US lawmaker to urge chip industry group to reduce China investments -source

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(Reuters) – The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ committee on China on Tuesday planned to meet with a semiconductor industry group to express concerns over U.S. investments in China’s chip industry, according a source familiar with the matter.

Representative Mike Gallagher, an influential Republican lawmaker whose select committee has pressed the Biden administration to take a tougher stance on sending U.S. technology to China, planned to meet with the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents major chip firms such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) whose sales to China have been affected by U.S. export rules, the source said.

Gallagher planned to tell the group he believes that U.S. rules enacted last October that cut off the sale of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China should be tightened to cover less advanced chips, the source said. The source added that Gallagher also aimed to talk with the group about reducing the number of semiconductor manufacturing machines that could be sent to China.

Also among the planned discussion topics is U.S. investment in Chinese chip firms. Intel, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and other firms have venture capital arms that have invested in Chinese technology companies, the source added.

Gallagher also will express his concerns that a massive Chinese effort to build up capacity to build less advanced chips used in automobiles, washing machines and other everyday products could one day result in China dumping those chips on the U.S. market and drive U.S. makers of such chips out of business, the source said.

A representative for the Semiconductor Industry Association did not immediately return a request for comment.