The United States withdraws the waiver of TSMC for China’s shipments from chip supplies

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The United States has canceled the license of the semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan to freely disrupt its main Chinese chips base, which may reduce the capabilities of its production in this older generation facility.

US officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the so -called user of the Taiwanese maker who has been validated, or Veu, on his Nanjing website. The work steps taken by the United States to cancel Veu’s labels for the Chinese facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co. And sk Hynix Inc. Exemptions are scheduled to end in about four months.

Washington’s move means that the TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix suppliers will have to apply for individual approvals when they want to charge semiconductor equipment and other US export controls to the affected China facilities, instead of the linguistic authorization currently enjoying these suppliers due to the VEU status of the plague.

TSMC shares decreased to 1.3 % in Taipei, while suppliers fell, among them TOKYO Electron Ltd. About 2 %.

“TSMC received a notification from the United States government that our VEU license will be canceled for TSMC NANJING from December 31, 2025,” the company said in a statement. “While we evaluate the situation and take appropriate measures, including communication with the United States government, we are fully committed to ensuring operation without interruption of TSMC NANJING.”

The cancellation adds new obstacles to China’s operations for some of the most important companies in the semiconductor sector, which descended from American allies. While US officials said they Introduce version The licenses needed to maintain these facilities are working, the shift offers some uncertainty about waiting times to already secure these permits. In a statement, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan said that the cancellation of the American waiver will affect the possibility of predicting the operations of the Nanjing Factory.

People familiar with the issue said that officials are currently working on solutions to alleviate the bureaucratic burden. For example, the cancellation of Samsung and SK Hynix Veu from US officials will require 1000 additional statements annually, according to Federality. Notice.

Compared to Samsung and SK Hynix, which includes a large share of its production in China, the TSMC manufacturing fingerprint in the second largest economy in the world is relatively small. The company’s NANJING site started production in 2018 and contributed to a small part of the total TSMC revenue last year – and about 3 % of the company’s total production capacity, according to the Taiwanese Ministry.

The ministry said that the American move will not affect the competitiveness of the chips industry in Taiwan. The campus includes advanced technical technology such as the 16 nm process, which has become commercially available for the first time in more than a decade.

The situation highlights the extent of Washington’s influence in the supply chain of electronic components that operate everything from micro-waves to phones to data centers in the training of artificial intelligence algorithms-even when the plants concerned are operated by three non-American companies in a foreign country.

The United States has widely restricted China to reach materials and equipment that can be used to make advanced chips, part of a set of controls designed to reduce AI’s ingenuity in the Asian nation. Export restrictions affect sales not only for Chinese companies, but any physical facilities within the country – including Samsung, SK Hynix and TSMC factories.

During the era of President Joe Biden’s administration, the company’s trio obtained an unlimited concession to continue shipments to their China’s facilities, as long as it complies with security requirements and disclosing certain information to the US government. This appointment Veu – any US officials Declare For Samsung and Sk Hynix, which TSMC It is announced In an annual report – it was a top priority for chips and foreign government officials, given that semiconductor plants require regular imports of everything from spare parts to chemicals.

Loss of exemptions offer some uncertainty for the top suppliers of TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix – including machinery companies such as Applied Materials Inc. ASML Hold NV, tokyo Electron and Kla Corp. ASML refused to comment, while the applied material had no immediate comment. KLA and Tokyo Electron did not respond to suspension requests.

Applied and KLA shares fell in New York trading on Tuesday, as did the deposit receipts for ASML, with a decrease in losses in the wider market.

Industry and Security Office of the Ministry of Trade, which supervises the controls for the export of semiconductor, Declare Veu’s decision for the two southern Koreas last week, saying that the United States was closing the “export control gaps” that put American companies “in a competitive position.”

The agency also Nullify Samsung and SK Hynix Veu mode in the federal registry, a general account of American regulations – and they did the same to name Veu provided to Intel Corp. , To Facility In Dalian, China, which SK Hynix has gained since then. BIS did not respond to the comment request about the abolition of TSMC.

Since the TSMC case was never published in the federal registry in the first place, there was no general list to modify BIS in the same way that other affected companies deal. Nevertheless, the pure effect on TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix is ​​the same.



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