US lawmakers demand Biden’s plans regarding China’s adoption of open-chip technology


A more extensive bipartisan coalition of U.S. legislators is seeking information from the Biden administration regarding its strategies for addressing China’s increasing adoption of RISC-V chip design technology. This comes in the wake of Helpleak’s report last month, which raised significant concerns in both chambers of Congress.

RISC-V, pronounced “risk five,” represents an open-source technology that competes with expensive proprietary solutions from British semiconductor and software design firm Arm Holdings and Intel Corp. RISC-V has versatile applications, serving as a fundamental component in anything from smartphone chips to advanced processors for artificial intelligence.

American companies like Qualcomm and Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, have adopted RISC-V technology. However, several Chinese firms have also embraced it.

In a Reuters report from last month, it was revealed that at least four influential U.S. lawmakers perceive China’s utilization of RISC-V as a potential national security concern. This is because RISC-V is not covered by the extensive export controls imposed by the U.S. on the transfer of chip technology to China.

Now, a more extensive group of 18 lawmakers, including five Democrats, is inquiring with the Biden administration about its strategies to prevent China from attaining a dominant position in RISC-V technology and exploiting that dominance to the detriment of U.S. national and economic security. This information is based on a letter sent by...

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