The US-China chips war is heating up with new measures that will likely cause major disruptions for the global semiconductor industry. The US Commerce Department has been working on rules designed to deny China gate-all-around technology – the newest and most advanced method of building transistors.
“The latest restrictions by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on August 12, 2022, will potentially have the greatest impact on the trade between China and the US compared to all other actions taken to date,” declares a report issued by American consulting firm International Business Strategies (IBS).
How bad could the situation get? If export restrictions are applied in their broadest sense, they would be “clearly a disaster for many companies” in China, America and elsewhere, and could “have catastrophic impact worldwide,” says the IBS report, entitled “The US Department of Commerce Limitation on EDA Tools for Gate All Around to China.”