[Tom's Hardware h/t Pixy] 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. We have reached out to Intel, AMD, and Nvidia for comment.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.
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 are impacted. Additionally, the US DoC has added 49 Russian companies to the Entity List, and those companies aren't eligible to purchase any type of chip.
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 is also cut off.