US lawmakers call for a ban on chip-making equipment sales to China to be expanded.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that inconsistencies in US, Japanese and Dutch laws have led to non-US manufacturers selling chip-making equipment to some Chinese companies that US companies cannot do business with, according to a report released on October 5 by the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China.
The committee called for broader bans by the US and its allies on the sale of chip-making equipment to China, rather than limited bans on sales to some Chinese chipmakers.
According to Reuters, the $38 billion in equipment was purchased from the top five suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment without violating the rules, representing a 66% increase from 2022, when many export restrictions began to apply.
The report shows that this figure accounts for about 39% of the total sales of companies such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA, ASML and Tokyo Electron.
Democratic and Republican US administrations have sought to limit China’s ability to manufacture microchips, which are crucial to the artificial intelligence and military industries.
The two economic superpowers are also competing to export advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence data centers.