Intel and AMD stop industrial chip sales to Russia

[vannvicente]

What just happened? In compliance with recent trade restrictions that block the supply of high-tech processors to Ukraine, Intel and AMD have reportedly suspended deliveries of their chips to Russia. These restrictions are part of the ongoing trade sanctions implemented by the US government following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A report from RBC claims that Intel and AMD, two of the largest US semiconductor manufacturers, have informed their Russian partners that they would be stopping industrial chip deliveries to the country. However, these restrictions will not affect the supply chain for consumer-targeted products, such as laptop and desktop processors.

"The company is closely monitoring the situation and is enforcing applicable sanctions and export control rules, including new sanctions imposed by OFAC and rules issued by BIS," said an Intel spokesperson in Russia.

The ban on semiconductor exports doesn't start until March 3. However, RBC's sources state that Intel and AMD have already verbally informed Russian buyers that they have already canceled all processor shipments. The sanctions may lead to an immediate shortage of the necessary equipment for running servers and high-tech equipment used across industries, including aviation, banking, and space exploration.

This ban could result in losses to Russian corporations and government institutions, many of whom rely on foreign semiconductor designs to run essential systems. While Russia has announced its intention to substitute foreign-made hardware for its own, these efforts have not panned out. The Elbrus-8C, a Russian-designed CPU, failed to pass recent industrial stress tests.

In addition to the economic ramifications, these trade restrictions may weaken Russia's cyberwarfare capabilities. In addition to recent action against Ukraine, Russian hackers have been tied to cyberattacks committed on the United States, France, Poland, Germany, and South Korea, including a major attack on the 2018 Winter Olympics.

There is growing pressure for US companies to restrict their products and services in Russia. Meta, Google, and Twitter recently announced restrictions on Russian state media that prohibit them from creating ads or monetizing content.

Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister tweeted at Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday, urging him to block the Apple App Store for citizens of the Russian Federation. Apple has not publicly commented on the request.

Even Taiwan-based TSMC, one of the largest manufacturers of semiconductors globally, stated that they would comply with export control rules on Russia. Once the ban is in full swing, Russia will have to look for other sources for its semiconductor supply chain, such as China.

Image credit: Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93570-intel-amd-stop-industrial-chip-sales-russia.html

 

[Dimitriid]

Both Russia and particularly China have been moving towards their own CPUs for a while now so it's not like they weren't prepared.

It might hurt yes, but nowhere near as much as being effectively blocked from the rest of the world with the SWIFT restrictions if they materialize effectively.

 

[winjer]

Both Russia and particularly China have been moving towards their own CPUs for a while now so it's not like they weren't prepared.

It might hurt yes, but nowhere near as much as being effectively blocked from the rest of the world with the SWIFT restrictions if they materialize effectively.

That's true up to a certain point.
Russia's solutions lag behind by decades, and if Russia has to depend only on it's chips, it's compute capability will be greatly diminished. And Russia does not have the money, nor the talent to catch up.
If nVidia, ARM and AWS follow suit, then Russian companies will be in a tight bind.

 

[Dimitriid]

That's true up to a certain point.
Russia's solutions lag behind by decades, and if Russia has to depend only on it's chips, it's compute capability will be greatly diminished. And Russia does not have the money, nor the talent to catch up.
If nVidia, ARM and AWS follow suit, then Russian companies will be in a tight bind.

Well let me put it this way: Catch up to what, exactly?

Will their solutions be a decade older and more inefficient? For sure. But who is it going to affect? Industry not as efficient? Nobody can buy from them now anywhere they're (potentially) banned from SWIFT.

Their service industry would not be as good? Again, who's gonna do business with them now for IT at all? I expect no hosting, no IT solutions, no clouds, nothing to happen without access to SWIFT

Since they're (on the verge of being) back to be almost fully isolated from the commerce world of the west, I don't foresee it as a big problem that is not immediately superseded by the economical sanctions and isolation.

They literally just need enough to keep the local economies and supply chains going and the military "defense" systems operational, that's about it really.

 

[winjer]

Well let me put it this way: Catch up to what, exactly?

