U.S. Semiconductor Policy: Trust, Security, and China Relations

American CEOs must prioritize tech competitiveness while ensuring advanced technology doesn't reach adversaries like China.

### Navigating U.S. Semiconductor Policy and Its Global Implications
* 🌍 The discussion around Invidious and other key players highlights the challenges of **selling technology into China**, which remains a **significant concern for the U.S. economy**.
* 🔍 Context is crucial, as the intersection of technology with American prosperity and national security necessitates careful scrutiny of where **advanced chips**, which power military assets like the **F-35**, are sent.
* 🤝 Trust plays a vital role in this dynamic; the U.S. must evaluate whether it can **trust the companies and countries receiving its critical technology** to prevent it from falling into the hands of **adversaries such as Russia and China**.
* 📊 The U.S. and its 12 closest democratic partners represent **nearly two-thirds of global GDP**, while adversaries like China and Russia account for **less than 20%**, emphasizing the **importance of maintaining a strong network of trusted technology**.
* 📉 Export controls on critical technologies, initiated during the Trump administration, continue to evolve, reflecting a **bipartisan commitment to safeguarding American interests** in the face of Chinese competition.
* 📱 Despite these controls, companies like Apple and NVIDIA still seek access to the **Chinese consumer market**, creating a dilemma for CEOs who must balance **business interests with national security concerns**.
* 🚀 As Jensen Huang noted, U.S. tech leaders must prioritize **advancing their competitiveness** while ensuring that **sensitive technologies are not shared with adversaries**, highlighting the **significant leadership role required from CEOs** in this technology race.

The context with which we talk about Invidious and some of the other key players is the limitations of selling into China. That was a key story for small, for example, going forward. Is that going to perpetuate itself? Caroline, You're right. Context is really important here. And when you think about it, it's just reflective of new paradigm that we're in, in which tech has to do very much with the future of American prosperity and American national security. So just as we have to scrutinize which countries we're sending F-35s to. We also have to scrutinize where we're sending our most advanced chips to which also power our F-35s. And these aren't hairdryers that we're talking about. And why we have to look at this is ultimately it comes down to trust. Do we trust the companies? Do we trust the countries that we're going to be sending our in video chips

and our most advanced critical technology to with the understanding that it's not going to end up in the hands of some of our adversaries, like Russia, like China, and the People's Liberation Army. Do you have a clear sense of any benefit being derived from current and existing policy on semiconductors for the United States? Look, we've taken measures over the course of a couple of administrations now to make sure that we're preventing our most critical technology from going to our adversaries and specifically China. But this is why I took diplomacy is also really important. When I was assistant secretary of state, I was traveling all across the world. And the number one thing that you hear from our allies and partners is that they want U.S. private sector investments. Well, it's really hard to do that when you have Chinese technology, untrusted technology embedded into your government infrastructure and across your country. And so you want to make sure that you're using trusted technology.

If you look at the U.S. and 12 of our closest Democratic partners, we make up almost two-thirds of global GDP. China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela make up less than 20% of GDP. So, you want to be a part of the big network. There's a lot of financial opportunity and diplomatic opportunity in that. And so, we've started to, through American policy, implement the right policies around semiconductors to make sure that we are helping the partners in that trusted network and not in the untrusted network. Michel. Earlier this week, Bloomberg's editor in chief, John Micklethwait, spoke to former President Trump and very directly tried to get a sense of what his policy will be with regards to China. Let's listen to his comments. Well, the reason they're doing it now is they're not going to do it afterwards. Okay? It's, you know, so they're doing it now. They want to do it.

I look at it. But I had a very good relationship with the president. She had a very good relationship with Putin and a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, who has a nuclear force that you won't even believe. President Trump discussed his good relationship with Xi, but I think many agree that we didn't get an understanding of whether he would continue with the existing stance of sort of export control on leading-edge chips. What is your expectation if President Trump were to take office in November or in January of next year? But remember, export controls on critical technology from China began under President Trump and specifically with Huawei. This is with regards to 5G. While we ultimately lost $30 billion in annual revenue because the United States under President Trump worked with 60 countries and 200 telecommunications companies to only use trusted vendors in 5G, and that did not include Huawei. We've seen those export controls continue now under the Biden administration. It's been on chips lately, but I think

you can start to see this is American foreign policy. Now, not only that, the Congress is very bipartisan. Just a couple of days ago, the China Select Committee called for putting more Chinese companies on the entity list. This is Huawei's network of clandestine companies, which American companies are sending semiconductor manufacturing equipment. So, this is a very bipartisan thing, and we should expect it to continue. And yet, Michel, companies still want to access the Chinese consumer. Apple still wants to build its phones there, still wants to access the consumer that NVIDIA still wants to sell its less sophisticated chips over to China, too. What is the CEO to do? What does Jensen Huang or Tim Cook to do in that situation? Well, it's really interesting, actually. It was a Bloomberg reporter just a couple of weeks ago, had asked Jensen Huang his take on the China export controls, and he said he had to defer policymaking to the United States. Unfortunately, in the world that we live

In when it comes to American national security, that's not anything that any CEO of a critical tech company can defer. We all have to be in this together and in what's ultimately a technology race. American CEOs and tech CEOs in particular need to make sure that we are advancing our tech competitiveness. At the same time, we're not giving that technology to our adversaries who are dedicated to our demise. So there's a very big leadership role for CEOs.

Navigating Tech Diplomacy

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Bloomberg Technology

The Impact of Tech Sales on American Prosperity and National Security

The limitations of selling tech into China are significant, reflecting a new paradigm in American prosperity and national security.

Scrutinizing the distribution of advanced technology, like semiconductor chips, is crucial to prevent them from falling into the hands of adversaries.

efforts to prevent critical technology from reaching China are important, but diplomacy and trusted technology are also key in supporting allies and partners.

and Democratic Partners' Economic Influence

and 12 Democratic partners contribute nearly two-thirds of global GDP, while China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela account for less than 20%.

American policy is focused on supporting trusted partners in the semiconductor industry.

Former President Trump's administration initiated export controls on critical technology from China, a trend that has continued under the Biden administration.

American foreign policy towards China is becoming increasingly bipartisan, with the Congress calling for more Chinese companies to be added to the entity list.

Despite this, major companies like Apple and NVIDIA still seek to access the Chinese consumer and market.

CEOs like Tim Cook and Jensen Huang are faced with the dilemma of navigating U.

export controls while trying to maintain their business interests in China.

The Role of CEOs in American National Security

CEOs of critical tech companies play a vital role in advancing American tech competitiveness.

They must ensure that technology is not given to adversaries who threaten the country's security.

There is a collective responsibility among CEOs to address national security concerns in the technology race.