A new set of restrictions have been announced this week on the sale of advanced chips that are set to impact chip manufacturers including Samsung and TSMC.
On Wednesday, the US government unveiled measures restricting chipmakers as well as chip packaging suppliers from providing advanced manufacturing services to Chinese and other unverified chip companies globally.
The Commerce Department has broadened the licensing requirements for contract chipmakers and packaging and testing suppliers seeking to export chips under the 14- or 16-nanometer level and which exceed a threshold of 30 billion transistor counts, which are broadly considered as more sophisticated chips. Exceptions will be made for companies authorized by the US.
At present, there are only a limited number of chipmakers capable of producing chips beyond the 14-16nm grade, including TSMC, Samsung, Intel and Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.
The new rules also require chipmakers to conduct due diligence on their other customers not yet present on the approved list if they are developing advanced chips that fall within the regulatory threshold. In one incident, TSMC chips were reported to have been secretly diverted to Huawei, and the US is keen to avoid such incidents.
“These rules will further target and strengthen our controls to help ensure that the [People’s Republic of China] and others who seek to circumvent our laws and undermine U.S. national security fail in their efforts,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The draft rules do not specify when the new restrictions come into effect, but a March 14 deadline for written comments was noted.
The latest round of restrictions follow Monday’s directives wherein the US published curbs that limit the sale of AI chips by the likes of Nvidia and other advanced makers to data centers in most countries.
Nvidia has already hit back at those restrictions issuing a statement accusing the US of trying to ‘rig’ the AI market where these chips are most needed.
“The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided “AI Diffusion” rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide,” said Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at Nvidia.
“While cloaked in the guise of an “anti-China” measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security.”
The 10 top global semiconductor companies are already cutting billions of dollars in planned capital spending. Investment plans for each of the company’s fiscal 2024 show an aggregate 2% decrease year-over-year to A$199.21 billion, an approximately A$15.36 billion decrease from their May estimates, reported Nikkei Asia.
The global semiconductor market was valued at A$1.01 trillion in 2024, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, up 19% year-on-year.
