US export controls on advanced chips have spurred China to build its own semiconductor ecosystem, and Chinese AI models now rival American ones, according to a leading academic critic of the policy.
01Summary
- 01Rakesh Kumar, a University of Illinois professor, wrote in Fortune in October 2022 that the crackdown would not work and now says the controls have backfired.
- 02Huawei has shipped over 100 million devices powered by its homegrown Kirin processors since 2023 and unveiled the 'Tau Scaling Law' in May 2024 to achieve 1.4nm-equivalent chip density by 2031.
- 03Chinese AI lab DeepSeek and startup Z.ai have adapted models to run on Huawei's Ascend processors, and Meituan trained a 1.6-trillion-parameter AI model entirely on domestic chips.
- 04Nvidia's share of data centre chips in China fell to 34% in the first half of 2026, with AI accelerator shipments down 44% year-on-year, according to IDC data.
- 05ChangXin Memory Technologies claimed it will debut a new memory chip architecture by end of 2024 that could put it ahead of Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
02Why it matters
The shift in chip supply chains and AI capabilities could affect global technology competition and the cost and availability of electronics and AI services for consumers and businesses worldwide.
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