Bill Gates participates in an interview with US media outlet CNN published on May 12, 2025. (Photo/Screenshot of the interview on CNN)
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in a recent interview that the US tech bans on China have forced China to go full speed ahead in terms of chip manufacturing and other fields, suggesting that such bans have the opposite effect of its stated goals.
In the interview with CNN, the host asked whether the tech bans were "having, in a weird wary, the opposite effect," Gates responded that "absolutely. I mean, they've forced the Chinese in terms of chip manufacturing and everything to go full speed ahead," according to a video of the interview posted by CNN on Monday. "We made clear to them that they needed to make their own chips, and they're making great progress on doing that," he said.
Gates also noted that in a world with open-source software and everything, China is not going to get substantially ahead of the US, and the US is not going to get substantially ahead of China. The AI technologies will be available to the world, and people can build on those in their own way, he said.
Despite US efforts to curb China's AI rise — most notably through export controls on high-end NVIDIA chips, China's AI sector remains on a rapid growth trajectory, Ma jihua, a veteran telecom industry analyst, said in a recent interview with the Global Times. Ma attributed this resilience to the country's solid industrial foundation and a shift toward self-reliance, which has accelerated breakthroughs in both software and hardware.
Ma observed that while the restrictions have caused short-term disruptions, they've also fueled innovation. Chinese firms are developing efficient models like DeepSeek and advancing domestic chip capabilities, paving the way for a more independent, China-led AI ecosystem that could reshape the global landscape.
China has long firmly opposed to the US' tech bans. In December 2024, in response to new US export controls on chip manufacturing equipment, China lodged serious protests with the US for once again updating the export controls on semiconductors and sanctioning Chinese companies, and maliciously suppressing China's technology progress, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press briefing on December 3.
"China firmly opposes the US' overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export controls, and wantonly imposing illegal unilateral sanctions and 'long-arm jurisdiction' over Chinese companies. Such practices gravely disrupt the international economic and trade order, destabilize global industrial and supply chains and harm the interests of all countries. China calls on the US to respect the laws of market economy and the principle of fair competition. We will do what is necessary to firmly safeguard our security and development interests," Lin said at the time.
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