News Chinese GPU designers received key technologies from Imagination Technology: Report

[Admin]

Chinese owners could use technologies developed by Imagination Technologies for China's military, according to UK-China Transparency.

Chinese GPU designers received key technologies from Imagination Technology: Report : Read more

 

[Pierce2623]

I’ve seen performance numbers for Biren and Morethreads GPUs. If their founding teams really came from AMD and Nvidia, then they ended up with the worst people from those companies.

 

[bit_user]

I think TheRegister has done a pretty good job of covering this story:

UK govt probes Brit chip biz Imagination after growing Chinese ownership sparks national security fears

Ex-CEO raises alarm over Middle Kingdom overlords' plans

www.theregister.com

BTW, the UK government did finally act on the ownership concerns raised above, but much too late to save the situation with Imagination Technologies:

Bill to protect UK against harmful foreign investment becomes law

Act gives government powers to scrutinise, alter, and block transactions where there is a risk to national security

www.theregister.com

 

[bit_user]

I’ve seen performance numbers for Biren and Morethreads GPUs. If their founding teams really came from AMD and Nvidia, then they ended up with the worst people from those companies.

Nah, it's just hard and takes a long time to ramp up. CPUs and GPUs are incredibly complex and each generation is mostly an evolution of the previous one, both in hardware and software. Not only that, but there's a lot of internal tooling and test infrastructure we don't see, which also has to get established.

So, it's expected that it should take them a few generations to become competitive, but it'll probably happen.

 

[thisisaname]

Hard to say anything with being political.

 

[Co BIY]

Only thing I can comment on without it being perceived as political.

"These two companies have been described as China’s “premier AI chip designers” and both were sanctioned by the US government in October 2023."

The word "sanctioned" in English is almost always confusing because it can mean opposites in the same context.

 

[ctchewy]

Ya, someone can sanction an event (i.e. allow it to go on), or they could be sanctioned for breaking the rules.

 

[Co BIY]

Ya, someone can sanction an event (i.e. allow it to go on), or they could be sanctioned for breaking the rules.

In the sentence in this article either would make sense and is plausible. Without a agreement among all writers and readers going forward to only use one sense going forward (not likely). I think writers have to make sure that it is clear which direction is correct.

Looking up in my Oxford English dictionary helps not at all. Noun - 1. penalty 2. permission Verb - 1. permission 2. penalty

 

[bluvg]

Hard to say anything with being political.

For this and many similar stories (especially recently), it may make more sense if the comments section is not available. As soon as a border is involved, very little can be effectively stated, no matter how anodyne.

Nonetheless, I'll try: other than very short term, it seems quite unlikely to me that these moves will prevent transfer of tech IP and perhaps will backfire. One way or another, it inevitably will be obtained or developed/succeeded independently. And perhaps novel solutions via AI will make it all moot? (There's another set of fascinating IP concerns: who "owns" AI-developed solutions, when, etc.?)