The Netherlands has tightened restrictions on the supply of chip production machines to China and other countries

The Netherlands has tightened export controls, as a result of which ASML will be able to obtain export licenses for the supply of equipment for the production of chips from the authorities of its country, and not from the United States. The new regulations will go into effect April 1 and are likely in response to the updated US list of sanctioned equipment, which includes measurement and inspection systems made by semiconductor equipment manufacturers, including ASML.

Image source: asml.com

The Dutch authorities did not mention the new sanctions imposed by Washington, but, according to Bloomberg, this measure is directly related to the policy of the White House. This is not the first time the country has updated its export control rules to retain the right to determine the actions of local semiconductor equipment manufacturers – in September 2024, they added deep ultraviolet (DUV) equipment to the list. Because of this, China lost the opportunity to buy equipment that could produce chips according to 7 nm standards.

Beijing claims that the country is able to ensure its technical progress without ASML equipment, but there is an opinion that China lags behind its level by 10, or even 15 years. Therefore, the Chinese are not wasting any time and are taking steps to reduce the gap in the semiconductor technology race. In particular, they are trying to poach employees from manufacturing equipment companies to build their own. Meanwhile, the United States has radically tightened restrictions on the export of chips for artificial intelligence systems, making it difficult for most countries to purchase them – a measure that has caused discontent among Nvidia, the Semiconductor Industry Association and the European Union.

Despite the sanctions, Chinese customers provided ASML with about half of its sales in 2024, totaling €2.79 billion. Under the new conditions, China’s share of ASML’s sales threatens to drop to 20% of the company’s revenue.