The Commerce Department on Tuesday updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them.
The revisions come roughly a year after the export controls were first launched to counter the use of the chips for military applications that include the development of hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence.
“These export controls are intended to protect technologies that have clear national security or human rights implications,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters. “The vast majority of semiconductors will remain unrestricted. But when we identify national security or human rights threats, we will act decisively and in concert with our allies.”
The updates stemmed from consulting with industry and conducting technological analyses. There will now be a gray zone that will be monitored for chips that could still be used for military aims even if they might not meet the thresholds for trade limitations.
Chip exports can also be restricted to companies headquartered in Macao or anywhere under a U.S. arms embargo, preventing countries of concern from circumventing the controls and providing chips to China.
The updates also introduce new requirements that make it more difficult for China to manufacture advanced chips abroad. The list of manufacturing equipment that falls under the export controls has also been expanded, among other changes to the policy.
The export controls announced last year were a source of frustration for the Chinese government, which viewed the design and manufacturing of high-level semiconductors as essential for its economic and geopolitical goals. Raimondo has said the limits on these chips are not designed to impair China's economic growth.
In an August meeting, Raimondo and her Chinese counterparts agreed to exchange information about the export controls. But a senior administration official, insisting on anonymity to discuss the policy, said the U.S. government did not discuss with China the parameters of the revised export controls. China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, appealed for “concrete actions” by Washington to improve relations, a reference to Chinese pressure for changes in U.S. policy on technology, Taiwan and other issues.
Chinese government officials are scheduled to go to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
President Joe Biden has suggested he could meet on the sidelines of the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though a meeting has yet to be confirmed. The two leaders met last year following the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, shortly after the export controls were announced.
The two tech- billionaires Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are the latest voices to discuss the new hypothetical internet called Web 3.0. According to the billionaires, the new concept is just a "marketing buzzword" and cannot exist without venture capitalists or large backing. However, advocates of the Web 3.0 believe this decentralized space is the next big thing to help put ownership back into the hands of the people. Senior News Editor at The Verge, Richard Lawler, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
This year, the games market will generate total revenues of $180.3 billion dollars, a significant increase from 2020. While the industry continues to grow and expand into new spaces, such as the metaverse, there is still plenty of room for growth and reform in this male-dominated market. Katie Robinson, content creator, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss plans for the future even as COVID-19 upended Barstool's sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl featuring the Boise State Broncos and the Central Michigan Chippewas due to the spreading omicron variant. "In our case as a company, coronavirus has been a big boom for us," she noted. "We've been able to create a lot of new programming, launch a lot of different personalities, and frankly take share from traditional media, and that's what we've done the entire pandemic." While she admitted to taking a hit on the canceled Bowl game, live events aren't completely off the table for Barstool in 2022. Nardini also talked about potential sports betting expansion following its partnership with Penn National Gaming.
Interest in the concept of the metaverse is heating up as more companies get on board, and Cathy Hackl, CEO of Futures Intelligence Group, a metaverse-focused consultancy, joined Cheddar to talk about trends to watch out for in 2022 and what it will take for it to be more than just a buzzword. Hackl noted that businesses likely will have to consider big technology upgrades in the upcoming year in order to keep up. "We're going to need new levels of computing power to be able to enable shared virtual experiences, both in VR but also in augmented reality," she said.
Ron Gutman, Co-CEO of Intrivo, joins Cheddar News to discuss how the company is creating a test and tech solution for Covid testing called 2Gather, and how it's using data-driven digital diagnostics to make these tests widely available and affordable.
The metaverse took the world by storm in 2021 and it is just the beginning of the virtual universe. Consumers are jumping on board and companies like Meta and Roblox are already taking advantage. Entrepreneur Andrew Duplessie joined Cheddar to discuss how the metaverse will impact the future of socialization and business. "If I'm doing anything right now, I'm building an app, I'm jumping into that ecosystem, and I'm testing it. I'm seeing what people think," he said.
