Why World Powers Are Sparring Over Computer Chips: QuickTake

Computer chips are the engine of the digital economy, and their growing capabilities are enabling technologies such as generative artificial intelligence that promise to transform multiple industries.

Small wonder, then, that the devices are now the focus of intense competition between the world’s economic superpowers. The US under President Joe Biden rolled out an array of restrictions to curtail China’s semiconductor capabilities, and his successor Donald Trump has continued those efforts. In June, Taiwan joined the US campaign to curtail China’s technological ascent when it blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co. and its main chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., an unprecedented step that may further ...