US wants allies to stop China's semiconductor sector: next target is HBM memory for AI chips

A senior US official will visit both Japan and the Netherlands to ask the countries to agree to new US restrictions to curb China's semiconductor industry. This time, they want to place bans on HBM memory needed for AI chips.

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US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Alan Estevez, will press his counterparts in both Tokyo and the Netherlands to tighten the activities in China by Dutch supplier ASML (the makers of EUV lithography machines to make the best chips on the planet) and Japan's Tokyo Electron Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, reports Bloomberg.

Estevez's requests are part of an "ongoing dialogue with allies" that will target Chinese chip factories that are developing HBM chips, with ASML and Tokyo Electron machines used to make HBM chips. Chinese companies working on creating HBM chips include Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary of China's leading memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., according to China's corporate data provider Qichacha. Huawei Technologies Co. and ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. are also reportedly developing HBM.

Gregory Allen, director of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: "The United States is the most critical player in the global semiconductor equipment industry, but it's far from the only country that matters. Japan and the Netherlands are also key providers of semiconductor equipment".

Allen continued: "The Netherlands and Japan have restrictions on exports but not on servicing, and that's a critical limitation in the overall technology controls architecture".