Will their solutions be a decade older and more inefficient? For sure. But who is it going to affect? Industry not as efficient? Nobody can buy from them now anywhere they're (potentially) banned from SWIFT.

Their service industry would not be as good? Again, who's gonna do business with them now for IT at all? I expect no hosting, no IT solutions, no clouds, nothing to happen without access to SWIFT

Since they're (on the verge of being) back to be almost fully isolated from the commerce world of the west, I don't foresee it as a big problem that is not immediately superseded by the economical sanctions and isolation.

They literally just need enough to keep the local economies and supply chains going and the military "defense" systems operational, that's about it really.

I' m not saying that russia bring banned from swift is inconsequential. Quite the opposite. It's very bad for russians business.
But losing access to high end chips is also bad for their companies.

 

[Dimitriid]

I' m not saying that russia bring banned from swift is inconsequential. Quite the opposite. It's very bad for russians business.
But losing access to high end chips is also bad for their companies.

And I am saying that if they were left with nothing at all then it would greatly stagnate them (I.E. Cuba and how they were left basically frozen in time when it comes to tech and literally making due with scraps and such) but I am saying that compared to not being able to have any exports or imports at all would put a hell of a lot more pressure on all companies almost to make not getting CPUs not matter at all for a solid couple years before they need to replace their current stuff vs not being able to survive 3 or 4 weeks of being cut off from the world.

In other words, if (not when) massive protests and uprisings happen in Russia as they become very desperate since it's not easy to go back to full isolation and most if not almost all people would end up suffering greatly, I am positive none of the protesters will be holding signs like "We can't get Ryzen CPUs!" vs "WE CAN'T GET FOOD OR MEDICINE"

I know it's kind a weird thing to say on a tech forum, but this is one case in which I really think tech is not important at all vs the looming humanitarian crisis on the horizon for most (Besides the one they're actively causing on Ukraine right now of course)

 

[winjer]

And I am saying that if they were left with nothing at all then it would greatly stagnate them (I.E. Cuba and how they were left basically frozen in time when it comes to tech and literally making due with scraps and such) but I am saying that compared to not being able to have any exports or imports at all would put a hell of a lot more pressure on all companies almost to make not getting CPUs not matter at all for a solid couple years before they need to replace their current stuff vs not being able to survive 3 or 4 weeks of being cut off from the world.

In other words, if (not when) massive protests and uprisings happen in Russia as they become very desperate since it's not easy to go back to full isolation and most if not almost all people would end up suffering greatly, I am positive none of the protesters will be holding signs like "We can't get Ryzen CPUs!" vs "WE CAN'T GET FOOD OR MEDICINE"

I know it's kind a weird thing to say on a tech forum, but this is one case in which I really think tech is not important at all vs the looming humanitarian crisis on the horizon for most (Besides the one they're actively causing on Ukraine right now of course)

I agree. Isolated from the rest of world, both in tech and finances, would cause a huge setback for russia. And probably a revolution.

 

[mgwerner]

Russia does so much business with China now it will not make a difference in the long run, and probably not the short run. That writing has been on the wall since about 5 years ago when the two countries dumped the dollar for bilateral trade, and went with the ruble. Additionally, cutting Russia off from SWIFT is a very good incentive for China and Russia to develop a parallel international money clearance system, since China is watching all of the actions against Russia and expects that and worse when they move on Taiwan.
If this comes to pass, in 7-10 years if you want to do business with China, you will have to be a part of their network, not SWIFT, and it will be controlled solely but a Sino-Russian group, acting as gatekeepers to raw materials, finished products, and Asian transport gateways.

 

[Irata]

Russia does so much business with China now it will not make a difference in the long run, and probably not the short run. That writing has been on the wall since about 5 years ago when the two countries dumped the dollar for bilateral trade, and went with the ruble. Additionally, cutting Russia off from SWIFT is a very good incentive for China and Russia to develop a parallel international money clearance system, since China is watching all of the actions against Russia and expects that and worse when they move on Taiwan.
If this comes to pass, in 7-10 years if you want to do business with China, you will have to be a part of their network, not SWIFT, and it will be controlled solely but a Sino-Russian group, acting as gatekeepers to raw materials, finished products, and Asian transport gateways.

