The Chinese government has blocked the use of Intel and AMD CPUs in government computers, creating new hostilities in the tech industry.
China Bans Intel, AMD & Microsoft Usage In Government PCs, Promoting The Adoption Of Homegrown Solutions
The US-China enmity has taken the tech markets by storm, especially for US chip manufacturers like NVIDIA and AMD, which have created a dominant consumer base in the region. It seems like China has made the next move here.
The Financial Times reports that the government has banned using Intel and AMD chips in their systems, citing privacy concerns and ensuring their systems have "safe and reliable" equipment onboard. Moreover, the government has also advised township-level authorities to sideline Microsoft's Windows as their primary operating system.
This move came after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a list of CPUs that were compliant with government policies, which included all Chinese "unnamed" manufacturers, but we believe companies like Huawei and Phytium topped off the list. Banning Intel and AMD almost immediately was indeed an unexpected move, but we did see it coming from far away since the Chinese tech industry has reached a state of "isolation" from the international markets, and to combat it, they have started to adopt "in-house" solutions massively, especially after the recent AI accelerator fiasco.
For Intel and AMD, it is indeed an alarming situation since a ban from the government level means that their consumer markets could get disrupted soon unless a temporary solution isn't reached. This also means massive financial losses since Intel reportedly earned 27% of its YoY sales from China. However, for companies like Huawei or Loongson, which are rapidly developing their homegrown CPUs, it could finally mean that they will witness massive adoption, fueling the fire of innovation and R&D in their product lineups.
It will be interesting to see how the situation develops, and as far as what we are witnessing, either companies will go to the US or the China camp. Both nations are heavily investing in their tech arsenal, with the Biden administration fueling development through its CHIPS Act, encouraging domestic semiconductor growth for companies like Intel. Despite this, the imposition of the new ban has created another uncertainty that would negatively affect the markets.
News Source: Financial Times
