In the latest assault on China’s burgeoning semiconductor industry, the Trump administration has erected new curbs on the sale of chip design software in the region.
“On May 23, the U.S. Government informed the Electronic Design Automation industry about new export controls on EDA software to China and Chinese military end users globally,” German EDA vendor Siemens confirmed in a statement to El Reg on Thursday.
Also affected by the rules are EDA giants Synopsys and Cadence Systems, which in regulatory filings warned Chinese customers that the export, re-export, or in-country transfer of its software was now contingent on the approval of US export licenses.
EDA is an umbrella term for software, hardware, and services essential to the planning, design, and production of chips today. Cut off from these software vendors, Chinese chip designers may find it harder to compete with Western rivals.
According to Cadence, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), a division of the Commerce Department responsible for enforcing US trade policy, determined that the sale of EDA software to Chinese companies posted “an unacceptable risk of use in or diversion to a ‘military end use’ in China or for a Chinese ‘military end user.'”
In other words, the Trump administration is worried the software could be used to design chips for military applications. As such, availability of Cadence and Siemens’ EDA platform in the region will be contingent on Uncle Sam signing off on export licenses.
“The new requirements are complex, and we are engaging with BIS to obtain further clarification, as we assess the impact on our business and financial results,” Candence said in the filing.
The company declined to comment beyond its 8K filing.
Meanwhile, Synopsis suspended some financial guidance for upcoming periods after it received a letter from the Bureau of Industry and Security about the new export restrictions, according to its statement.
In spite of the rules, Siemens said it will do what it can to support its Chinese customers going forward. “Siemens has supported customers in China for more than 150 years and will continue to work with our customers globally to mitigate the impact of these new restrictions while operating in compliance with applicable national export control regimes,” a spokesperson for the German multinational said.
While the rules will make it harder for Chinese chip companies to design semiconductors, domestic alternatives do exist. Both X-Epic and Huawei are said to have built EDA toolkits of their own in order to overcome US sanctions.
The decision comes just weeks after after the Trump administration moved to further restrict the sale of high-end AI accelerators, like Nvidia H20 and AMD’s MI308 to customers in the Middle Kingdom and other nations of concern. ®
