Exclusive: US chip CEOs plan Washington trip to talk China policy

July 14 (Reuters) – Intel Corp CEOs (INTC.O) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O) plan to travel to Washington next week to discuss China policy, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The executives plan to hold meetings with U.S. officials to discuss market conditions, export controls and other issues affecting their business, one of the sources said. It was not immediately clear who the executives would meet.

Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment, and White House officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

The sources said other semiconductor CEOs may also be in Washington next week. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

US officials plan tightening of export rules affecting high-performance computer chips and shipments to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, sources told Reuters in June. The rules would respectively affect Intel, which is preparing a new artificial intelligence chip that could be shipped to China, and Qualcomm, which has a license to sell chips to Huawei.

The Biden administration last October released a set of rules aimed at freezing China’s semiconductor industry while the United States pours billions of dollars in subsidies into its own chip industry.

The possible tightening of the rules would particularly affect Nvidia. The company’s strong position in the AI ​​chip market helped boost its value to $1 trillion earlier this year.

The chip industry has been warmly welcomed in Washington in recent years as lawmakers and the White House strive to shift more production to the United States and its allies, and away from China. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon have often met with government officials.

Next week’s meetings, which one of the sources said could include joint sessions between executives and US officials, come as Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) and other chip companies fear a permanent loss sales for an industry with large amounts of business in China as tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing.

One of the sources familiar with the matter said the leaders’ goals for the meetings would be to make sure government officials understand the possible impact of any further tightening of rules around chips that can be sold to China.

Many U.S. chip companies derive more than a fifth of their revenue from China, and industry executives have argued that cutting those sales will reduce the profits they reinvest in research and development.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington, Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Edmund Klamann

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