The United States on Monday launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, curbing exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment maker Naura Technology Group, among other moves.
The effort to hobble Beijing’s chipmaking ambitions also hits Chinese chip toolmakers Piotech, ACM Research and SiCarrier Technology with new export restrictions as part of the package, which also takes aim at shipments of advanced memory chips and more chipmaking tools to China.
The move is one of the Biden administration’s last large-scale efforts to stymie China’s ability to access and produce chips that can help advance artificial intelligence for military applications, or otherwise threaten U.S. national security.
It comes just weeks before the swearing-in of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to retain many of Biden’s tough-on-China measures.
The package includes curbs on China-bound shipments of high bandwidth memory chips, critical for high-end applications like AI training; new curbs on 24 additional chipmaking tools and three software tools; and new export curbs on chipmaking equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
