China"s government has reportedly started enforcing a new law that it passed in December this week. The law bans the government from purchasing PCs with Intel and AMD chips inside, along with software products from Microsoft, including its Windows operating system.
According to The Financial Times (via PC World), the new rules on purchasing products for China"s government PCs were set in place in December by the country"s Information Technology Security Evaluation Center. They include all governments and agencies above what is considered to be the country"s township level.
China previously ordered its government offices and agencies to no longer use Microsoft"s Windows OS in 2022, in favor of a homegrown Linux-based OS. As a result, these new guidelines are not expected to affect Microsoft. However, the ban on Intel and AMD chips could result in a noticeable hit in the revenue numbers for both companies.
On the other hand, the ban on these products on China"s government PCs does not include their use in private businesses or by regular consumers in that country.
China previously banned the use of Apple"s iPhone products in its government buildings. It has also banned the use of products from Micron Technology for its infrastructure projects, citing security concerns.
These new moves come sometime after the United States government banned China"s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) from exporting fabrication equipment to make certain chips in that country.
Late in 2023, the US government banned the export of some of Nvidia"s AI GPUs to China. Nvidia has instead developed AI chips, the H20, that were specifically made to conform to the restrictions of the US government"s export rules. The company started taking preorders for the H20 chips in early 2024, and are expected to begin large scale shipments of those China-specific AI GPUs sometime in the second quarter of 2024.