The US has added four Chinese companies to an export blacklist for buying US-origin goods to support China's military modernization efforts, the Department of Commerce said in a statement published Thursday.

The Biden administration is considering restrictions on imports of Chinese "smart cars" and related components that would go beyond tariffs to address growing US concerns about data security, according to people familiar with the matter.

Micron Technology has settled a high-profile intellectual property theft lawsuit with a key, state-backed Chinese rival amid the US company's efforts to mend ties with Beijing.

Cutting economic ties with China is unrealistic, the chief executive of luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz told tabloid newspaper Bild am Sonntag, and said attempting to do so would put most of Germany's industry at risk.

Huawei Technologies has replaced more than 13,000 parts in its products that were hit by US trade sanctions, the Chinese tech giant's founder said, according to a speech transcript posted on Friday by a Chinese university.

China has accused the US of overreacting after federal employees were ordered to remove the video app TikTok from government-issued phones.

China filed a dispute with the World Trade Organization trying to overturn US-imposed export controls, which aim to limit the Asian nation's ability to develop a domestic semiconductor industry and equip its military.

American workers hold key positions throughout China's domestic chip industry, helping manufacturers develop new chips to catch up with foreign rivals. Now, those workers are in limbo under new US export control rules that prohibit US citizens from supporting China's advanced chip development.

A Reuters review of more than a dozen publicly available government tenders over the past two years indicated that among some of China's most strategically important research institutes, there is high demand - and need - for Nvidia's signature A100 chips.

The Biden administration has been weighing a potential ban for months, but has elected to order the Commerce Department to issue a new rule that will effectively block the export of chip design software that's required to make chips with an emerging technology called gate all around, according to a person familiar with the administration's plans.

The Biden administration is looking into claims that Yangtze Memory Technologies, a Chinese semiconductor maker, has supplied Huawei with chips, in a potential violation of US export controls.

The Biden administration is considering imposing tougher sanctions on China's largest chipmaker, according to people familiar with the situation, building on an effort to limit the country's access to advanced technology.

The US has placed a dozen Chinese groups involved in quantum computing and other advanced technologies on an export blacklist, saying they pose a risk of gaining access to critical American technologies for the People's Liberation Army.

The Biden administration spurned a plan by Intel to increase production in China over security concerns, dealing a setback to an idea pitched as a fix for US chip shortages, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Washington's moves showed that "the US is pressuring Taiwan and TSMC to support its supply chain" over China, said Paul Triolo, an analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group. They also challenge TSMC's historic position of neutrality and the company's strategy of "being everyone's foundry."

Xiaomi and the US government have reached an agreement to set aside a Trump administration blacklisting that could have restricted American investment in the Chinese smartphone maker.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies is making business resilience its top priority with a push to develop its software capabilities as it seeks to overcome US restrictions that have devastated its smartphone business.

The Biden administration on Thursday placed seven Chinese firms and government labs under US export controls for their involvement in China's effort to build supercomputers that help develop nuclear and other advanced military weapons. All seven are linked to China's ambition to build the world's first exascale computer, Commerce Department officials said.

Top US chipmaking equipment supplier Applied Materials said Monday it has abandoned a $3.5 billion deal to acquire Japanese peer Kokusai Electric from investment firm KKR owing to regulatory hurdles.

President Joe Biden's nominee for Commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, said she knows of "no reason" why Huawei Technologies and other Chinese companies shouldn't remain on a restricted trade list.

"Despite our private-sector and university leadership in AI, the US remains unprepared for the coming era... China is a competitor possessing the might, talent and ambition to challenge America's technological leadership, military superiority and its broader position in the world."

China's Huawei plans to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year, four sources said, as the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, battered by U.S. sanctions, explores a strategic shift.

Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics said the U.S.-China trade war and a near-embargo on Huawei, one of its biggest clients, would slow growth and affect profitability even if demand rebounds after a COVID-afflicted year.

On Friday, the US Department of Commerce told companies that exports to China's SMIC posed an "unacceptable risk" of being diverted to "military end use", according to a copy of the letter seen by the Financial Times.

The Trump administration is considering adding Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) to a trade blacklist, in another sign of heightening US-China technology tensions.

The US is placing further restrictions on Huawei Technologies in a bid to limit the company's access to electronic components, preventing the company from buying computer chips made using US technology even if they were not designed specifically for Huawei.

Intel has stopped supplying its products to Inspur, China's largest maker of computer servers.

The Trump administration's new restrictions come in response to a new national security law that will extend China's influence over Hong Kong.

Media reports say Samsung has cooperated with equipment manufacturers in Japan and Europe to build a small, 7nm production line that doesn't use US equipment. Samsung hopes to actively attract multiple customers through this move.

Huawei Technologies has stockpiled up to two years' worth of crucial American chips to shield its operations from Washington's crackdowns, sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.

The US crackdown on China's Huawei is spurring its biggest domestic rival to build up its own chipmaking capabilities, including by snapping up top engineering talent from its own suppliers.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has announced plans to protect US national security by restricting Huawei's ability to use US technology and software to design and manufacture its semiconductors abroad.

TSMC has halted new orders from Huawei Technologies in response to tighter US export controls aimed at further limiting the Chinese company's access to crucial chip supplies, multiple sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has agreed to build an advanced chip factory in the United States, in a response to the Trump administration's growing concerns about the security of the global electronics supply chain and its competitive tensions with China, according to people briefed on the plans.

The US has expanded its lawsuit against Huawei, accusing the Chinese telecoms giant of a "decades-long" plan to steal technology from US firms. Prosecutors said Huawei had violated the terms of partnerships with US companies and stolen trade secrets such as source code and robot technology.

Talk of the risk of the world's two major powers "decoupling" surfaced as their trade battle, which began in 2018, heated up - leading to billions of dollars of tariffs imposed on each other's goods.

The office space market in Taiwan is already overcrowded, thanks to reshoring - or the practice of bringing production and manufacturing for homegrown companies back to the country of origin.

ASML, Europe's largest manufacturer of specialized chipmaking machines, has fallen prey to Washington's desire to curb Beijing's technological ascent and delayed shipment of a crucial tool needed to develop China's semiconductor industry.

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed four pieces of legislation taking a hard line on China, three related to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and one commending Canada in its dispute over the extradition of a Chinese telecom executive.

Those tariffs will now be delayed until December 15.