Blacklisted Chinese firms got access to UK tech crucial to AI weapons, say ex-insiders

Chinese engineers developing chips for artificial intelligence that can be used in "advanced weapons systems" have access to cutting-edge UK technology, the Guardian can reveal.

- Tom Burgis

Described by analysts as "China's premier AI chip designers", Moore Threads and Biren Technology are subject to US export restrictions over their development of chips that "can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities to further development of weapons of mass destruction, advanced weapons systems and hi-tech surveillance applications that create national security concerns".

However, prior to the US black-listing in 2023, the two companies secured extensive licences with the UK-based Imagination Technologies, which is among a handful of firms worldwide that design an advanced type of microchip crucial for AI systems, and is regarded as a jewel of the UK technology industry.

A spokesperson for Imagination said: "At no stage has Imagination (or its owners) considered or implemented transactions with third parties with the aim of enabling China or any nation to use or direct Imagination technology for state or military end uses."

While Imagination's representatives confirmed the existence of the licences with Moore Threads and Biren Technology, they denied claims that the company, under the ownership of a private equity fund backed with Chinese state money, sought to deliberately transfer its state-of-the-art secrets to China.

Two former senior Imagination insiders claim that "knowledge transfer programmes" accompanying the licences were so comprehensive that they risked the Chinese companies learning how to replicate Imagination's expertise. One believed that the information provided meant Imagination may "have given [the Chinese companies] the capability to make the technology".

Both insiders left the company before the knowledge transfer programmes were fully implemented. Imagination's representatives say the programmes were strictly limited in how much of its expertise was transferred to China, and that such arrangements are common.