(Reuters) – The Biden administration is poised to introduce new restrictions on U.S. companies funding the development of advanced computing technologies in China, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The U.S. last year published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. equipment, in its bid to slow Beijing’s technological and military advances.
It has also been working on curbs to investments by U.S. firms for months and the measures are now largely complete and could be issued within two months, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the discussions.
It added that the Treasury department had reached out to other governments, as well as the European Union, to try to ensure they do not provide similar financing to China after the U.S. cuts it off.
The details of the pending executive order remain unclear, the report said, but is expected to require companies to report more information to the government about their planned investments in certain adversarial countries.
The order would likely prohibit outright investments in some sensitive areas, like quantum computing, advanced semiconductors and certain artificial intelligence capabilities with military or surveillance applications, the NYT said, citing several people familiar with the plans.
(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
