Gina Raimondo

New Capabilities

Left office in January 2025

In May 2019, the United States placed Huawei on an export blacklist, cutting the world's largest telecom equipment maker off from American chips, software, and chipmaking tools. Seven years later, Huawei launched its Mate 80 Pro smartphone globally from a stage in Madrid, powered entirely by a processor designed in-house and manufactured by China's largest chipmaker using equipment the US tried to deny it. The phone runs on HarmonyOS, an operating system Huawei built from scratch after losing access to Google's Android services.

Updated Feb 26

New Capabilities

Architect of Biden administration's semiconductor export controls

Biren Technology's shares exploded 76% in their Hong Kong debut on January 2, 2026, raising $717 million—the first GPU chipmaker to list anywhere in the world this year. The company loses $1.6 billion annually and faces US export bans that forced its manufacturer to stop production. Investors piled in anyway, oversubscribing the retail offering 2,348 times. Within weeks, rival GPU makers Moore Threads and MetaX followed with Shanghai IPOs that surged 400% and 700% respectively, demonstrating that Chinese investors will fund chip independence regardless of profitability or US sanctions.

Updated Jan 31

Rule Changes

Overseeing CHIPS Act subsidies and BIS export controls that constrain Chinese chip and tool makers

Intel is racing to regain its chipmaking crown with a 14A process backed by billions in U.S. subsidies. In mid-December 2025, Reuters revealed the company had been test‑driving critical tools from ACM Research, a China‑rooted equipment maker whose Shanghai and Korean units sit on a U.S. export blacklist. The disclosure pulled a quiet engineering decision into the center of the U.S.–China tech war and deepened scrutiny of CEO Lip‑Bu Tan, whose venture firm invested in ACM years before he joined Intel.

Updated Jan 10

New Capabilities

Led industrial policy during Biden term; championed CHIPS Act implementation

The U.S. government is pouring hundreds of billions into making factories smarter—but the strategy is hitting turbulence. On December 27, 2025, NIST announced $20 million for two AI centers with MITRE to automate manufacturing and defend critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. Days earlier, on December 11, Trump signed an executive order creating an AI Litigation Task Force to sue states over their own AI regulations, while on December 10 the Commerce Department abruptly terminated a $285 million CHIPS Act contract with SMART USA Institute despite the organization meeting all performance targets. The goal remains unchanged: use artificial intelligence to close a widening gap with China, which installed 295,000 industrial robots in 2024 alone—nine times America's total.

Updated Dec 27, 2025