The United States lifted restrictions on exporting its chip-making software to China after the latter agreed to export more key minerals to America.
Synopsis, Cadence and Siemens, which collectively account for more than 90% of the electronic design automation (EDA) software market share in China, have been notified by the US Commerce Department to allow users in China to use their products, according to a Bloomberg report.
Shares of China’s Empyrean Technology, a key chip-making software supplier for Huawei Technologies, declined 3% to 115.68 yuan ($16.14) on Thursday. Empyrean has a market share of less than 10% in China.
The trade policy development followed the signing of a trade agreement between Washington and Beijing on June 25, which came after meetings between US and Chinese officials in London on June 8 and 9.
“China will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The US will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on June 27.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he hopes the flow of Chinese mineral and magnet exports will increase.
“We are hoping they will flow at a faster rate,” Bessent said during an interview with Fox News. “Rare earth magnets are flowing. They are not flowing as they did before April 4, but we are confident that the Chinese will live up to their side of the deal.”
China’s EDA software
On May 12, the White House announced that the US and China had reached a trade agreement following meetings between their officials in Geneva. The US agreed to reduce its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%. This includes a 10% tariff that most other countries face and a 20% tariff pending China’s effort to stop the exports of fentanyl precursors to America. China maintained a 10% tariff on all US imports.
While both countries de-escalated the trade war, the US pushed for a strategic decoupling with China to protect its steel, critical medicines and semiconductor sectors. At the same time, China refused to relax its key minerals export controls for the US.
On May 23, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) informed the EDA industry about its decision to restrict the sale of chip design software to China. The BIS has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements.
Media reports stated that the new restrictions will not prevent Chinese firms from using American EDA software they already possess, but they will prohibit them from receiving updates and the technical support necessary to continue designing chips for manufacture in Taiwan.
Separately, the US suspended the sales of its critical technologies related to CFM International LEAP-1C engines to Chinese state-owned aerospace firms. The restriction affected the production of China’s Comac C919 aircraft.
In late May, the US and China accused each other of violating the Geneva agreement. However, China softened its stance in early June and resumed negotiations with the US. They reached a deal in London on June 8 and 9, but the US did not announce the details until this week.
Previously, some Chinese commentators have highlighted the significant impact of the United States’ EDA software ban on China.
”The export ban on EDA software to China is a core part of the United States’ suppression against China’s chip sector,” Zhong Xiaoguai, an Anhui-based columnist, says in an article on May 30. “It covers software tools that design mature chips over 14-nanometers, hitting all fabless Chinese chipmakers.”
“Although EDA is only a small part of the global chip sector, it is the core fulcrum for leveraging trillions of dollars of output value,” he added.
Zhong admitted that China’s EDA software will not be able to quickly compensate for the gap with Western EDA tools, although Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has gathered more than a hundred institutions to set up an EDA database.
“A chipmaker without EDA software is like an architect drawing skyscraper blueprints with bare hands,” Zuo Yifan, a Sichuan-based columnist, writes in an article published on June 6. “Chipmakers also need to use EDA software to resolve technical issues such as current leakage and signal crosstalk of the circuits.”
She said developers of China’s EDA software need foundries to provide them with process design kits (PDK), but SMIC failed to do so. She said most Chinese chip designers are only familiar with foreign software.
She said that if China wants to build another Synopsys, it should ensure that software engineers are well-paid, software firms have sufficient funding to remain unprofitable for more than three years, and EDA firms share data to form an ecosystem.
Key minerals
Now, the US can import more key minerals from China, while Chinese chipmakers can use US EDA software. However, it’s unclear whether such a deal will last long. Observers believe that the US will continue to diversify its key mineral sources.
India, Brazil, and Australia are emerging as new suppliers of rare earths for the US. If they succeed, they will create new competition for China’s rare earth suppliers.
According to the US Geological Survey, Brazil’s key mineral reserves are estimated at 21 million metric tons, while China’s are at 44 million metric tons. India has 6.9 metric tons, and Australia has 5.7 million metric tons.
Last month, the Brazilian government announced that it would allocate US$1 billion in public funding to initiate a series of strategic mineral projects. The country has one rare earth mine and will add two or three more by 2030.
Read: US-China tensions surge as tech and mineral wars intensify
