The Donald Trump administration plans to tighten restrictions on China's semiconductor industry, expanding measures initiated by Joe Biden, Bloomberg reports .
Trump officials are discussing with allies including Japan and the Netherlands the possibility of banning engineers from Tokyo Electron and ASML Holding NV from servicing semiconductor equipment in China. Washington wants those countries to impose restrictions similar to those in place for U.S. equipment makers such as Lam Research, KLA and Applied Materials.
In addition, the US is negotiating new sanctions against individual Chinese companies. Trump officials are also considering tightening controls on NVIDIA's chip exports to China, including limiting the number of AI chips that can be exported without a license.
Shares of Japanese chipmakers, including Tokyo Electron, fell after the news.
The overall US goal is to slow down the development of China's semiconductor industry to limit its capabilities in artificial intelligence and military technology. Trump continues Biden's policies, but in some areas he seeks to make decisions that his predecessor did not implement.
There is also talk of tightening restrictions on China's SMIC, a major chipmaker for Huawei. Under Biden, supplies to some of its facilities were blocked, but others were treated on a case-by-case basis. Trump officials believe this could have allowed SMIC to obtain critical technology.
Another direction is to revise the so-called “AI diffusion rule” enacted by Biden. The Trump administration could tighten controls on the export of powerful AI chips by lowering the threshold at which a license is required.