It turns out that as part of the regulations recently announced by the American government, US citizens and even residents and green card holders are prohibited from working for Chinese chip companies
Beijing Naura Microelectronics (NAURA), China’s largest maker of chip manufacturing equipment, this week asked its American engineers to stop working on research and development projects. The company made the move in accordance with the restrictions that the US government recently imposed on the Chinese high-tech sector, with the aim of making it difficult for China to develop on its own chips of the type it is prohibited from importing.
Foreign engineers are taking senior management and engineering roles in Chinese companies and applying their experience to make their employers competitive. Restricting US citizens, US residents and green card holders from working in Chinese companies could cause the collapse of these companies.
In an attempt to speed up the development of its semiconductor industry, China – through its many government-controlled investment funds as well as the chip companies themselves – has hired talent from American, South Korean and Taiwanese companies. This recruitment helped build world-class companies like, SMIC and YMTC relatively quickly. The same is true in the case of Beijing Noura, whose revenues have crossed the $2 billion mark in the last 12 months. The new restrictions also include chips for advanced supercomputers, but also equipment to create chips and, as mentioned, also senior engineers – all of which require special approval from the US Department of Commerce.