Intel and AMD CPUs officially blocked from a government's PCs over privacy

The CPU industry has been rocked with China officially banning the use of Intel and AMD CPUs across all Chinese government PCs.

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The move by China to ban US chip manufacturers from its systems is only pushing further hostilities between the two nations. At the very least, the decision certainly stirs up the global chip market, as big US players in the space can no longer access government customers within the region. A new report from The Financial Times reveals the Chinese government has now banned Intel and AMD chips within its systems, citing privacy concerns regarding the chips and its push to have "safe and reliable" equipment within its systems.

The ban on these US-made chips came after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology posted a list of all viable CPUs, which didn't include AMD and Intel, and listed "unnamed" Chinese manufacturers. This move by China is one of many the nation is taking to further isolate itself away from international markets and turn toward creating "in-house" solutions.

Chinese-based companies that are suspected to be making significant progress with CPUs are Huawei and Phytium, which, presumably, are close enough to US-based chips in performance that the Chinese government can afford to ban the two biggest players in the space, AMD and Intel.

As for Intel and AMD, this news certainly isn't good, as it will mean a significant financial hit. Intel reportedly earned 27% of its Year-over-Year (YoY) sales from China. The global chip war has just got a whole lot more interesting.