Bloomberg: US to tighten rules on exporting chip equipment to China

The White House is developing new restrictions on the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. This, according to the US presidential administration, will prevent Chinese industry from creating its own chips, reports Bloomberg with reference to sources.

The US presidential administration told manufacturing companies that the new measures would be officially announced in April. It is expected that the new round of restrictions will increase from 17 to 34 the number of vehicles that require a special license to export.

According to Bloomberg, the US is going to coordinate export restrictions on China along with the Netherlands and Japan, where key chip manufacturers are located. At the same time, if Tokyo or Amsterdam decides to ease restrictions, Washington will not support this, one of the agency’s sources said.

The United States is home to some of the world’s major chip manufacturers – Applied Materials, KLA and Lam Research, in Japan – Tokyo Electron, in the Netherlands – ASML. Without access to their technologies, it is impossible to build factories for the production of advanced semiconductors, Bloomberg analysts say.

The last time the US imposed restrictions on the export of microchips to China was in October 2022. Global chip equipment companies have also halted sales and customer service from China. The Financial Times estimated that Chinese chip makers lost $8.6 billion in October due to US sanctions.

Olesya Pavlenko