Alibaba reportedly can't buy some of Arm's advanced chip designs due to export controls
David Becker

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is reportedly unable to buy some of the most advanced chip designs from Arm after the British semiconductor design company came to the conclusion that the U.S. and Britain would not approve exporting the technology to China.
This is the first time that Arm, owned by Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group (OTCPK:SFTBY), has made such a decision.
Arm came to the findings that its newest datacenter chip technology Neoverse V series had too high of a performance and thus both countries would not approve the sale, the Financial Times
reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Alibaba (BABA) shares were little changed in premarket trading on Wednesday.
In October, the Commerce Department published new rules that said companies seeking verification to sell to China would be faced with a "presumption of denial" standard if they produce DRAM chips below 18 nm, above 128 layers for NAND chips and below 14 nm for logic chips and would have to apply for a license.
The move was designed to limit the advance of China's semiconductor industry from using advanced tools for the purposes of potential military applications.
Additionally, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies and 35 other Chinese companies would be placed on a trade blacklist that would disallow them from buying specific American-made components. 
There has been increased focus on China's semiconductor industry, in particular Yangtze Memory Technologies, in recent months after GOP lawmakers threatened Apple (AAPL) to not use its memory chips in iPhones.
In October, SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY) reportedly proposed a long-term cooperation between Arm, which is set to be listed in an initial public offering, and South Korean technology firm Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF).