US President Joe Biden requested ASML to cancel shipments of its machines to China

US President Joe Biden's administration has pushed ASML to cancel shipments of some of its high-end chip-making machines into China, after new US export bans come into effect.

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The news is coming from Bloomberg and the usual "people familiar with the matter," who said that the Dutch manufacturer had licenses to ship three of its new high-end deep ultraviolet lithography machines to Chinese firms this month, when new Dutch restrictions will begin taking effect.

US officials reached out to ASML, asking them to immediately stop the pre-scheduled shipments of their new machines to Chinese customers, once again, "according to people familiar with the matter". These people asked not to be identified because the discussions were confidential.

China has been the target of US sanctions for a while now, with the Biden administration all but stopping high-end AI GPU technology from entering the country. We've seen NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 banned, modified into the GeForce RTX 4090 D which isn't far away from being deployed in China. NVIDIA has also tweaked its AI GPUs to get into the country, with the mass production of the new H20 AI GPU set for Q2 2024, according to the latest reports.

As for ASML, they're the Dutch-based firm making some of the required high-end EUV machines to make the very latest in chip technology. Intel was the first customer of ASML's new High-NA EUV lithography scanner in the last days of 2023.

ASML explained: "A license for the shipment of NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems in 2023 has recently been partially revoked by the Dutch government, impacting a small number of customers in China".

ASML added: "In recent discussions with the US government, ASML has obtained further clarification of the scope and impact of the US export control regulations. ASML is fully committed to comply with all applicable laws and regulations including export control legislation in the countries in which we operate".