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Beijing to push subsidies for local firms’ purchase of China-made chips

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6 months ago

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Beijing to push subsidies for local firms’ purchase of China-made chips

In a draft policy document published on Wednesday, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology said the city will provide an undisclosed amount of subsidies to help local firms buy graphics processing units (GPUs) made by domestic manufacturers to “expedite the supply of controllable intelligent computing resources”.

The amount of subsidy provided to firms will be in proportion to the investment needed to build computing services, according to the draft, which did not specify how such projects would be measured.

“By 2027, [Beijing] will achieve self-sufficiency over smart computing infrastructure … with overall performance on par with leading domestic standards”, the draft said.

Night view of Beijing’s central business district skyline. Photo: Shutterstock

The draft policy’s focus on domestic-designed and manufactured GPUs – the preferred chips used in data centres for AI development projects that require high-performance systems – shows how mainland authorities are scrambling to build up computing resources in spite of US tech restrictions.

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Beijing’s smart computing initiative is expected to support the training of both general and industry-specific large language models (LLMs), according to the draft. LLMs are the technology behind ChatGPT and other generative AI services.
The municipal government’s programme also aims to step up research and development of core technologies such as AI processors, operating systems and databases that are relevant to training AI systems. It is also seeking breakthroughs in new areas, including silicon photonics and quantum computing chips, which are not currently dominated by any company.
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