The Netherlands government revoked the export license for the shipment of some chip-making equipment made by ASML to China, the company announced Monday, once again dragging Europe’s most valuable tech company and maker world’s most advanced chip-making machines into an ongoing trade battle between China and the West.
The ASML booth at the 6th CIIE in Shanghai, China.
ASML said the Dutch government had “partially revoked” the license for shipment of its NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i chip-making systems in 2023, without mentioning an exact date.
The company said the move will impact “a small number of customers in China.”
ASML’s statement follows a Bloomberg report earlier on Monday, which said the company canceled the shipment of some of its machines to China weeks before new Dutch export restrictions went into effect following a request from the Biden administration.
ASML said it has sought more clarification from the U.S. government about the scope of the Biden administration’s export control measures from last year, which restricted the sale of some of its chip-making machines to China.
The company said it does not expect the revocation of the license to have a “material impact” on its financial outlook for 2023.
The company’s stock fell slightly to $751.43 (€681.10), down around 0.7% on Tuesday morning.
In October last year, President Joe Biden’s administration announced expanded export restrictions targeting China’s ability to manufacture advanced silicon. The measures targeted both the export of advanced chips made by companies like Nvidia and equipment used to manufacture them, like ASML’s lithography machines, which contained U.S.-made parts. The rules targeted the company’s second-tier deep ultraviolet (DUV) chip-making machines, which are used to make less advanced chips that rely on an older manufacturing process.
ASML is the only company in the world that makes advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines used by the likes of TSMC, Samsung and Intel to manufacture bleeding-edge chips for companies like Apple and Nvidia. The export of these EUV machines to China was already restricted by the Dutch government—reportedly following pressure from former President Donald Trump’s administration.