Proposal for the Prohibition of Exporting RISC-V Chip Technology to China Suggested by the United States Department of State and Department of Defense; Accusing China of Resorting to Open Source to Evade the Imposed Ban.

The bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives in the United States has proposed that President Joe Biden expand the ban on exporting chip technology to include RISC-V, an open-source technology, in addition to the already banned technologies used by companies like Huawei. This move comes as China has been using this avenue to circumvent US export bans on technology.

Notable members of this bipartisan group include Senators Marco Rubio from the Republican Party and Mark Warner from the Democratic Party, as well as Representatives Mike Gallagher and Michael McCaul from the Republican Party.

RISC-V International, a Swiss-based organization, was established to avoid conflicts between China and the US. Although RISC-V chips are not yet popular in high-performance computing, they have gained a significant market share in the specific area of IoT chips, such as the affordable ESP32-C3 IoT chip.

Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed the need for the Department of Commerce to implement additional measures. On the other hand, the Department of Commerce responded by stating that they have been continuously reviewing measures. SiFive, a chip design company in the RISC-V community, expressed concerns that a ban would impact their business and likened it to preventing them from operating on the internet.

TLDR: A bipartisan group of US Senators and Representatives is urging President Joe Biden to expand the ban on exporting chip technology to include RISC-V as China has been utilizing this technology to evade existing export bans. RISC-V International, an organization registered in Switzerland, aims to mitigate conflicts between China and the US. While RISC-V is not widely used in high-performance computing, it has gained a significant market share in IoT chips. The group’s proposal has gained support from notable members such as Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner. The Department of Commerce has stated that they have been consistently reviewing measures, while chip design company SiFive expressed concerns over the potential ban’s impact on their business.