AMD is connected to China's new supercomputing giant, US deems national security concern

AMD licensed the first-generation Zen CPU design and the X86-64 architecture in 2016 to a Chinese company called Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co, which goes by "Hygon." AMD and Hygon intended to create server-grade SoCs for the Chinese market with the Zen CPU design, and in the following years, Hygon created server CPUs called Dhyana.

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Dawning Information Industry Company Limited (Surgon) took the Dhyana silicon and created what was once ranked the 38th most powerful supercomputer. Surgon is also known for building servers. Notably, Surgon was Hygon's largest shareholder, and as of Monday, the two companies have now officially combined through swapping stock, meaning China has obtained a new giant company capable of creating integrated servers, CPUs, and supercomputers.

This isn't all just hot air, either. It was only recently that Chinese media reported that Hygon is preparing to release a CPU with 128 cores capable of running 512 threads, four threads for each core. Currently, Intel and AMD are running simultaneous multithreading with two threads per core, with both companies suggesting it may be something they may adopt in the future, but showing no progress thus far.

The combined power of Hygon/Surgon is likely going to attract many Chinese buyers, but we can definitely rule out some buyers from the list of potentials, as the USA's Bureau of Industry and Security has both companies on its Entity List, which compilation of foreign individuals, companies, and organizations that the U.S. government considers a national security or foreign policy concern. Entities on this list are subject to specific export restrictions and licensing requirements on their products.

What does this mean for China? The merger is an example of the nation's push to make as much hardware as it possibly can on its own soil to take its reliance off Western chip makers. With the combined might of Hygon and Surgon under its belt, China can now place another feather in the nation's cap amid the global chip battle.