Last Updated on January 7, 2023
Dell, a leading global tech company, is reportedly planning to stop using computer chips manufactured in China by 2024.
In addition to computer chips, Nikkei Asia reported the U.S.-based computer company told its suppliers to “meaningfully lower” the volume of Chinese-produced chips they use. This warning applies to suppliers that use China-made chips even if the facilities themselves are owned by non-Chinese individuals.
Dell’s manufacturing redirection comes as the U.S. continues to face tensions with China as domestic technology manufacturing remains heavily reliant on the Chinese marketplace.
One source told Nikkei Asia that suppliers could lose business with Dell if they refuse to lower the amount of China-made chips they use. “The goal is quite aggressive. The determined shift involves not only those chips that are currently made by Chinese chipmakers but also at the facilities in China of non-Chinese suppliers. If suppliers don’t have responding measures, they could eventually lose orders from Dell.”
It is also reported HP, another computer manufacturing giant, is looking into making similar moves.
One executive at a chip supplier that works with both Dell and HP called Dell’s recent move “kind of radical.”
“Previously, we knew Dell kind of had plans to diversify from China, but this time it is kind of radical. They don’t even want their chips to be made in China, citing concerns over the US government’s policy… It’s not just an evaluation, it’s not crying wolf. It’s a real and ongoing plan, and this trend looks irreversible,” Breitbart reported.
National File previously reported on the FBI investigating Chinese cellphone company Huawei for creating technology capable of disrupting the Department of Defense’s communications involving nuclear weapons:
The Huawei equipment would be able to capture DoD communications, including conversations initiated by the US Strategic Command, the government group that overlooks US nuclear weapons.
“This gets into some of the most sensitive things we do…It would impact our ability for essentially command and control with the nuclear triad,” a former FBI official told CNN of the discovery on Monday.