Following the implementation of the trade deal between the U.S. and China, the U.S. Commerce Department has informed the three top chip design software providers that they can resume their export of goods, including chip-design software, to China without a government license.
Back in late May, the U.S. imposed restrictions in response to China’s policy that limited its essential rare-earth minerals export. The product in the U.S. restriction included design software and chemicals for semiconductors, butane and ethane, machine tools, and aviation equipment.
The two nations were locked in the trade war for about the first half of this year and only found an agreement after the meeting in Switzerland in May. The U.S. is now fulfilling that agreement, part of which is to lift the export curb on some certain goods including chip-design software.
The global’s leading chip design software providers, Germany’s Siemens AG, Synopsys Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc, are now racing to restore their Chinese customers’ access to their softwares and technologies, with only Siemens AG having achieved this so far.
Cadence and Synopsys’ softwares are very important to major companies like Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. as they need it to design everything from processors to power-regulation components. This development would greatly affect the technology industry.
