UK blocks sale of chip design software company to China
- Reference: 1660912211
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/19/uk_chip_company_sale_china/
- Source link:
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced the decision in an [1]official notice posted on the website of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) this week.
The brief notice states that the Business Secretary made the final order under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSIA), which came into force at the start of this year. This has the effect of preventing the sale of Pulsic Limited, based in Bristol, to Super Orange HK Holding Limited, which was angling to acquire the entire share capital of Pulsic.
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[3]Pulsic is an electronic design automation (EDA) company that makes floorplanning, placement, and routing tools that are used in the design and development of the circuit layouts for chips. The company says that its products are suitable for "extreme design challenges at advanced nodes."
[4]
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In the official notice, BEIS states that the sale was considered a potential risk to national security because the tools developed by Pulsic and the expertise contained within qualify as dual-use technologies, meaning they could be used in the creation of "cutting-edge integrated circuits that could be used in a civilian or military supply chain."
Many technologies might meet such a dual-use criteria, so why Pulsic's chip design software is considered such a security threat is unclear, unless the reason is simply that the UK government – like its US counterpart – sees the development of an advanced semiconductor industry in China as a threat in itself.
[6]China, US relations further soured by CHIPS Act
[7]The CHIPS Act won't end US reliance on foreign foundries
[8]The trade ban that wasn't: US allows 94% of restricted tech exports to China anyway
[9]US bans export of tech used in 3nm chip production on security grounds
However, Bloomberg [10]reports that Super Orange HK Holding Ltd was founded in Hong Kong only last year by a company called Nanjing Puxin Software, which in turn appears to be wholly owned by Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group, a company backed by China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund.
This is a state-owned investment vehicle founded in 2014 to drive the development of China's semiconductor industry, and known in China as "The Big Fund."
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Although the National Security and Investment Act only came into force at the start of this year, the UK government has already invoked it for several cases involving overseas investment in UK technology companies.
It is investigating the increasing [12]ownership of BT shares by French teleco tycoon Patrick Drahi, who is now the UK telco's largest shareholder. Also under review is the [13]acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab , the country's largest chipmaking facility, by Nexperia, a Dutch company that is in turn owned by a Chinese corporation.
The British government also reportedly considered using the NSIA to persuade SoftBank to [14]list chip designer Arm on the London stock exchange as part of its public offering, and last month blocked the University of Manchester from [15]licensing robot vision technology to a Chinese company. ®
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acquisition-of-pulsic-ltd-by-super-orange-hk-holding-ltd-notice-of-final-order
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yv@zpWe5kEkuz8Hsq19WYQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pulsic.com/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yv@zpWe5kEkuz8Hsq19WYQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yv@zpWe5kEkuz8Hsq19WYQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/18/china_us_relations_chips_act/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/18/chips_act_made_usa/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/17/china_us_export_ban_truth/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/15/us_bans_3nm_exports/
[10] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-19/chinese-chip-software-maker-behind-mystery-buyer-that-uk-blocked
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yv@zpWe5kEkuz8Hsq19WYQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/bt_national_security_altice/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/security_probe_nexperia_sale/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/22/uk_govt_arm_ipo/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/uk_blocks_university_china_license/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The footrest
And you are one of China & russias Useful idiots
Re: The footrest
This is not a decision based on supposed national security. It is about doing what the USA wants (tells) us to do. Our politicians are in their pocket.
Re: The footrest
I'm the first to complain that the government sells good public stuff off cheap, then buys it back for pounds on the penny. I also find it insane that we can't build our own nuclear power stations.
I, for one, am pleased to see a bit of protectionism, and I don't care whether the USA is to be thanked or not. We'll only maintain excellent universities if there are jobs to do on the other side, and we keep talent and know-how within the isles.
Now we've shot ourselves in the foot by pissing off the neighbours, we need to look out for ourselves as no one else is going to
Re: The footrest
You raise some good points, and on much I agree with you. I'll add some comments.
-> I also find it insane that we can't build our own nuclear power stations.
Agreed. What we are doing by getting other countries to build (and by extension, run) "our" power stations is also extremely unsound from the much-vaunted national security aspect. The French have frequently been not-the-best of neighbours, nor have the Germans. Yet who runs the energy supplies for this country now?
-> I, for one, am pleased to see a bit of protectionism
This is not about protectionism. It is about bowing to American control. British politicians see themselves not as representatives of the British electorate, but as good foot stalls for the USA. Airstrip One.
Re: The footrest
>I, for one, am pleased to see a bit of protectionism,
Except this is going to result in a US corporation offering to buy them for 1/10 the price.
If the government is going to block all other foreign buyers then their choices, or the choices of their investors, is to accept any US offer or wait for one the UK's own semiconductor giants to make an offer.
Re: The footrest
Already to late, China owns a lot of British Assets (Sorry Chinese) that this is a pretty invalid statement.
I still feel it is to easy for any business outside the UK to buy up companies here.
Private ownership
China does not have private ownership in the Western sense. It's safe to assume that every Chinese "company" is state owned.
The Western equivalent of Chinese ownership would be administration.
That being said, it's rare that government is doing something right, but it was a good call to block the sale.
To be fair there should be a blanked ban on any sales like that to China.
Wise decision, need more like it
China is a totalitarian state, aside from subjugating its own population and putting developing nations on the hook financially to gain access/control of assets, it threatens to seize Taiwan by force, where a large proportion of chip production is based.
After years of allowing China free access to decimate other manufacturing industries, and steal IP from foreign companies to enable it to move from cheap tat to more sophisticated products, the last thing the we should do is sit back and help China on-shore high-end chip design/production, gaining the ability to take Taiwan, leaving the rest of the world in the position of China's way or no chips.
It was bad enough for much of europe to become reliant on Russia for oil/gas, the lesson is clear.
Let's stop pretending it's a good idea to help totalitarian scum develop their economies and capabilities.
Re: Wise decision, need more like it
-> China is a totalitarian state, aside from subjugating its own population
The USA is a totalitarian state. It has about 5% of the world's population, YET more than 20% of the world's prison population. Forced labour? Look no further than the forced labour in American prisons. Endemic corruption and gerrymandering and deliberate voter disenfranchisement... where are your bigs words about subjugation now?
Re: Wise decision, need more like it
дезинформация - is that a big enough word for you?
UK's Zombie Government
Great to see the UK's arsehat government continue its clueless interventions into the world of "tech". Driving Britain's meagre microelectronics sector into a quagmire of uncertainty and non-investment.
Re: UK's Zombie Government
No, this is the government drowning in a tech pond, grabbing at any floating debris they can and assuming it's all life rings but not actually having any idea whether the life-ring will continue to float, what the life-line is connected to, who is pulling it or which bank they'll end up on.
The footrest
The UK is the USA's foot rest. Toe the line, slaves. Do what your masters tell you.