ASML, the major Dutch semiconductor tooling firm, is being accused of misleading investors about how its projected China sales and revenues were impacted by recently imposed export controls.
A new set of U.S. export controls announced this week target a range of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, chip software tools, high-bandwidth memory and more, including by introducing new license obligations on certain foreign-made tools that the Bureau of Industry and Security said can be used by China to make advanced chips for its military. BIS also added more than 100 entities to the Entity List, most based in China, for aiding Beijing's military technology goals.
No policy option available to the U.S. government, including lifting export controls, will persuade China to stop trying to de-Americanize and decouple its semiconductor equipment sector, the Center for Strategic and International Studies argued in a new report this week.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China asked five large semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) firms Nov. 7 to provide data about their China sales, saying the information would help lawmakers better understand the “flow of SME” to the Asian country and its contribution to China’s “rapid buildout of its semiconductor manufacturing industrial base.”
The Netherlands last week said it expanded its export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools, imposing new license requirements on certain deep ultraviolet lithography equipment that can be used to make high-end chips. The new control, effective Sept. 7, is meant to restrict equipment that can be used to make chips with “advanced military applications,” the Dutch government said, which “has implications for the Netherlands’ security interests.”
A new U.S. rule expected this month could expand restrictions on foreign exports of certain chip equipment to China but exclude chipmakers in the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea, Reuters reported July 31.
The U.S. is trying to convince more of its allies to increase export controls on advanced semiconductors and chip making equipment destined to China, but some haven’t committed, in part because they’re worried about possible trade retaliation from Beijing, said Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Aggressive new U.S. export controls on advanced computing chips and the equipment to manufacture them are having unintended side effects and may be causing more harm than good for Western companies, a Brussels-based think-tank said.
Beijing this week urged the Netherlands to continue allowing its companies to service and repair semiconductor equipment in China, saying Dutch companies should fulfill their “contractual obligations” with their Chinese customers.
The U.S. is pushing foreign governments to stop their semiconductor companies from servicing certain advanced chip tools under pre-existing contracts with Chinese customers, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said.