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Listed companies face restrictions on access to US goods

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Inspur units targeted for working with Chinese military

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Other Chinese companies hit for work on supercomputers

(Adds more details on entities named, comment from officials,

Chinese embassy in paragraphs 5-9)

By Karen Freifeld and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. added six

subsidiaries of Inspur Group, China's leading cloud computing

and big data service provider, and dozens of other Chinese

entities to its export restriction list on Tuesday.

The Inspur units were listed for contributing to the

development of supercomputers for the Chinese military, the

Commerce department said in a posting. Five of the subsidiaries

are based in China and one in Taiwan. Inspur Group itself was

placed on the list in 2023.

The Inspur units are among about 80 companies and institutes

added to the export control list Tuesday. Over 50 are based in

China. Others are in Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and

the United Arab Emirates.

The listings are intended to restrict China's ability to

develop high-performance computing capabilities, quantum

technologies and advanced AI, and impede China's development of

its hypersonic weapons program.

"We will not allow adversaries to exploit American

technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American

lives," said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said on Tuesday it "firmly

oppose these acts taken by the US and demand that it immediately

stop using military-related issues as pretexts to politicize,

instrumentalize and weaponize trade and tech issues."

The U.S. also seeks to disrupt Iran's procurement of drones

and related defense items and prevent development of its

ballistic missile program and unsafeguarded nuclear activities.

The government adds companies to the Commerce department's

Entity List for national security or foreign policy concerns.

Companies cannot sell goods to those listed without applying for

and obtaining licenses, which are likely to be denied.

Commerce official Jeffrey Kessler said the administration

aims to prevent "U.S. technologies and goods from being misused

for high performance computing, hypersonic missiles, military

aircraft training, and UAVs (drones) that threaten our national

security."

The Inspur Group did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

When Inspur Group was placed on the list in 2023, executives

from AMD and Nvidia ( NVDA ) were questioned about their

dealings with the company. At the time, chip industry insiders

and their advisers said firms were trying to assess whether they

had to halt supplying Inspur's subsidiaries.

Reuters could not immediately determine whether the U.S.

companies continued to do business with the subsidiaries.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) declined to comment, and AMD did not immediately

respond to a request for comment.

Chinese firms Nettrix Information Industry Co, Suma

Technology Co, and Suma-USI Electronics, are among the other

companies added to the list. The U.S. said they were added for

helping develop Chinese exascale supercomputers, which can

process vast amounts of data at very high speeds and conduct

large-scale simulations.

The companies also have provided manufacturing capabilities

to Sugon, also known as Dawning Information Industry Co

, a computer server manufacturer added to the Entity

List in 2019 for building supercomputers used by the military,

the Commerce department said.

The companies could not immediately be reached for comment.

Other companies were added to the list for acquiring

U.S.-origin items to advance China's quantum technology

capabilities, and for selling products to companies who supply

other listed parties, including Huawei, the tech conglomerate

viewed as at the center of China's AI ambitions.