The latest measures will see the US add roughly a dozen Chinese toolmakers and their subsidiaries/affiliates to the Commerce Department’s restricted trade list. In total, this will restrict exports to 140 companies in what is the third crackdown in three years on the Chinese semiconductor industry.
This will be one of Biden’s last moves in trying to hinder China in terms of accessing and producing chips, which can be used to advance their AI or military applications among other things.
The sources noted that two dozen semiconductor companies will be slapped with these restrictions. Meanwhile, there will be over a hundred chipmaking tool makers impacted as well. In essence, these firms will be added to the entity list, which bars US suppliers from trading with them without special approval.