Shares of major global semiconductor suppliers jumped on Thursday after news that the U.S. is considering sanctions against China's chip industry that fall wanting previous proposals.
ASML was around 3.6% higher in early trading in Europe. Tokyo Electron was greater than 6% higher in Japan, where it trades.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Washington is considering further measures to limit sales of semiconductor equipment and AI memory chips to China, but that the brand new rules could fall wanting previous proposals that were seen as stricter.
The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the Bloomberg report.
The USA is now considering putting fewer suppliers to the Chinese technology giant Huawei on an export blacklist called the Entity List. According to the report, a key Chinese company not included, ChangXin Memory Technologies, is a memory company and potential competitor to corporations reminiscent of SK Hynix and Samsung.
Analysts at Jefferies said ASML had previously expected its revenue in China to fall 30% next 12 months. The exclusion of that company could mean that ASML's sales in China “decline less than expected next year,” Jefferies said on Thursday.
ASML has found itself within the crosshairs of the U.S.-China technology dispute over semiconductors due to the Dutch company's critical position within the chip supply chain.
ASML makes a machine that chip makers need to provide cutting-edge semiconductors. Due to numerous export controls, these machines haven’t yet been exported to China. More recently, the Dutch and U.S. governments have introduced restrictions that make it difficult for ASML to export a few of its less advanced machinery to China.
The company sells its machines to “fabs,” or factories that really make chips, reminiscent of Taiwan TSMC in addition to SMIC in China. Any rules that affect demand or directly goal semiconductor manufacturers could have a negative impact on ASML.
The Bloomberg report suggested that further sanctions into account would goal Chinese corporations that make semiconductor manufacturing equipment, quite than the factories that really make the chips. This can also be positive for ASML and other foreign semiconductor suppliers that sell to factories.
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