Intel increases its ties with China, despite tensions with Washington over chips
US chip giant Intel is boosting its business ties in China with a new innovation center in Shenzhen intended to help domestic startups, even as Washington puts mounting pressure on semiconductor firms to cut trade with the country.
The Santa Clara chip giant and the government of Nanshan District in Shenzhen, a tech hub in southern China, launched the Intel Greater Bay Area Innovation Center on Saturday, according to a post on the center's official WeChat account. The center will focus on artificial intelligence (AI), chip applications and edge computing, among other technologies.
According to the release, the district government intends to leverage the partnership to become a global “innovation highland” through a combination of industry policy, Intel's ecosystem of products and technologies, and innovation from local partners.
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“We will further leverage the strengths of Intel's technology and ecosystem…facilitate the integration and development of emerging industries in the Greater Bay Area and across the country…and contribute to the development of the digital economy,” said Wang Rui , president of Intel China, at the center's grand opening event.
Intel is one of several US tech giants trying to maintain business contacts and manufacturing operations in the world's second-largest economy, amid tightening US-China ties that have seen Washington ramp up restrictions on chip exports. The tech war has also boosted demand for electronic components in China, especially chips.
Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger wrapped up a trip to China earlier this month, his second in three months, all under the radar. For downtown Shenzhen, Intel will partner with six local tech firms, including gadget maker Ugreen and fabless IC firms Senary Technology Group and Chipsea Technologies, all of which signed a deal with the chip giant at the event of launch. The companies will set up several joint laboratories for research in areas such as low-carbon and energy-saving computing solutions, PC and server chips, and intelligent transportation.
Intel also pledged to provide resource and technical support to companies located in Nanshan, helping them to develop the market and enter the industry.
The new innovation center comes just two weeks after Intel launched a processor designed to train AI systems that meets US export requirements to be sold to Chinese customers. Many in the country need advanced AI chips, as US-imposed limits on semiconductor sales to China have prevented access to Nvidia's popular A100 and H100 graphics processing units.
During the unveiling of the Gaudi2 AI processor in Beijing in mid-July, Intel executive vice president Sandra Rivera said the chip was designed to lower the barrier to entry and improve the ability of mainland Chinese customers “to implement the AI through cloud and smart-edge technologies, helping to build the future of AI in China”.
All of this will formally comply with the indications of the US federal government, but they go completely against the meaning of the law itself, which would like to limit China's technological development, especially in the artificial intelligence sector. The one that Intel helps to develop.
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The article Intel increases its ties with China, despite tensions with Washington over chips comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/intel-aumenta-i-propri-legami-con-la-cina-nonostante-le-tensioni-con-washington-sui-chip-foto/ on Thu, 03 Aug 2023 06:00:04 +0000.