Chip wars rage on

Hi, this is Debby in Taipei. Anyone hoping for a warming of US-China relations after President Xi Jinping’s California visit last year won't [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( [by Debby Wu]( Hi, this is Debby in Taipei. Anyone hoping for a warming of US-China relations after President Xi Jinping’s California visit last year won't see that happening in tech. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Samsung’s profit [tumbled 35%]( • Twilio’s CEO [stepped down]( • Unity Software [cut 25% of staff]( China, China, China Anti-China sentiment is one of the few points of bipartisan agreement in US politics, and it’s found an expression in tech export curbs to the Asian nation — implemented by Republican and Democrat administrations alike. As this year’s US election cycle ramps up, where the likely candidates are the two most recent presidents, we can expect more rather than fewer sanctions directed at Beijing. It’s a vote winner, as Donald Trump demonstrated when he made his beligerence to China abundantly clear prior to his 2016 election victory. Concern about Beijing’s military aspirations in the Taiwan Strait and beyond has been cited as a key reason to prevent advanced semiconductors and chipmaking gear being sold and shipped to China. In the run-up to the presidential poll in November, Joe Biden is [implementing]( a grand plan to reshore at least some strategically important industries back from China. Research has shown that his country lost about a million manufacturing jobs between 1999 and 2011 to stiff Chinese competition. Admittedly, there have been wrinkles in the US-led multilateral blockade of China’s development of sophisticated semiconductor know-how. Huawei Technologies Co.’s launch of the Mate 60 Pro handset — running on an advanced made-in-China chip that sanctions were meant to prevent — [shocked]( politicians in Washington last year. Beyond seeking breakthroughs, China’s also investing heavily in ramping up its overall output of chips, even if they are a few years behind the cutting edge. In 2024, China is expected to lead the world in [expanding]( chip production capacity with 18 new fabs coming online, according to trade group SEMI. If the first days of 2024 are any indication, we can expect the US-China technological conflict to ratchet up in an election year. While the Biden administration has not enacted further sanctions on Huawei or its chipmaker, Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., it did successfully [pressure]( Dutch authorities and ASML Holding NV into hastening the halt of shipments of some advanced chipmaking machines to China. Washington is also [considering]( tariffs as a means to prevent China from dumping legacy semiconductors, chips that aren’t cutting-edge but still vital to industries, in the US market like it did with steel and solar. As a first step, officials are surveying 100 companies across key industries to identify exactly how dependent US business is on Chinese chips. Whether it’s Trump or Biden at the helm in a year’s time, the policy toward China is unlikely to shift gears. And there’s reason to believe it has, on the whole, been effective. The latest laptop Huawei released in late 2023 — after the splash made by the advanced Mate 60 Pro — was [found]( to carry a three-year-old chip from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which is still more advanced than the best semiconductors the Chinese firm is capable of making at the moment. The artificial intelligence frenzy of 2023 is also heavily reliant on Nvidia Corp. chips that Washington has banned from China — with no viable domestic competitors to fill the void. As Biden hits the campaign trail, he’ll want to show evidence of slowing China’s technological ascent to the point where it poses a tolerable threat. His rival is likely to argue that whatever Biden proposes doesn’t go far enough. —[Debby Wu](mailto:dwu278@bloomberg.net) The big story Amazon, Google and Microsoft agreed to established regional headquarters in Riyadh in [response to pressure from Saudi Arabia](. Other companies that took similar steps include Airbus, Oracle and Pfizer. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV coverage]( of the iPhone that survived a fall from a plane. Get fully charged OpenAI said the New York Times isn’t “[telling the full story](” in its lawsuit. Nvidia unveiled graphics chips capable of running some [AI software on a PC]( rather than relying on the cloud. Duolingo cut 10% of its contract workers and said it’s [reassigning some tasks to AI](. Apple said the Vision Pro headset will go on [sale in US stores on Feb. 2](. More from Bloomberg Bloomberg House at Davos: Make us your home base at the World Economic Forum, Jan. 15 to 18. 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