Yet another reason to eliminate our dependency on China.

Another thing: Russia may come to regret getting too dependent on China.

 

[quadibloc]

Selling any U.S. chips to Russia, even "consumer" ones, is a mistake.
Sure, a Xeon or an Epyc would be better, but consumer chips still beat what they can make themselves.

 

[fazy shah]

Now they have a new excuse to raise the price and increase hoarding. If they have stopped selling chips to Russia then we should have more chips rather than shortage lying greedy maafia.

 

[Sausagemeat]

This will also hurt the Russian people, most of which aren’t onboard with Eastern European domination. Same with removing SWIFT banking, that measure will harm normal Russians more than their dictatorship.

What would actually help would be all the European countries cancelling their multi billion dollar deals with the Russian dictatorship to supply them with oil and gas. But I haven’t heard anything along those lines yet.

 

[yRaz]

This will also hurt the Russian people, most of which aren’t onboard with Eastern European domination. Same with removing SWIFT banking, that measure will harm normal Russians more than their dictatorship.

What would actually help would be all the European countries cancelling their multi billion dollar deals with the Russian dictatorship to supply them with oil and gas. But I haven’t heard anything along those lines yet.

I have Russian friends I play EvE with. They tell me that the majority of people are not on board with what Putin is doing at all. They also tell me that people in Russia have family in Ukraine and that on a civilian level, the Russian people have in interest in this war.

And, lets me fair on the oil side of things, Europe has been trying very hard to move away from dependence on Russian oil over the last 15 years but it's going to take awhile to undo 50 years of doing business with them.

Even if the EU wanted to go full electric the infrastructure is very far off from that being possible. Even if money was no object, there isn't enough lithium or battery production to meet their needs. On top of that, they need to redo the electrical system to support terawatts of EV charging

 

[Sausagemeat]

I have Russian friends I play EvE with. They tell me that the majority of people are not on board with what Putin is doing at all. They also tell me that people in Russia have family in Ukraine and that on a civilian level, the Russian people have in interest in this war.

And, lets me fair on the oil side of things, Europe has been trying very hard to move away from dependence on Russian oil over the last 15 years but it's going to take awhile to undo 50 years of doing business with them.

Even if the EU wanted to go full electric the infrastructure is very far off from that being possible. Even if money was no object, there isn't enough lithium or battery production to meet their needs. On top of that, they need to redo the electrical system to support terawatts of EV charging

EU countries could easily move away from Russian gas and oil. But it would cost them more. In Germanys case they even helped to build the pipeline to Russia. Even the US condemned Germany for doing this when they did it.

I actually have a lot of Russian friends and all of them condemn the war and don’t support it but tell me that the Ukraine have been killing Russian citizens in terror attacks for over a decade. Something I couldn’t verify. But whilst attempting to I did also learn that the Ukraine is far from a democracy. The leader of the opposition is in jail and the Ukrainian government seized control of the state press. Also they genuinely have a neo Nazi division in their military. If this is true then I don’t give a dam about the Ukrainian government winning or losing. But it just makes me feel even more for the people who live under these tyrants.

It’s so hard to know what’s true and what isn’t. One thing is for sure, the average citizen of both Russia and The Ukraine (and the rest of the world for that matter) does not want this war. It also seems that the west has armed both sides, the Ukraine with weapons and the Russian government with lucrative oil and gas deals. And as usual the military industrial complex will be the only winners.

 

[dangh]

This will also hurt the Russian people, most of which aren’t onboard with Eastern European domination. Same with removing SWIFT banking, that measure will harm normal Russians more than their dictatorship.

What would actually help would be all the European countries cancelling their multi billion dollar deals with the Russian dictatorship to supply them with oil and gas. But I haven’t heard anything along those lines yet.

