Trendforce Corp. concluded that the U.S. government recently decided to impose new restrictions on the sale of semiconductor and chip manufacturing equipment to China, which could hurt the sales of South Korean chipmakers’ Chinese foundries and TSMC.
The measures announced by the United States on Friday include the requirement that advanced computing chips and production equipment for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) cannot be sold to China without a license.
In fact, this may mean that exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and advanced chips to Chinese companies are prohibited, but sales of foreign companies operating in China will still be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
TrendForce Research Operations Center Chief Operating Officer H.P. Chang told CNA by phone on Saturday that the measures would limit the expansion from standard semiconductors to memory chips , which could harm suppliers in China and South Korea.
Chang said that companies that make chips in China may be affected the most by Chinese chip manufacturers Changjiang Storage Technology Co., Ltd. (YMTC) and Changxin Storage Technology Co., Ltd., as well as Korean chip manufacturers SK Hynix (SK Hynix) and Samsung (Samsung).
At the same time, as these restrictions cover chip sales from companies using U.S. technology such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., TSMC's Taiwanese fabs may also sell less advanced chips to mainland Chinese customers.
TSMC’s fabs in China and most of the Chinese local chip manufacturers use more mature 28nm and above processes, which means that many of the advanced chips that will be restricted will come from outside China.
Trendforce said in a statement on Saturday that most of the chips used by Chinese and US IC design companies for high-performance computing are produced by TSMC using its mainstream 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes, and restrictions may reduce these chip orders received by TSMC.
Trendforce did not provide any estimates about the impact of the U.S. move on TSMC's sales.
was asked about the impact of the United States TSMC declined to comment, saying the company was in the silent period before the release of the quarterly earnings report on October 13.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s economy minister Wang Mei-hua said the U.S. chip ban had limited impact on Taiwanese suppliers because they were unlikely to receive orders for chips from mainland Chinese companies for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications.
Wang made the above remarks when he set off for the United States to attend the first physical meeting under the framework of US-Taiwan Technology Trade and Investment Cooperation (TTIC).
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