June 18, 2025

Taiwan Export Controls Tighten, PCIe 7.0 Debuts

Round-up

Highlights

  1. Taiwan swings its first export-control hammer – Huawei and SMIC now sit on Taipei’s new entity list, formally aligning the island with Washington’s tech-security playbook and tightening Beijing’s access to advanced AI silicon1.
  2. PCIe 7.0 spec lands with 512 GB/s lanes – Doubling bandwidth yet again, the freshly released standard answers hyperscale-AI demand—years before most engineers will even sample PCIe 6.02.
  3. ASML locks in Connecticut growth – After state budget tweaks clarified incentive eligibility, the lithography giant confirmed it will keep adding headcount and clean-room floor space in Wilton, reinforcing its U.S. foothold beyond last week’s buy-back news3.

Other developments

  • Malaysia probes reports of a China-linked LLM cluster running Nvidia GPUs inside local data centers4
  • Nvidia confirms first-ever booth at Beijing’s July supply-chain expo despite export-control headwinds5
  • Volvo & Daimler build rare-earth inventories as China’s new licensing regime bites motor-magnet supply chains6
  • Nvidia’s rally pushes market cap within sight of $3 trillion, fanning chip-stock momentum7
  • SandboxAQ (Nvidia-backed) releases 5.2 million synthetic protein-binding molecules to speed drug discovery with GPU compute8
  • Institutional money keeps flowing into tools: Chicago Capital, Grove Bank & Trust add Lam Research shares on ex-dividend day9
  • Microsoft and AMD co-engineer custom silicon for a next-gen Xbox console and handheld family10

Did you know? A single wafer-scale Cerebras WSE-3 chip can deliver up to 125 quadrillion operations per second while using roughly one-sixth the power of an equivalent multi-GPU cluster, according to UC Riverside researchers11.


In-depth

1. Government and Corporate Policy

  • Taiwan’s Huawei/SMIC blacklist

    • First use of the island’s Strategic High-Tech Commodities Entity List against major Chinese chip firms1.
    • Mirrors U.S. restrictions and signals closer supply-chain coordination with Washington.
    • Beijing called the step “self-harm,” but analysts see limited near-term TSMC revenue impact.
  • Malaysia Nvidia-chip investigation

    • Trade ministry is verifying whether a Chinese operator skirted AI-chip curbs by training LLMs in Kuala Lumpur data centers4.
    • Comes weeks after U.S. guidance demanding firms prevent indirect China access.
  • Nvidia heads back to Beijing

    • Company will join July’s China International Supply-Chain Expo—its first appearance—aiming to reassure customers while remaining within new U.S. licensing limits5.
    • Foreign exhibitors are up 15 % YoY, per CCTV, despite geopolitical friction.
  • Rare-earth export bottleneck

    • Daimler Truck is stockpiling magnets, Volvo scouting non-Chinese sources after April’s new Chinese licence rules6.
    • Executives liken the scramble to the 2021 chip crisis and vow deeper tier-3/4 supplier audits.

2. Economics, Finance, and Business Outlook

  • ASML Connecticut expansion

    • State officials say > 3 200 staff already onsite; $14 M grants and $6 M tax credits preserved under new budget clarifications3.
    • Adds U.S. manufacturing depth just as EUV demand surges.
  • Nvidia flirts with $3 T valuation

    • Shares closed within 2 % of the milestone as hyperscale orders and Blackwell road-maps keep momentum strong7.
    • The rally lifts broader SOX index and fuels IPO chatter for AI hardware start-ups.
  • Capital still loves equipment vendors

    • Chicago Capital and Grove Bank & Trust disclosed fresh Lam Research stakes on June 18, signalling confidence in etch/deposition demand through the next node shrink912.
  • China’s STAR Market readies ‘Growth Segment’

    • Regulators will let pre-profit deep-tech firms list in Shanghai, promising easier exits for domestic chip design and packaging start-ups13.

3. Technology and R&D

  • PCIe 7.0 specification released

    • Doubles per-lane speed to 128 GT/s and pushes aggregate x16 bandwidth to 512 GB/s—squarely aimed at AI accelerators and quantum interconnects214.
    • Backward-compatible design eases board-maker migration; PCIe 6.0 consumer products remain at least a year out.
  • Wafer-scale accelerators study

    • UC Riverside review finds wafer-scale chips (Cerebras WSE-3, Tesla Dojo) can cut data-center energy per TFLOP by up to 6×, though 10 kW cooling remains a hurdle11.
  • HBM standards vs. customization debate

    • Synopsys and Siemens bloggers argue 3D-IC packaging is shifting EDA workflows, as designers balance commodity HBM stacks against bespoke interposers for AI ASICs15.
  • Microsoft-AMD next-gen Xbox silicon

    • Partnership spans console, handheld, cloud and accessories; AMD to supply custom APUs, reaffirming its console semi-custom dominance10.

Footnotes


  1. https://mothership.sg/2025/06/tawain-blacklists-huawei-smic/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. https://www.theverge.com/news/686560/pcie-7-0-specification-launch-bandwith-speed ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/ct-asml-semiconductors-wilton-20365269.php ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/malaysia-trade-ministry-probing-reports-chinese-firms-use-nvidia-ai-chips-2025-06-18/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-attend-china-supply-chain-expo-july-says-cctv-2025-06-17/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/daimler-truck-says-rare-earth-supply-concerns-have-led-more-inventory-building-2025-06-17/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. https://techfundingnews.com/nvidia-stock-surges-as-record-high-nears-whats-driving-the-rally/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/nvidia-backed-ai-startup-sandboxaq-creates-new-data-speed-up-drug-discovery-2025-06-18/ ↩︎

  9. https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/filing-chicago-capital-llc-acquires-new-holdings-in-lam-research-corporation-nasdaqlrcx-2025-06-18/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  10. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-microsoft-gen-xbox-video-game.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-wafer-scale-redefine-ai.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  12. https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/filing-grove-bank-trust-purchases-new-position-in-lam-research-corporation-nasdaqlrcx-2025-06-18/ ↩︎

  13. https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-set-up-segment-star-market-host-pre-profit-growth-companies-2025-06-18/ ↩︎

  14. https://www.eetimes.com/pcie-7-0-keeps-pace-with-ai-demands/ ↩︎

  15. https://semiengineering.com/blog-review-june-18-2/ ↩︎