Huawei AI amid US-China chip war
- Malaysia has abruptly distanced itself from an earlier announcement of a China-backed artificial intelligence (AI) project, amid heightened scrutiny over geopolitical sensitivities and ongoing trade talks with the United States. The reversal exposes Malaysia's precarious balancing act as it navigates fierce US-China rivalry over semiconductors – a sector accounting for 40 per cent of its exports. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called the announcement on the AI project by a junior minister on May 19 as 'premature', and insisted that Malaysia remains 'fiercely independent' in choosing technologies. 'To clarify, (the project is) still in the midst of this negotiation. Because it is the private sector, I don't think it's for the government to announce, but as a policy we made it very clear. We are fiercely independent. We want what is best for our country,' he told a media briefing on May 21. He added: 'For a country like Malaysia, I'm not taking into account the skirmishes and the tensions between countries, particularly China or the EU or the U S. We choose what is best for our country.' Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching announced on May 19 that Malaysia would develop a first-of-its-kind AI system powered by Huawei Technologies chips, with plans to deploy 3,000 Huawei Ascend chips as the backbone of a national AI initiative by 2026. Only a day later , her office was quoted by Bloomberg as saying it had retracted her remarks that were made at the launch of the 'Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure', without explanation. A Huawei representative was reported to have said that the company hasn't sold Ascend chips in Malaysia and that the government has not bought any. The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) on May 21 also issued a statement repudiating Ms Teo's remarks, saying that the project was private-sector driven and not officially endorsed by the government. The about-turn comes as Washington pressures Kuala Lumpur to crack down on suspected smuggling of Nvidia chips to China, amid ongoing US-Malaysia trade talks, and with Beijing courting South-east Asia for AI tie-ups. Malaysia's cautious response appears to reflect its ongoing efforts to maintain strategic balance amid the intensifying US-China tech rivalry. 'MITI would also like to reiterate that Malaysia remains committed to full compliance with all applicable export control laws, national security directives and emerging guidance from global regulatory authorities, especially those that uphold the highest standards of transparency, accountability, neutrality and security, premised upon the principles of multilateralism with the World Trade Organisation at its core,' the ministry said in the May 21 statement. The proposed project – which includes deploying an AI language model by Chinese startup DeepSeek – drew the attention of the White House, which has been monitoring developments closely to counter Beijing's growing influence in global AI markets. 'As I've been warning, the full Chinese stack is here,' President Donald Trump's top AI adviser, David Sacks, posted on X on May 20. The Trump administration rescinded Biden-era global semiconductor curbs, which restricted chip sales to Malaysia, 'just in time,' he wrote. The following day , Mr Sacks ' post on X said: 'UPDATE: the Malaysian government has walked back the announcement. This is after the Deputy Minister of Communications stated, in prepared remarks, that Huawei Ascend chips would 'form the backbone' of the country's national AI effort.' Malaysia remains in discussions with the US on trade matters, including potential tariff adjustments, underscoring its sensitivity to geopolitical implications. While the South-east Asian country is unenviably caught between two rival superpowers, Datuk Seri Anwar sought to downplay the tug-of-war situation . 'This so-called tech rivalry between the United States and China sometimes has been overly exaggerated,' he told reporters at the briefing. Malaysia should clearly demonstrate that it complies with US trade requirements, said Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association's president Wong Siew Hai. 'It is to our benefit to make sure that we are a country that can be trusted to do business with,' Datuk Seri Wong told The Straits Times. Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said: 'Neutrality is nowadays no longer a viable option as both sides are clearly trying to impose their mutually exclusive choices on other countries such as Malaysia.' 'Malaysia would have to study the high-tech business and technological trends carefully and make its strategic choice accordingly, praying that at the end of the day, it would be the beneficial choice,' he told ST. US concern over AI chips being smuggled into China via other Asian transit points was sparked in January when Washington announced new curbs on their export and began probing whether countries like Singapore were being used as transit points to circumvent these restrictions. The semiconductor industry is an important part of Malaysia's economy, with electrical and electronic products making up 40 per cent of exports. The US government earlier this year pressured Malaysian authorities to crack down on the movement of prized Nvidia AI chips that enter the country, amid suspicions that many of these were ending up in China. Hazlin Hassan is Malaysia correspondent at The Straits Times. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Egypt Independent
21-05-2025
- Business
- Egypt Independent
US and China are already feuding again after unexpected trade truce
Hong Kong CNN — Just days after the United States and China declared a temporary truce over tariffs, tempers are already flaring: this time over the future of Beijing's most advanced homegrown semiconductors. Over the past week, Beijing has repeatedly lashed out at Washington for warning companies against using AI chips made by national tech champion Huawei. It has even accused the Trump administration of 'undermining' a consensus reached at recent trade talks in Geneva, where both sides agreed to temporarily roll back tariffs and use a 90-day window to hash out a broader deal. The conflict over Huawei's most advanced chips serves as a reality check that despite the positive words shared by US and Chinese negotiators last week, there are still sharp differences between the two sides on a variety of subjects that may be difficult to bridge. On Wednesday, China's Commerce Ministry fired its latest broadside, accusing the US of 'abusing export controls to suppress and contain China' and engaging in what it called 'typical acts of unilateral bullying and protectionism.' China was responding to the Trump administration's announcement last week rescinding a set of Biden-era curbs meant to keep AI chips out of the hands of foreign adversaries. As part of that announcement, the US Commerce Department issued guidance on May 12 warning companies that 'using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world would violate US export controls.' The department has since changed its wording to remove the reference of 'anywhere in the world' in an updated version of the statement. The Ascend chips are Huawei's most powerful AI processors, which are used to train AI models and aim to challenge Nvidia's dominance in designing high-end chips. Huawei's efforts are central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's plans to build up China's own capacity to develop cutting-edge chips as it vies for AI supremacy with the US. At a top political meeting last month, Xi called for 'self-reliance' to develop AI in China, saying his country would leverage its 'new whole national system' to target bottlenecks such as advanced chips. CNN has reached out to Huawei for comment. