Chips remain contentious despite easing US-China tensions

Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by registering here.

Hello readers,

After my school exams, I was all geared up for the National Defence Academy (NDA). Yep, for a hot minute during my college days, I had this big dream of becoming an army officer.

A big chunk of the NDA entrance test focused on current events. That meant I had to flip through newspapers every day. (Maybe that’s where my interest in journalism took root?)

That’s when I stumbled upon how then-US president Donald Trump started the trade war with China. He slapped sanctions left and right, hitting everything from aircraft parts to soybeans.

When Joe Biden was elected US president, you might have expected things to be different.

But surprisingly, Biden doubled down instead by signing an executive order targeting China’s tech economy. The move, he claimed, is aimed at limiting China’s military’s technological prowess.

Through the executive order, the US has imposed sweeping restrictions on exporting advanced computer chips to China, sparking a high-stakes battle for computational supremacy. The US even pumped subsidies into its own chip production with the CHIPS and Science Act.

But senior US officials have been trying to play nice with China over the past month, and that’s raised questions about possible changes in tech export restrictions. The US will reportedly focus on just specific high-end technologies instead of going for an all-out ban.

My colleague Scott dove deep into the issue in this week’s first Big Story, and guess what’s causing all the buzz? The semiconductor industry is right in the thick of it.

But hold on, China isn’t taking this lying down. It’s working on a clever work-around called chiplets – nifty packaging for small semiconductors. And get this: Huawei, the Chinese company that’s been the focal point of US sanctions, is back in the game, filing chiplet patents like there’s no tomorrow.

In our second Big Story, Shadine maps out the key players in Indonesia’s SaaS industry, examines investment trends, and provides data on funding rounds in the sector. And for the Token Issue, I discuss the rumor about US authorities hitting Binance with fraud charges.

— Lokesh

---

THE BIG STORIES

---

TOKEN ISSUE

---

NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

---

FYI

---