On November 10, Sputnik News Agency quoted Reuters as saying that US congressmen asked ASML, Tokyo Electron, Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Technologies to provide the list of Chinese customers and sales information.
Mueller Narr, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives and chairman of the US-China Strategic Competition Special Committee, and Krishnamurthy, a Democratic member of the committee, sent a letter to the above-mentioned companies on November 8th, saying: “Enhanced export controls are not incompatible with a strong and prosperous equipment manufacturing industry.”
Washington is concerned that the improvement of China’s chip manufacturing capabilities, driven by the sales of equipment from the United States, the Netherlands and Japan, is accelerating China’s military modernization process. However, the United States has encountered difficulties in promoting allies such as Japan and the Netherlands to support the upcoming new round of measures, which has led to concerns among the American industry that these measures may unfairly harm the interests of American companies.
In addition, according to the Lianhe Zaobao website on November 10, the United States reportedly asked TSMC to stop supplying advanced chips often used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications to Chinese Mainland customers from November 11.
Reuters quoted sources on the 9th that the US Department of Commerce sent a letter to TSMC, imposing export restrictions on certain complex chips of 7nm or more advanced design that are shipped to Chinese Mainland. These chips can be used to drive AI accelerators and graphics processing units (GPUs).
On the 8th, China’s Jiwai.com quoted sources as saying that TSMC has sent emails to all current AI chip customers in Chinese Mainland, announcing that from the 11th, it will suspend the supply of all 7nm and more advanced chips to AI and GPU customers in Chinese Mainland.
TSMC responded that it would not comment on market rumors, saying that as a law-abiding company, it has always been committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations, including applicable export control regulations.
