August 09, 2026
China Presses a Weakness in America’s Tech Policy
This article was originally published in The Wall Street Journal.
Washington has spent the past decade working to secure choke points of the semiconductor industry: fabrication plants, lithography equipment, advanced packaging, critical minerals and the handful of companies that dominate each. Now a new choke point has emerged in part of the industry that policymakers have barely considered: the instruction set architecture, or ISA.
America’s semiconductor strategy now must confront not only who controls the factories, tools, and materials required to make chips, but also who controls the language those chips speak.
ISAs are the language through which software tells a chip’s processor what to do, such as perform calculations, move data or execute commands in a program. For more than two decades, two ISAs have dominated mainstream computing: x86, which powers most personal computers and servers, and Arm, which dominates smartphones and is expanding into cars, defense systems and artificial intelligence. The two operate through different business models: x86 is used almost exclusively by Intel and AMD, while Arm historically has licensed its technology broadly to other chip designers.
Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.
More from CNAS
-
Japan’s New CIA Could Be Takaichi’s Trump Card
Commentary
Intelligence reform may generate fewer headlines than higher defense spending, new missiles, or arms deals, but it represents another consequential way Tokyo is assuming great...
By Derek Grossman
-
America’s Secret Weapon in the Nuclear Race
Commentary
The choice is between an integrated American system that combines public missions with private capital and a fragmented one facing off against China’s coordinated buildup....
By David Feith
-
Commentary
Indo-Pacific Security / Technology & National Security
Sharper: China's AI RiseArtificial intelligence has become a strategic priority for Beijing and Washington, yet both countries continue to pursue dramatically different strategies in their bid for gl...
By Charles Horn & Cadence Barker
-
Indo-Pacific Stability Depends on Eastern Africa’s Prosperity
Commentary
The Strait of Malacca, Taiwan, and the South China Sea dominate the Asian debate. However, chokepoints further from home could prove similarly devastating....
By Derek Grossman
