Europe is pushing back on Washington’s chip war

In Brief

Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma visited Washington this week to conscionable with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of Congress to reason the MATCH Act, a measure that would barroom Chinese chipmakers from accessing Western semiconductor equipment, and 1 that would deed ASML particularly hard.

ASML, based successful the Netherlands, is Europe’s astir invaluable institution and the lone shaper successful the satellite of the blase lithography machines that are utilized to marque cutting-edge AI chips.

“It’s exceptional that I’m coming present to broadly outline our concerns to Congress,” Sjoerdsma told Bloomberg aft the meetings. “The stakes for the Netherlands whitethorn beryllium precise high.”

China accounts for 19% of ASML’s nett strategy sales. The MATCH Act would spell further than existing controls, extending curbs to ASML’s heavy ultraviolet immersion machines connected apical of the long-standing prohibition connected its astir precocious utmost ultraviolet, oregon EUV, tools reaching China.

As ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet told TechCrunch successful May, what China tin presently bargain are older-generation heavy ultraviolet tools — cogwheel archetypal shipped astir a decennary agone — the aforesaid machines the MATCH Act would present relegate disconnected limits.

The bill, introduced successful April, hasn’t yet faced a afloat House oregon Senate vote; Bloomberg notes it would apt request to beryllium folded into a larger bundle to pass.

Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news