Biden issues order restricting certain US tech investments in China; UK mulls – Seeking Alpha

BIZ NEWS, August 10 (Tech) – The U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday to regulate certain U.S. investments in China in the three areas of, semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence, or AI.

The Biden administration said it was committed to taking narrowly targeted actions to protect national security while maintaining its longstanding commitment to open investment.

“This program will seek to prevent foreign countries of concern from exploiting U.S. investment in this narrow set of technologies that are critical to support their development of military, intelligence, surveillance, and cyber-enabled capabilities that risk U.S. national security,” said a press release from the White House.

The President identified the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, including the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and the Special Administrative Region of Macau, as a country of concern.

The White House added that the decision was made after consultations with stakeholders, industry members, and foreign allies. Engagements will continue to solicit additional public feedback to make any needed adjustments before the rule goes into effect.

“I have issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency to deal with the threat of advancement by countries of concern in sensitive technologies and products critical to the military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities of such countries,” said Biden in a letter to the Congress.

The order will prohibit some transactions and require investors to notify the government of their plans on others.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury said it anticipates exempting “certain transactions, including potentially those in publicly-traded instruments and intracompany transfers from U.S. parents to subsidiaries.”

Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry said, “China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the US’s single-minded rollout of restrictions on investments in China. We have made serious démarche to the US.”

China urged the U.S. to fulfil Biden’s commitment of no intention to decouple from China or obstruct China’s economic development, the foreign ministry added.

The U.K. was also weighing in how to respond to Biden’s order adding that it was continuing to evaluate potential national security risks, Reuters reported.

“The UK will consider these new measures closely as we continue to assess potential national security risks attached to some investments,” said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, according to the report.

Amid these announcements, it was reported that China’s top tech companies have placed orders worth $5B for Nvidia NVDA chips, which are important to make generative artificial intelligence, or AI, systems.