Hit Nvidia with a $500 million fine for violating U.S. national security–that should wake up the semiconductor industry
Hit Nvidia with a $500 million fine for violating U.S. national security–that should wake up the semiconductor industry
It’s time for semiconductor designers and manufacturers from the United States and Taiwan to start taking responsibility for selling advanced chips to Chinese entities, many of whom are related to the People’s Liberation Army, as per this fine piece https://lnkd.in/ey4ExM3T in the New York Times describes. Companies in other nations such as Holland, Germany, Japan and South Korea also should cooperate because their national security interests are on the line, although not as directly as the United States and Taiwan.
U.S. chip companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel and Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) have claimed that they don’t have control over their distribution networks. Middlemen, it seems, buy many of their chips and then sell to the highest bidder from any nation. This makes a mockery of the Biden Administration’s entirely reasonable effort to prevent China from using these advanced chips to create Artificial Intelligence systems that have obvious military uses. It is widely assumed that in the event of any military confrontation between the United States and China the use of AI will be essential to keep track of and then target planes, ships, bases, infrastructure, and the whole gamut. AI is the future of all sorts of highly sensitive areas of U.S.-Chinese competition, including disinformation on social media.
How absolutely insane it is for semiconductor companies to pretend these realities don’t exist. This is a subset of the ideology of globalization (which, in full disclosure, I once embraced.) According to this gospel, CEOs have no national security responsibilities. Their only responsibility is to sell their products everywhere they can and to maximize their share price. Damn the consequences. I suggest it’s time for the Biden Administration, in its final days, to invoke national security concerns to make an example out of one of these companies so that the industry gets the message. My vote would be to target Nvidia because it seems to be the most blatant and its chips are at the core of many AI initiatives. Hit them with a $500 million fine until they see the light and start taking better control of their sales. Others will get the message.
Bill is an author, journalist, consultant, and speaker. He has spent decades criss-crossing the United States and the world to understand who's winning and who's losing in the global economy.
U.S. chip companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel and Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) have claimed that they don’t have control over their distribution networks. Middlemen, it seems, buy many of their chips and then sell to the highest bidder from any nation. This makes a mockery of the Biden Administration’s entirely reasonable effort to prevent China from using these advanced chips to create Artificial Intelligence systems that have obvious military uses. It is widely assumed that in the event of any military confrontation between the United States and China the use of AI will be essential to keep track of and then target planes, ships, bases, infrastructure, and the whole gamut. AI is the future of all sorts of highly sensitive areas of U.S.-Chinese competition, including disinformation on social media.
How absolutely insane it is for semiconductor companies to pretend these realities don’t exist. This is a subset of the ideology of globalization (which, in full disclosure, I once embraced.) According to this gospel, CEOs have no national security responsibilities. Their only responsibility is to sell their products everywhere they can and to maximize their share price. Damn the consequences. I suggest it’s time for the Biden Administration, in its final days, to invoke national security concerns to make an example out of one of these companies so that the industry gets the message. My vote would be to target Nvidia because it seems to be the most blatant and its chips are at the core of many AI initiatives. Hit them with a $500 million fine until they see the light and start taking better control of their sales. Others will get the message.