So it might best for time for this Russians who aren't happy with putin to stop pretending all is good and actually force a democracy into the country. Right now they have autocracy and don't care at all, I know that most people in Russia are used to do whatever tzar or communistic leader told them to do for hundreds of years, but they need to take their life in their hands.
And those guys listen to their propaganda and they believe all stupidity they listen, they were fine with arresting gay people, with arresting and murdering anyone who went against putin, with Russian agents killing people in uk, so now when the sanctions will hit their small bubbless maybe, just maybe, they start to use some of the critical thinking and realise that indifference of good people is actually very bad thing to do.

 

[Sausagemeat]

So it might best for time for this Russians who aren't happy with putin to stop pretending all is good and actually force a democracy into the country. Right now they have autocracy and don't care at all, I know that most people in Russia are used to do whatever tzar or communistic leader told them to do for hundreds of years, but they need to take their life in their hands.
And those guys listen to their propaganda and they believe all stupidity they listen, they were fine with arresting gay people, with arresting and murdering anyone who went against putin, with Russian agents killing people in uk, so now when the sanctions will hit their small bubbless maybe, just maybe, they start to use some of the critical thinking and realise that indifference of good people is actually very bad thing to do.

Your comment is remarkably offensive, you’ve just suggested that all Russians are submissive uncaring drones who do as they are told by any dictator. This just isn’t the case at all. They do care but most of them understandably don’t try and fight the regime, they try and make the best of their lives. I would be the same. Besides, it’s not as simple as all Russians vs Putin. Many Russians have lost families at the hands of Ukrainian violence. As have Ukrainians. This particular war is not good vs evil. It’s evil vs evil whilst the good suffer.

Also what do you think German citizens should do about their government giving Russia billions for oil and gas every year? They (and several western economies) are funding the very regime you are condemning the Russian people for not fighting against.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Your comment is remarkably offensive, you’ve just suggested that all Russians are submissive uncaring drones who do as they are told by any dictator. This just isn’t the case at all. They do care but most of them understandably don’t try and fight the regime, they try and make the best of their lives. I would be the same. Besides, it’s not as simple as all Russians vs Putin. Many Russians have lost families at the hands of Ukrainian violence. As have Ukrainians. This particular war is not good vs evil. It’s evil vs evil whilst the good suffer.

Also what do you think German citizens should do about their government giving Russia billions for oil and gas every year? They (and several western economies) are funding the very regime you are condemning the Russian people for not fighting against.

He has a point - Russians are starting to stand up - yes many Russians care , yes many Russians buy Putin's propaganda - will be interesting next "elections" if Putin makes it that far .
Like the Vietnam war it was also lost at home on the TV screens - these times are scary for Russian people as well - will there crack downs - Marshall law declared with no elections going forward ? Putin has may a serious mistake if they don't capture Ukraine swiftly - even then with years of being cut off , snipers , freedom fighters - I still think it won't turn out well .
Lots of Polish , Latvian , Georgian fighters will join in - they have lots of people in these countries that hate the Russian govt and what Stalin did and the arrogance of the Apparatchik- being forced to learn Russian etc
I remember walking in the hills and valleys in northern Georgia near border - that I could of easily been killed by Russian Migs flying over just for fun in the nineties - actually visited Stalins home town in the south

 

[Bullwinkle M]

Selling any U.S. chips to Russia, even "consumer" ones, is a mistake.
Sure, a Xeon or an Epyc would be better, but consumer chips still beat what they can make themselves.

Selling any modern spyware platform to Americans is a mistake

I guess it just depends on who your target audience is

 

[RudyBob]

Russia will be fine. They will make they need from caviar and potatoes.

 

[GamerNerves]

Remember all, that building networking systems and maintaining your country by using computers, like everybody does, is less about hardware, but more about software. Talented coders can save the day if you are lacking behind in processing power. We have all witnessed how messed up systems due to bad software fail no matter what is the hardware, and also how even powerful hardware is meaningless when the software is doing all sort of unnecessary background stuff all the time, like collecting user data. *sigh*
Less is more? Skill versus muscle? Hardware is cool and I wish it gets better all the time, but it can never set aside the work required from the common coder.

