In this illustrated photo taken on February 17, 2023, the Chinese flag is raised next to a “Made in China” sign on a printed circuit board containing a semiconductor chip.
Florence Law | Reuters
The United States on Monday launched its third crackdown on China’s semiconductor industry in three years, restricting exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment makers. Nowra Technology GroupThere are movements such as.
Efforts to thwart Chinese government’s chip manufacturing ambitions also hit Chinese chip tool makers PiotecACM Research and SiCarrier Technology have new export restrictions as part of their package, which also aims to ship advanced memory chips and more chip-making tools to China.
The move is one of the Biden administration’s last major efforts to thwart China’s ability to access and produce chips that could help with military applications and advances in artificial intelligence that threaten U.S. national security. be.
This comes just weeks before the swearing-in of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to maintain many of Biden’s hard-line policies on China.
The package includes curbs on shipments to China of high-bandwidth memory chips essential for high-end applications such as AI training. 24 additional chip manufacturing tools and new limits on 3 software tools. There were also new export restrictions on chip manufacturing equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the move was aimed at halting “advancements to China’s domestic semiconductor manufacturing systems that it uses to support its military modernization.”
Reuters first reported the many companies involved and key details of the plan.
Tool management is also likely to hit non-U.S. companies such as Lam Research, KLA and Applied Materials, as well as Dutch equipment maker ASM International.
The Chinese companies facing new regulations include about 20 semiconductor companies, two investment firms and more than 100 chip-making tool makers.
The companies include Swaysure Technology Co, Si’En Qingdao, and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co, all affiliated with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. The telecommunications equipment leader has been hampered by U.S. sanctions, but is now at the center of China’s production and development of advanced chips.
These companies will be added to the Entity List, which prohibits U.S. suppliers from shipping to them unless they first obtain a special license.
Asked about the U.S. restrictions, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian said such actions would undermine the international economic and trade order and disrupt global supply chains.
He added at a regular press conference on Monday that China will take measures to protect the rights and interests of its companies.
In a statement posted on its official website after the new restrictions were announced, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US restrictions were a clear example of “economic coercion” and “non-market practices.”
China has stepped up efforts to become self-sufficient in semiconductors in recent years, as the United States and other countries have restricted exports of advanced chips and the tools to make them. But it remains several years behind chip industry leaders such as AI chip maker Nvidia and Dutch chip equipment maker ASML.
The US is also poised to impose additional restrictions. International Semiconductor ManufacturingChina’s largest contract chip manufacturer, which was placed on the Entity List in 2020, had a policy that allowed it to grant billions of dollars worth of licenses to ship its products.
For the first time, the US will add three companies that invest in chips to its Entity List. Chinese private equity firm Wise Road Capital, technology company Wingtech Technology Co., Ltd. The department said JAC Capital and JAC Capital were added as part of “the Chinese government’s efforts to acquire companies with sensitive semiconductor manufacturing capabilities essential to the defense industrial base of the United States and its allies with the intent of relocating them to China.” This is because of its role of “supporting the . ”
Companies seeking licenses to ship to companies on the Entity List are typically denied.
Dutch and Japanese are exempt
Aspects of the new package that address the Foreign Direct Product Rule could hurt some U.S. allies by limiting the items that companies can ship to China.
The new rules expand the U.S.’s authority to restrict the export of chip manufacturing equipment made in other parts of the world by U.S., Japanese and Dutch manufacturers to certain chip factories in China.
Equipment manufactured in Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are subject to the rules, but Japan and the Netherlands are excluded.
The expanded foreign direct product rules apply to 16 companies on a list of companies deemed most important to China’s cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing ambitions.
The rule also lowers to zero the amount of U.S. content that determines when certain foreign items become subject to U.S. regulation. This would allow the United States to regulate items shipped from overseas to China if they contain American chips.
The new rules were announced after lengthy discussions with Japan and the Netherlands, which together with the United States control production of advanced chip manufacturing equipment.
An ASML spokesperson said the company is “currently assessing the potential impact of the new regulations.” The U.S. plans to exempt countries that have adopted similar regulations, sources told Reuters.
Another regulation included in the package limits the memory used in AI chips that support so-called “HBM 2” and later technologies, made by South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and America’s Micron.
Industry insiders predict that only Samsung Electronics will be affected. Analysts estimate that about 30% of Samsung’s HBM chip sales come from China.
The latest rules are the third major chip-related export restriction to China adopted under the Biden administration.
In October 2022, the United States announced a comprehensive set of regulations on the sale and manufacturing of certain high-end chips, which was considered the biggest shift in technology policy towards China since the 1990s.
