China Chipping Away at Chips: Progress Evident

July 7, 2021

Intel is paying a third party to fab some super duper chips using the same teeny weeny traces rumored to be used in Apple’s next gen, does-everything chip. But Intel itself is not making the chips. China, however, seems to be plugging along with its chip fabbing efforts. It seems that China is moving forward in fabrication and technology for embedding AI in silicon. Global Times reports, “Chinese Tech Giant Baidu Spins Off $2 Billion AI Chip Unit, Gears Up for Homegrown Production Amid Fierce Competition.” Does this mean the bias will now be hardwired in? Who will know until it is too late.

The chip unit Kunlun will soon become an independent company, with the Baidu chip’s chief architect as its CEO. It is hoped the move will bring Kunlun more funding and more flexibility. Shares of Baidu climbed since the announcement. The brief write-up reports:

“Kunlun chips are designed to optimize AI workload and improve cloud cost structure. The project was first announced by Baidu CEO Robin Li at Baidu AI Developer Conference in 2018. It can be widely applied in scenarios such as computer vision and natural language processing. The first generation of Kunlun chips has seen the mass production in early 2020. The second generation with the performance of three times higher than that of the first generation, will be mass produced in the second half of 2021, according to media reports. Chips, which play a crucial role in the Internet of Things era, have become a new focus of competition for China’s technology giants. The competition has intensified amid the recent global shortage of chips and the US restriction on chip supplies to Chinese companies, according to industry experts.”

We are reminded AI chips are crucial to growing fields like unmanned vehicles and cloud servers, so there is much money to be made for companies that act quickly. Will China consider such issues as the unintentional harm biased AI can wreak on individuals and society. Nope. I think in the next six to nine months, there will be harm, and it may affect outfits like Intel which are working overtime to regain some of their former glory in the Great Chip Derby.

News releases are much easier to churn out than advanced semiconductors in our opinion. Maybe Wingtech via Nexperia will buy Newport Wafer Fab. This Newport outfit is the largest chip maker in the UK? Could this be a signal that China wants to make sure it can be a player in the chip game? The answer is, “Looks like it.”

Cynthia Murrell, July 7, 2021

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