US Lifts Chip Design Software Curbs on China in Trade Deal

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s administration has lifted recent export license requirements for chip design software sales in China, as Washington and Beijing implement a trade deal for both countries to ease some restrictions on critical technologies.

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The US Commerce Department informed the world’s three leading semiconductor design software providers — Synopsys Inc., Cadence Design Systems Inc. and Germany’s Siemens AG — that requirements to seek government licenses for business in China are no longer in place, according to company statements.

Siemens has restored full access to its software and technology for Chinese customers, the company said, while Synopsys and Cadence said they’re in the process of resuming such services in the Asian country. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its notices that lifted the curbs, which were also imposed on smaller makers of electronic design automation, or EDA, tools.

White House officials cracked down on EDA sales to China in May as part of a raft of measures responding to Beijing’s limits on shipments of essential rare earths. Under a trade agreement finalized last week, Washington promised to allow shipments of EDA software, as well as ethane and jet engines, to China — provided Beijing first honor its pledge to speed export approvals for critical minerals used in everything from wind turbines to airplanes.

The move to lift EDA curbs is a sign that the accord reached in London — which would bring the countries back to the terms of a deal struck the previous month in Geneva — is indeed being implemented. In addition to chip software sales, the US last week allowed makers of a critical petroleum product to transport, but not yet unload, gas tankers to Chinese ports.

Beijing also achieved a higher-level longtime goal: Washington has now put export controls, a national security tool historically treated as non-negotiable, on the table in trade talks.

When the EDA controls were first imposed, industry officials saw little reason to question whether they’d stick. The US for years used export controls to limit China’s access to advanced chips and the equipment needed to make them, in an effort to prevent Beijing from developing advanced AI that could benefit its military. Expanding that campaign to encompass EDA software — used to design everything from high-end Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. processors to simple parts like power-regulation components — was a longtime priority for some China hawks in Washington. And the Trump administration had just shown it would intensify China chip curbs by tightening restrictions on Nvidia’s sales.

But the EDA measures were unusual because US officials offered little detail on what was and wasn’t allowed — parameters that typically are discussed at length during a formal regulatory process. Then, barely two weeks after their imposition, National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett, speaking at the start of London trade talks, said the US may ease semiconductor controls he described as “very important” to China. While Hassett and other senior Trump officials said curbs on Nvidia chips weren’t up for discussion, the industry lacked clarity throughout the London meetings — and for weeks thereafter — about when, and whether, the EDA curbs would be lifted.

Ultimately, some Washington officials were relieved to see the US offer what they saw as lower-priority semiconductor concessions to Beijing, Bloomberg has reported — safeguarding, at least for now, the Nvidia chip export limits they view as vital. But some also see controls on EDA as a crucial step in their own right, one that that shouldn’t be negotiated away as part of any trade deal.

“EDA software sales had been one of the few remaining inputs to Huawei’s chip development left untouched,” said Ryan Fedasiuk, a former State Department China adviser, in reference to the telecom giant at the center of Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions. “Restricting EDA licenses would have dealt a decisive blow to the company’s next-gen chip design timelines, and hobbled its competitiveness in global markets.”

EDA companies, meanwhile, are contending with a new worry, Bloomberg has reported: Even with access to the Chinese market restored, customers there may hunt for other suppliers or further develop domestic capabilities in response to heightened geopolitical risks.

--With assistance from Ian King, Jenny Leonard and Michael Shepard.

(Updates with additional context throughout)

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