View of the logo of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, in Hsinchu, Taiwan in May of 2020. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, has had its unlicensed export waiver to China revoked by the U.S. government on Friday. File Photo by EPA-EFE/DAVID CHANG
Sept. 3 (UPI) — The U.S. government rescinded a waiver that allowed the world’s largest contract chipmaker to easily export key chipmaking tech and equipment into China.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is one of several similar companies that will now have to obtain a particular license to export tech and equipment to China without a license.
The U.S. Industry and Security Bureau, however, said in a statement that it “does not intend to grant licenses to expand capacity or upgrade technology” at semiconductor manufacturers in China.
The decision also impacts similar companies such as South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix.
A document filed in the Federal Register by the U.S. Industry and Security Bureau on Tuesday amended its Export Administration Regulations with a revision to its Validated End-User, or VEU authorizations list “for the People’s Republic of China.”
As of Friday, the VEU program, which allowed a group of foreign companies to export semiconductor manufacturing equipment and technology to China without a license, has been canceled.
Any former VEU participants will now have 120 days as of Friday “to apply for and obtain export licenses,” but as per the BIS, those particular fabs are being cut off.
“No U.S.-owned fab has this privilege — and now, following today’s decision, no foreign-owned fab will have it either,” BIS stated in the press release.
“While we are evaluating the situation and taking appropriate measures, including communicating with the U.S. government, we remain fully committed to ensuring the uninterrupted operation of TSMC Nanjing,” TSMC said in a statement.
TSMC operates two Chinese manufacturing sites in Shanghai and Nanjing but powers its fabs with chips from American suppliers.
TSMC had already been under investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission since March in regard to a complaint filed by a pair of companies that accused it of violating the Tariff Act of 1930.
The allegations were that TSMC was importing and exporting “certain foreign-fabricated semiconductor devices, products containing the same, and components thereof” which infringed on U.S. patent claims.