The US has imposed sanctions on 70 firms, including 19 Pakistani organizations.

The United States has placed export restrictions on 70 firms from eight different nations, including 19 from Pakistan.

On Tuesday, the US added six subsidiaries of Inspur Group, China’s top cloud computing and big data service provider, as well as dozens of other Chinese firms to its list of export restrictions, according to a British news agency.

The Inspur operations were among the approximately 80 enterprises and institutes put to the export control list on Tuesday. Over fifty are based in China. Others are in Taiwan, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, and the UAE.

The Inspur facilities were described as having contributed to the creation of supercomputers for the Chinese military, according to a Commerce Department ad. Five of the subsidiaries are headquartered in China, with one in Taiwan. Inspur Group itself was added to the list in 2023.

As a result, American businesses are now barred from doing business with the impacted enterprises, hindering their access to US technologies.

The listings are designed to limit China’s capacity to develop high-performance computer capabilities, quantum technology, and sophisticated artificial intelligence, as well as delay the development of its hypersonic weapons program.

“We will not allow adversaries to use American technology to strengthen their militaries and endanger American lives,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated.

Among those affected are 19 Pakistani firms, 42 Chinese enterprises, and four from the United Arab Emirates.

These limitations have also affected enterprises in Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Africa, and Senegal.

The US administration said that the groups targeted by these sanctions are acting in ways that go against American national security and foreign policy objectives.

In response to an inquiry on Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry opposed the US decision and stated that the government will take all necessary steps to protect Chinese firms’ legal rights and interests.

The Chinese embassy in Washington stated on Tuesday that it strongly opposes “these acts taken by the US and demands that it immediately stop using military-related issues as pretexts to politicize, instrumentalize, and weaponize trade and technology issues.”

The Inspur Group did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The US also wants to halt Iran’s acquisition of drones and other defense equipment, as well as restrict the expansion of its ballistic missile program and unguarded nuclear operations.

The government adds corporations to the Commerce Department’s Entity List due to national security or foreign policy issues. Companies cannot sell items to persons identified unless they apply for and receive permits, which are likely to be refused.

According to Commerce official Jeffrey Kessler, the administration’s goal is to prevent “US technologies and goods from being misused for high performance computing, hypersonic missiles, military aircraft training, and UAVs (drones) that threaten our national security.”

When Inspur Group was added to the list in 2023, executives from AMD and Nvidia were questioned about their relationships with the corporation. At the time, chip industry insiders and consultants claimed companies were weighing whether they needed to stop supplying Inspur’s subsidiaries. Reuters could not immediately confirm if the US businesses continued to conduct business with the subsidiaries.

Nvidia declined to comment, while AMD did not immediately reply to a request for one.

The list also includes Chinese enterprises Nettrix Information Industry Co, Suma Technology Co, and Suma-USI Electronics. The US says they were added to assist construct Chinese exascale supercomputers, which can handle massive quantities of data at rapid speeds and perform large-scale simulations.

Other firms were added to the list for procuring US-origin items to improve China’s quantum technology capabilities, as well as selling products to companies that supply other listed parties, such as Huawei, the tech behemoth seen as at the heart of China’s AI aspirations.

The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a Chinese non-profit innovative research and development institute that was also targeted by the US, expressed dismay on Wednesday and urged appropriate US ministries to reverse the “wrong” decision.