Chinese engineers developing artificial intelligence chips for use in “advanced weapons systems” have been given access to cutting-edge British technology, the Guardian has revealed.
Described by analysts as “China’s top AI chip designer,” Moore Thread and Biren Technologies are developing “chips that can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities for further development of weapons of mass destruction and advanced weapons systems.” A high-tech surveillance application that raises national security concerns over its development and is subject to U.S. export controls. ”
However, before being blacklisted in the US in 2023, the companies had secured a broad license with UK-based Imagination Technologies. The company is considered a gem as it is one of the few companies around the world that designs advanced types of microchips that are essential to AI systems. A representative of the UK’s technology industry.
A spokesperson for Imagination said: “Imagination (or its owners) does not intend to use third parties to enable China or any other nation to use or direct Imagination’s technology for national or military end uses. “We have not at any stage considered or undertaken any transaction with them.”
Representatives from Imagination confirmed the existence of licenses to Moore Threads and Biren Technology, but the company is under the ownership of private equity funds backed by Chinese state funds and is in the process of disclosing its cutting-edge secrets. He denied the claim that he had intentionally tried to relocate. To China.
Two former Imagination executive insiders claim the “knowledge transfer program” that accompanied the license was so comprehensive that there was a risk that the Chinese company would learn how to replicate Imagination’s expertise. . Some believed the information provided meant that Imagination may have “given[Chinese companies]the ability to manufacture the technology.”
Both insiders left the company before the knowledge transfer program was fully implemented. Imagination representatives said the program severely restricts the transfer of expertise to China and that such arrangements are common in the industry.
The allegations surrounding Imagination highlight tensions between doing business with the world’s second-largest economy and national security, as Xi Jinping’s dictatorial regime seeks to acquire the technological capabilities befitting a superpower.
At its headquarters in a Hertfordshire village, Imagination’s engineers create designs that combine billions of transistors and license them to manufacturers who make chips used in everything from cars to iPhones. Masu. It specializes in graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs were developed to produce fluid images in video games, but they turned out to be perfect for the complex operations needed for artificial intelligence. Imagination designs exist on 13 billion devices.
A spokesperson said Imagination “has always complied with applicable export and trade compliance laws.” They said the company’s licensing agreement is “focused on enabling customers to design” systems for the “consumer appliance, automotive, and personal computer markets.”
Imagination is understood to believe its technology does not meet performance standards for military use and claims its contract prohibits military use. But Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey, said it was important for companies like Imagination to leverage their expertise in one of the most hotly pursued areas of weapons research, such as self-targeting drones. He said it is difficult to be confident that it will not ultimately contribute to the use of .
Since 2020, at least three Chinese companies have obtained so-called “architectural licenses” to use Imagination’s chip designs. These licenses allow customers to request changes to the design, so Imagination is revealing some of the process by which its engineers arrived. The intricate blueprints took years.
Imagination recognized the risks of sharing too much of its intellectual property. The company has worked closely with Apple for years, and Imagination’s chip designs helped make the iPhone a reality. But in 2017, Apple announced it would start designing its own chips. Imagination accused Apple of misusing its expertise. The parties have reached agreement on a new $330 million deal to license Imagination products to Apple.
Two former Imagination insiders who spoke to the Guardian believed that building licenses granted to Chinese companies could be misused in the same way, potentially unlocking Imagination’s secrets. There is.
One said Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government made a mistake in 2017 by allowing the takeover of Imagination by private equity firm Canyon Bridge, which was financed with Chinese state money.
The deal comes after the US blocked Canyon Bridge’s $1.3 billion acquisition of US semiconductor maker Lattice on the grounds that the “role of the Chinese government in supporting this transaction” posed a “risk to US national security.” It was done after. In the UK, where Prime Minister Theresa May wanted to “enhance the golden age of Anglo-Chinese relations”, Canyon Bridge encountered no such obstacles and the $800 million deal was struck.
The Chinese-backed buyer gave the British government assurances about Imagination’s future, including that it would not move its chip designers overseas. They named Ron Black, a veteran technology executive, as Imagination’s new boss. He later told an employment tribunal that he had grown concerned that state investment group China Reform, which had financed the acquisition of Canyon Bridge, was “trying to steal technology”.
In 2020, Mr. Black opposed a plan to appoint four China Reform representatives to the company’s board of directors. In his witness statement, he said he had expressed his “concerns that the imagination was being controlled by the Chinese government” to Ian Levy, then head of technology at Britain’s electronic intelligence agency GCHQ. Mr Levy replied: “This would be a problem for the UK government.”
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative minister who oversaw the digital sector at the time, wrote: “A letter asking Canyon Bridge to ensure that the commitments it made in 2017 to its management, employees and UK base are kept.” Imagination’s owners abandoned plans to appoint a Chinese director. Still standing. ”
Black left the company. According to reports, an employment tribunal earlier this month said Mr Black would object to the licensing of some of Imagination’s more basic technologies in China, but that he would seek to bring the company under Chinese control. It is reported that he was fired for blowing the whistle on an attempt to do so.
One former Imagination insider said that following Mr. Black’s resignation and the failure to install a Chinese director, “it was clear the strategy was to transfer technology to Chinese companies.” Imagination representatives dispute this.
“For each license, there were multimillion-dollar contracts to teach people how[intellectual property]was designed and how to change that design,” said a former official. It was called a “knowledge transfer program” of expertise that Imagination “has built on its own over many years,” the former official said.
Under the plan, Imagination’s top engineers were to give Chinese engineers “a proper step-by-step understanding of how to develop GPUs” over a two-year period starting around 2021, a former official said. Completely delivered.
A second former insider also said that although the Chinese engineer left before he had received sufficient training, he was “not satisfied that[the technology transfer]was a clear result of obtaining a building license in such a manner.” It’s very difficult to deny.”
Imagination is understood to consider its arrangements with Chinese customers to be “totally normal” and to have been “limited in scope, duration and usage rights”.
Imagination relies heavily on US revenue, including Apple, and is understood to have a policy of not doing business with companies on the US government’s Entity List of companies subject to export controls. This suggests that the licenses granted to two Chinese companies added to the list in October 2023 have been terminated.
A new report by research organization UK-China Transparency raises further questions about Chinese companies.
Moore Thread, founded by the former China head of US chipmaker Nvidia, claims to have developed the first “Made in China” GPU. But industry press reports say “key parts” of these chips were taken from the imagination. “Moore Threads hasn’t been very upfront about this,” wrote an industry analyst who said one of the company’s GPUs uses Imagination technology.
Another Chinese chipmaker, Biren Technology, makes GPUs for AI systems. Biren is funded not only by China’s state finances, but also by the Russia-China Investment Fund, part of a deepening alliance between Beijing and Moscow. Moore Thread and Biren did not respond to requests for comment.
