Mike McCalister: Brian Mast has the tools to close China’s semiconductor backdoor - Florida Politics

This article, authored by retired U.S. Army Colonel Mike McCalister, highlights the critical role of Congressman Brian Mast, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in addressing strategic looph... Read original →

RISC-V is emerging as a pivotal battleground in the U.S.-China semiconductor rivalry. Current U.S. export controls fail to address the risks posed by open-source architectures, enabling China to circumvent advanced node restrictions and advance its AI and military-civil fusion strategies. This undermines traditional EUV supply chains and forces global players to reassess compliance and licensing costs. As China exploits 'military-civil fusion' to penetrate high-end chip markets, the U.S. must urgently update regulations to prevent open-source tools from becoming technological backdoors. In the short term, chip designers may adopt stricter IP safeguards, while long-term consequences could see the rise of RISC-V-based domestic ecosystems. Policy delays risk deepening geopolitical fragmentation, particularly affecting collaboration between Taiwan, China and the U.S. in AI chip development.