US lawmakers press Biden for plans on Chinese use of open chip technology

A broader bipartisan group of US legislators has asked the Biden administration about its plans to respond to China’s increasing use of RISC-V chip design technology, after Reuters reported last month on growing worries about it in both houses of Congress. RISC-V, which is pronounced “risk five,” is a free open-source technology that competes with expensive proprietary technology from Arm Holdings, a British semiconductor and software design business, and Intel Corp. It can be utilised in everything from a smartphone chip to powerful artificial intelligence computers. Many Chinese corporations have embraced RISC-V, as have US ones like as Qualcomm and Alphabet’s Google. Reuters last month reported that at least four influential US lawmakers view Chinese use of the technology as a potential national security threat because RISC-V is not captured by the sweeping export controls the US has imposed on sending chip technology to China. Now, a broader group of 18 lawmakers that includes five Democrats is asking the Biden administration for how it plans to prevent China “from achieving dominance in … RISC-V technology and leveraging that dominance at the expense of US national and economic security,” according to a letter the group sent to Raimondo and seen by Reuters. The lawmakers include the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat from a select committee on China in the House of Representatives as well as Democratic lawmakers from New Jersey, Florida, Michigan and Indiana. They also asked the Biden administration about how it might apply an existing executive order to require US companies to get an export license before working with Chinese companies on RISC-V technology. “While the benefits of open-source collaboration on RISC-V promise to be significant for advancement and development of the US semiconductor industry, it can only be realized when contributors are working with the sole aim of improving the technology, and not aiding the technological goals and geopolitical interests of” China, the group of lawmakers wrote in the letter. A Commerce Department spokesperson said Raimondo had received the letter and would respond through the appropriate channels.