By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. bill to keep more chipmaking equipment from China has been scaled back, according to the latest version seen by Reuters, but still includes a new countrywide restriction on ASML’s deep ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography machines.
Netherlands-based ASML, by far the world’s dominant supplier of the critical technology, declined to comment.
The “MATCH Act” was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 2 with bipartisan support, to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment sold to China and align the U.S. and other countries, including Japan and the Netherlands.
MATCH, which stands for “Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act”, is aimed at maintaining leadership in artificial intelligence that could transform the balance of power between nations.
INDUSTRY VIEWED EARLIER VERSION WITH ALARM
Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner, who introduced the bill, is offering the new version as a substitute for the original, according to the latest draft.
The early April version upset the industry, both in the U.S. and abroad, as the bill became what one expert described as a “runaway train” that not only aimed to force allies to align with U.S. controls, but also imposed new countrywide and expansive company-tied restrictions. Manufacturers say restrictions reduce exports, harming sales.
The U.S. Congress is trying to legislate new restrictions on chips and chipmaking equipment to China as the Trump administration has held back updating controls and loosened curbs on advanced chips.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to vote on the bill next Wednesday, along with more than a dozen others tied to AI, semiconductors and export controls. The vote is one step in the process towards its potentially becoming law.
Many of the restrictions in the early April version of the bill have been removed, including countrywide curbs on cryogenic etch tools for chips, which are made by California-based Lam Research and Japan’s Tokyo Electron.
But the more tailored bill still prohibits foreign firms from selling to Chinese chipmakers CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies), YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies), and SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) for facilities barred by Washington from using American tools.
It also requires licenses for servicing equipment in covered facilities, another controversial provision for foreign firms, although applications will no longer face a policy of denial.
The U.S. has tried to align chipmaking equipment controls with the Dutch and Japanese since it introduced sweeping restrictions in late 2022, with some success. But U.S. equipment makers have argued the field is still not level. The MATCH Act imposes a deadline on diplomatic negotiations with allied supplier countries, then directs the U.S. to impose controls.
The Chinese chipmakers did not respond to requests for comment. Asked about the bill, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said China will closely follow developments and safeguard its rights and interests.
“China opposes the US’s overstretching the national security concept and using all sorts of pretexts to coerce other countries into joining its technological blockade against China,” the spokesman, Liu Pengyu, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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