DJI and SMIC join Huawei on the US' Entity List
The Semiconductor Manufacturing Internal Corporation (or SMIC) is China's largest domestic maker of chipsets. It has most recently refined its process down to the 7nm level, which is arguably impressive for a firm that is not TSMC or Samsung. However, the pre-Biden/Harris US administration has thrown a major block across the rails of its progress.
This government has added it, along with approximately 60 other Chinese orgranizations, to its Entities List. This means they can no longer source goods or services from US firms. This is a demonstrable blow to SMIC, who, like all foundries, is dependent on IP from companies such as Lam Research and Applied Materials to design its chipsets.
The current US administration has been mulling SMIC's blacklisting for some time due to the possibility of links to the Chinese national military, connections that have now allegedly been substantiated.
This most recent development may come as another blow to the OEM Huawei, which had sourced SMIC chipsets for some of its phones, and may now be unable to continue to do so if the foundry is unable to produce more.
In related news, DJI is also apparently now on this list. The Chinese drone and accessories manufacturer has reportedly been linked to suspicious uses and potential exploitations of its users' personal data in the past.
