TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Some Chinese fabless chipmakers are having to modify their advanced chip designs to cut back on processing speeds in order to avoid recently imposed U.S. sanctions on semiconductor exports to China.

According to the Financial Times, Alibaba, Biren, and other Chinese chip designers have spent millions of dollars and years designing advanced silicon, which was meant to be produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), since China lacks the ability to make its own cutting-edge chips.

However, new trade restrictions issued by the U.S. Commerce Department on Oct. 7 that require American chipmakers or equipment manufacturers to apply for a license to export advanced chips or chipmaking equipment to China have hampered these plans.

Sources told Financial Times that Alibaba and Biren had both carried out costly test runs of their latest semiconductors at TSMC when the U.S. announced the new trade rules. The new curbs have forced both Chinese companies to stop further production and alter their chip designs, per the report.

Washington’s new trade restrictions extend to third-country chipmakers that rely on U.S. technology or equipment in the semiconductor manufacturing process, which includes nearly all advanced chipmakers, including TSMC. In addition, China’s domestic chip plants are years away from being able to make the chips designed by Biren and Alibaba.

One Biren engineer told the outlet that the company is trying to modify its designs to cut back on processor speeds in the hope they can still get them made at TSMC. One analyst added that Biren is trying to slow down its processors by disabling part of the chip.

Meanwhile, other sources informed the Financial Times that Alibaba’s chip unit, T-Head, was working on how to tweak its new chip for AI designed for TSMC’s 5nm process. New alterations could mean that T-Head will have to pay for another production test run at TSMC, which would delay the project months and cost upwards of US$10 million (NT$321 million).