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, and Chinese ambassador to the World Trade Organization Li Chenggang, speak in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 10. Martial Trezzini/Keystone/AP/File Beijing's ire On Monday, Beijing signaled the US Commerce Department's wording change in the updated statement on Huawei wasn't enough to end the feud. In a statement, China's Commerce Ministry said that despite the 'adjustment' in wording, the 'discriminatory measures and market-distorting nature' of the guidance itself remained unchanged. 'China has engaged in negotiations and communications with the US at various levels through the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, pointing out that the US actions seriously undermined the consensus reached during the high-level talks in Geneva,' the ministry said, urging the US to 'correct its mistake.' The ministry's latest statement on Wednesday came with an extra warning from Beijing to global businesses, threatening legal action against anyone who helps what it calls a US attempt to 'globally ban the use of advanced Chinese chips.' 'Any organization or individual that implements or assists in implementing these US measures may be in violation of China's Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and other relevant laws and regulations, and must bear corresponding legal responsibilities,' the statement said. 'China will closely monitor the implementation of the US measures and will take resolute steps to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,' it added. There has been no announcement of further trade talks between the US and China. But last Friday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang met on the sidelines of a gathering of APEC trade ministers in South Korea, Reuters reported. Nvidia chief bemoans controls As Huawei accelerates efforts to develop its own high-performance chips, US chip giant Nvidia is increasingly concerned about losing access to the Chinese market, after the Trump administration restricted the export of its H20 AI chips to China. Speaking at Taiwan's annual Computex trade show on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the ban had forced the company to write off 'multiple billion dollars' of inventory. 'The cost to us is very high,' he added. Huang estimated that the China market could be worth $50 billion next year. 'It would be a shame not to be able to enjoy that opportunity, bring home tax revenues to the United States, create jobs, sustain the industry,' he said. 'I believe the US government should allow American technology to serve and participate and compete in the China market.' Huang also used the occasion to criticize US export controls to China, saying they gave Chinese AI companies 'the spirit, the energy and the government support' to accelerate their own development. 'I think, all in all, export control was a failure,' he added. But Huang did hail Trump's rescinding of Biden-era curbs 'a great reversal of a wrong policy,' handing Nvidia a big win in the Middle East. 'The fundamental assumptions that led to the AI Diffusion rule in the first place has been proven to be fundamentally flawed … and that fundamental assumption is that the United States is the only provider of AI, and it's not obvious enough to me,' he said. 'If the United States wants to stay in the lead, and the United States would like the rest of the world to build on American technology, we need to maximize AI diffusion, maximize the speed. And that's where we are today.' Last week, Nvidia scored a major deal in Saudi Arabia by announcing a strategic partnership with startup Humain to build 'AI factories' in the country with a projected capacity of up to 500 megawatts during US President Donald Trump's visit to the Gulf. To power those facilities, Nvidia will sell several hundred thousand of its most advanced graphic processing units there over the next five years, beginning with 18,000 of its top-of-the-line GB300 Grace Blackwell chips. Analysts said the Gulf deals, which also involved AMD and Qualcomm, were possible because the Trump administration was able to 'sidestep' the Biden-era curbs, which were rescinded before they could take effect. This story has been updated with additional information.
Malay Mail
21-05-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
Malaysia walks back Huawei AI project amid US-China tech tensions
KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Malaysia's announcement and quick retraction of plans to deploy Huawei AI technology has highlighted the intensifying technological rivalry between the United States and China. According to Bloomberg, the Malaysian government initially declared it would implement 3,000 Huawei Ascend GPU-powered AI servers nationwide by 2026, positioning itself as the first country to adopt this technology at a national scale. This move would have represented a significant win for Chinese tech influence in Southeast Asia at a time when the US is actively working to contain China's global AI expansion. However, the White House responded swiftly to the news, with US President Donald Trump's top AI adviser David Sacks using the announcement to validate concerns about China's growing technological reach in strategic markets. Sacks pointedly suggested that the Trump administration's easing of Biden-era chip restrictions had come 'just in time' to counter potential Chinese dominance. As I've been warning, the full Chinese stack is here. We rescinded the Biden Diffusion Rule just in time. The American AI stack needs to be unleashed to compete. — David Sacks (@DavidSacks) May 20, 2025 Within a day of the announcement, Malaysian officials abruptly withdrew Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching's statements without offering any explanation for the reversal. A Huawei spokesman contradicted the initial claims, saying that no Ascend chips had been sold in Malaysia and the government had not made any purchases. The incident follows recent US Commerce Department guidance warning that using Huawei's Ascend chips 'anywhere in the world' could potentially violate American export controls. The Commerce Department later softened this language, demonstrating the delicate balancing act in enforcing technology restrictions without alienating international partners. Malaysia is caught between competing superpower interests as the Trump administration pushes American AI hardware in emerging markets while attempting to block Chinese alternatives. US officials have expressed concerns that Malaysia might be functioning as a transshipment point for restricted semiconductor technology destined for China. Investigations into potential chip rerouting are currently underway in both Malaysia and Singapore as the US seeks to maintain its technological advantage over China.
