Chinese Chip Company With Ties to Military Buys Sensitive US Tech, Report Says

Chinese chip designer Brite Semiconductor is partly owned by a company on the Entity List yet still buys sensitive U.S. technology from two California software companies and receives funding from a U.S. venture capital firm backed by Wells Fargo, Reuters reported Dec. 13.

Brite, whose second-largest shareholder and top supplier is entity-listed China Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., reportedly offers chip design services to at least six Chinese military suppliers, the report said. The company's largest U.S. investor is Norwest Venture Partners, and Brite has spent millions of dollars purchasing software from U.S. companies Cadence Design and Synopsys this year, the report said. Those two companies told Reuters they are in full compliance with U.S. export controls, and Reuters said it has found no evidence Brite has violated U.S. export regulations.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told Reuters that companies connected to China’s military “should not have access to American technology and investment,” and the Biden administration’s “haphazard approach to export controls and investment restrictions clearly is not working.”

The Commerce Department and Brite didn't respond to requests for comment.