Russia will not be able to buy powerful chips: how sanctions will interfere with the aggressor country
The US Presidential Administration (White House) has imposed a restriction on the sale of graphic chips, which are the leading manufacturers of NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Initially, graphic processors (GPU) were created for rendering images in video games, but recently they have been actively used in supercomputers to recognize images or speech.
The US authorities have come to the conclusion that with the help of supercomputers Russians and the Chinese launch programs based on artificial intelligence, which are designed to develop weapons or collect intelligence. For example, such technologies are used to recognize faces on video recordings and watch people. According to the White House, restrictions will interfere with Russia and China use GPU for military purposes.
On August 31, NVIDIA and AMD have recognized new sanctions and pledged to comply with them, although both companies did not expect such measures. Other manufacturers claim that the restrictions were reported. NVIDIA stated that the US government has already forced export licenses to supply two high -yield chips for server systems in data processing centers.
It is worth noting that the company has not cooperated with Russia for several months, but has many clients in China - only in the last financial year they have brought a video card to the manufacturer of $ 400 million. According to NVIDIA press service, sanctions touched the existing product under the code name A100, as well as the product H100, which is preparing to be released at the end of 2022.
The company fears that restrictions will prevent the H100 development in a timely manner or support A100 owners, and can also lead to the termination of certain operations in China. According to AMD, new sanctions should influence the sale in China and Russia of one of its highly productive graphic processors - Mi250. At the same time, the company does not believe that restrictions will be able to cause great damage to its business.
Recently wrote that the United States had banned the supply of China equipment for the production of chips from a topology of more sophisticated than 14-Hm. This technological process was only mastered by Chinese companies in 2021, and their services were used by South Korean brands such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It was also reported that due to US sanctions, the exports of chips to decreased by 90%.