US lawmakers press Biden for plans on Chinese use of open chip technology

US President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor chip as he speaks prior to signing an executive order, aimed at addressing a global semiconductor chip shortage, in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, US, February 24, 2021. / Photo: Reuters

A wider bipartisan group of US lawmakers is asking the Biden administration about its plans to respond to China's rising use of RISC-V chip design technology after Reuters last month reported on growing concerns about it in both houses of Congress.

RISC-V, pronounced "risk five," is a free open-source technology that competes with costly proprietary technology from British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings and Intel Corp.

It can be used as a key part of anything from a smartphone chip to advanced processors for artificial intelligence.

US firms such as Qualcomm and Alphabet's Google have embraced RISC-V, but so too have many Chinese companies.

Reuters last month reported that at least four influential US lawmakers view Chinese use of the technology as a potential national security threat because RISC-V is not captured by the sweeping export controls the US has imposed on sending chip technology to China.

Now, a broader group of 18 lawmakers that includes five Democrats is asking the Biden administration for how it plans to prevent China "from achieving dominance in ... RISC-V technology and leveraging that dominance at the expense of US national and economic security," according to a letter the group sent to Raimondo and seen by Reuters.