 

[dangh]

Your comment is remarkably offensive, you’ve just suggested that all Russians are submissive uncaring drones who do as they are told by any dictator. This just isn’t the case at all. They do care but most of them understandably don’t try and fight the regime, they try and make the best of their lives. I would be the same. Besides, it’s not as simple as all Russians vs Putin. Many Russians have lost families at the hands of Ukrainian violence. As have Ukrainians. This particular war is not good vs evil. It’s evil vs evil whilst the good suffer.

Also what do you think German citizens should do about their government giving Russia billions for oil and gas every year? They (and several western economies) are funding the very regime you are condemning the Russian people for not fighting against.

I'm not suggesting anything, I merely state the fact. Vast majority of Russians are submissive because that was put on them for hundreds of years - dont think, drink vodka, do as you was told. Sure, there are very brave russians who understand what is going on, but that is not enough to move lazy massess who don't want to move a finger as longa, as they can somehow survive.
And that could be fine... if russia wouldn't use their lazyness to destroy neighborhood countries, killing civilians (tbh Russia government was always exceptionally good in killing civilians). So yes, people looking for pass glory, waiting to be able to say "Great Rossija" while barely manage to get month by month, are at fault here.

I do condemn regime and I do condemn people not staying agains it, but this is their decission and my opinion. If they would sit in their country and if they be content with living in ****, I have nothing against trade agreements and normal relations. It is not authoratitive, oligarhic country I'm agains of (I would have to dislkie US of A as well in that case), but their offensive actions agains suveren nations. So I do not have anything against germany trying to keep normal relationship with Russia in order to trade and keep cultural exchange during time of relative peace, and I'm happy to see that Germany made strong decission after the invasion even, if they are going to economically take biggest hit. Of course, closing nuclear power plants and moving energy production to coal / gas is baffling and imo stupid approach, but this is not related to russia attacking ukraine.

 

[captaincranky]

Russian agents killing people in uk, so now when the sanctions will hit their small bubbless maybe, just maybe, they start to use some of the critical thinking and realise that indifference of good people is actually very bad thing to do

Let me paraphrase that for you, "the only way for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing".

 

[captaincranky]

Russia will be fine. They will make they need from caviar and potatoes.

You forgot beets and vodka.

 

[Watzupken]

That's true up to a certain point.
Russia's solutions lag behind by decades, and if Russia has to depend only on it's chips, it's compute capability will be greatly diminished. And Russia does not have the money, nor the talent to catch up.
If nVidia, ARM and AWS follow suit, then Russian companies will be in a tight bind.

My opinion is that Russia leaders are not silly. When they made the decision to invade, they would have considered all these things. I certainly don't think the nations that slapped them with sanctions one after another are doing things very differently when it comes to using the stick.
Russia and China are closer than you think they are. And with China and partners backing them, there is really no need for Russia to depend on the West. The truth is the West is slowly fading away under the mountain of debt that they can never repay (or even plan to repay), and disunity amongst themselves even within each nation. And as you can tell, all of them are threatening this, slapping sanctions here and there. Actual help on the ground where it matters most, minimal.

 

[godrilla]

The westerns believe Russian citizens have the same privileges as them where they can protest via freedom of speech, freedom of press, and due process but even that is questionable now with current Canada situation. Unfortunately they are scared of Putin who controls the press and will justify his actions via propaganda.
Some believe by going all electric that somehow that somehow the energy is generated in Unicorn land no it's the opposite the more green you are the more you make Putin Rich and this administration is Super Green with their fake sanctions where they are relying more on Russian energy by the days. We are indirectly paying for the war!
Putin can win 3 fold here.
1 bypassing tariffs in Ukraine
2 energy prices skyrocket will mitigate cost
3 When the Russian market crashes he can easily offer to buy them out at a fraction of the cost.
Some call him a grand master 4dchess player.

Lastly I have been saying this for years now just like clock work both Russia and Ch!na banned cryptomining just before energy prices to inflate but the west is not banning cryptomining instead they are fake green activists pushing energy prices to inflate!
The most peaceful move we have is to become energy independent once more but the puppet in the White House is doing the opposite!