Intel and AMD Halt Processor Sales to Russia from buzai232's blog

In a sign that the United States government's export restrictions on semiconductor sales to Russia due to its war against Ukraine have been enacted swiftly, multiple reports have emerged today that both Intel and AMD have suspended chip sales to Russia. In addition, reports have also emerged that TSMC's decision to participate in the sanctions will thwart Russia's supply of homegrown chips. Intel has provided us with a statement on the matter, and we have also reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment.To get more intel news, you can visit shine news official website.

The Russian media outlets also claim that the suspensions have been confirmed by the Association of Russian Developers and Electronics Manufacturers (ARPE). Additionally, Chinese IT companies are said to have been notified by Intel that sales to Russia have been banned.

Intel provided the following comment to Tom's Hardware: "Intel complies with all applicable export regulations and sanctions in the countries in which it operates, including the new sanctions issued by OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] and the regulations issued by BIS [Bureau of Industry and Security]."
The extent of the halted sales is currently unclear. The new export restrictions are primarily aimed at chips for military purposes or dual-use chips that could be used for both civilian and military purposes. That means sales of most consumer-focused chips, like AMD's Ryzen and Intel's Core chips, likely won't be impacted. However, it is widely expected that there will be a temporary halt for all semiconductor sales to Russia as companies work to decide which products and customers are impacted. Additionally, the US DoC has added 49 Russian companies to the Entity List.

The new US export restrictions are akin to the sanctions leveled at Huawei, but they apply to an entire country — a first. Russia has prepared for years to deal with potential sanctions, especially in the wake of the international sanctions in 2014 after its actions in Crimea, by both promoting its own indigenous semiconductor production and also stockpiling chips for just such an occurrence.

However, Russia's domestically-designed chips from companies like Baikal, MCST, Yadro, and STC Module are actually manufactured by Taiwan-based TSMC, which has agreed to also suspend sales to the country to comply with the new export restrictions. That means Russia's supply of homegrown chips could also be cut off.

While companies like Intel and AMD are reportedly suspending sales immediately, that won't have an immediate devastating impact on the industry. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Russian government accounts for less than 0.1% of global chip purchases, while the broader Russian market represents roughly $50.3 billion out of the $4.47 trillion global semiconductor market.

Instead, the impact is expected to be felt when supercomputers, networking, military chips, and the like fail or need upgrades. In those cases, Russia would be forced to acquire the chips illicitly.