US tightens China chip curbs by targeting design software: Sources
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Washington has employed an escalating approach to curbing Beijing’s ambitions to build a domestic semiconductor industry.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is moving to restrict the sale of chip design software to China, people familiar with the matter said, as the US government evaluates a broader policy announcement on the issue.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security sent letters to at least some of the leading providers of electronic design automation, or EDA, on May 23, telling them to halt shipments to Chinese customers, said the sources.
Top makers of the technology include Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Germany’s Siemens. Software from Cadence and Synopsys is used to design everything from the highest-end processors for the likes of Nvidia and Apple, to simple parts that, for example, regulate power.
“The Commerce Department is reviewing exports of strategic significance to China,” said an agency spokesperson. “In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licences or imposed additional licence requirements while the review is pending.”
It is unclear how broad the curbs will be, although it could mean an effective ban on doing business in China, said one of the sources. Synopsys gets about 16 per cent of its revenue from China, while Cadence gets about 12 per cent.
Cadence and Synopsys declined to comment, while Siemens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington has employed an escalating approach to curbing Beijing’s ambitions to build a domestic semiconductor industry. It started by cutting China off from equipment used to make the most advanced electronic components, then gradually broadened the impact of the rules.
The US has also moved to keep the most advanced semiconductors out of China. Nvidia has been the main target of increasingly strict US export controls – in part because its chips are the gold standard for training artificial intelligence models.
The Trump administration in 2025 banned Nvidia from selling its H20 chips to Chinese customers,
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has publicly objected to such restrictions and declared the US policy a “failure”.
Export controls by the US have emerged as a flashpoint in trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese officials claiming that US restrictions – along with efforts to pressure allies not to use Huawei Technologies’ latest Ascend chip – violated the spirit of recent discussions in Geneva aimed at defusing broader tensions over tariffs on the world’s second-largest economy by President Donald Trump. BLOOMBERG
