Japan To Join US Effort to Tighten Chip Exports To China (bloomberg.com) 23
Japan and the Netherlands have agreed in principle to join the US in tightening controls over the export of advanced chipmaking machinery to China, Bloomberg News reported according to people familiar with the matter, a potentially debilitating blow to Beijing's technology ambitions. From the report: The two countries are likely to announce in the coming weeks that they'll adopt at least some of the sweeping measures the US rolled out in October to restrict the sale of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, according to the people, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The Biden administration has said the measures are aimed at preventing Beijing's military from obtaining advanced semiconductors.
The three-country alliance would represent a near-total blockade of China's ability to buy the equipment necessary to make leading-edge chips. The US rules restricted the supply from American gear suppliers Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA. Japan's Tokyo Electron and Dutch lithography specialist ASML Holding are the two other critical suppliers that the US needed to make the sanctions effective, making their governments' adoption of the export curbs a significant milestone. "There's no way China can build a leading-edge industry on their own. No chance," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.
The three-country alliance would represent a near-total blockade of China's ability to buy the equipment necessary to make leading-edge chips. The US rules restricted the supply from American gear suppliers Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA. Japan's Tokyo Electron and Dutch lithography specialist ASML Holding are the two other critical suppliers that the US needed to make the sanctions effective, making their governments' adoption of the export curbs a significant milestone. "There's no way China can build a leading-edge industry on their own. No chance," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.
ASML (Score:4, Interesting)
Summary (Score:2, Insightful)
Fifteen minutes of video to say: ASML is the biggest supplier of lithography machines, the kind to you need to etch the patterns that make microchips go, and only supplier of the highest-end (EUV) lithography machines, that can make the smallest and most detailed patterns, that you need for the most modern chips. That's the one in the Netherlands. The three in Japan (Tokyo Electron, Nikon, and Canon) are small fry, really.
So it's funny the headline only mentions Japan. It's also a good example of the US th
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It's also a good example of the US throwing its weight around.
Perhaps. But Japan has much more to lose if China starts throwing its weight around.
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Consider that Intel lost its edge because of a single mishap when they tried a new node and failed. This cost them 18 months and over $10B. Most any other company would have been at high risk of failure, yet they fixed it and continued forward.
TSMC, Samsung, or Micron could make a similar mistake at any time.
What is interesting is, we don't actually need to move this fast.
A company like SMIC can become the world's most impor
What? No payoff to do the right thing? (Score:2)
Like Europe [slashdot.org]?
Famous Last Words (Score:2)
"There's no way China can build a leading-edge industry on their own. No chance,"
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Re:Famous Last Words (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem for China is that the markets its made the most cash on have been the Western nations and their various regional allies throughout the world. Sure, they have lots of customers in other parts of the world, but I don't think losing cold hard Western cash to be replaced by heavily devalued rubles is exactly going to warm the PRC's heart.
I'm more afraid of what this economic war might transition into. Closing markets to a perceived major power threat has never exactly gone well, and economic wars all to easily tip into actual hot wars, particularly when it's coupled with increases in military expenditures. The potential for countries like Japan and Germany to normalize offensive military doctrines indicates the geopolitical balance is shifting, and it means both sides are going to scurry for allies, and just like the lead up WWI, these potential belligerents seem to have a habit of sailing their warships within pissing distance of each other, provocative military maneuvers and the like.
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The Chinese government paid zero attention to semiconductors until US sanctions were announced several years ago. Presumably knowing that the US sanctions were only the beginning, China acted and a few months later set a goal of a semiconductor tech stack that used 100% Chinese owned IP.
To that end, China created three institutes of technology to train the 1000s of STEMs the industry will need. The existing industry employees who were left stranded by the US sanctions were employed at the institutes as te
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So we've entered a semi-conductor arms race, and there's no doubt that China has the technical capabilities and probably even the ability to bring enough fabs up to speed to pull it off. The question really boils down to cold hard cash. China's a big market, and thus Chinese manufacturers will have a large ready market. What they won't have, if the the plans of the West and its allies come to fruition, is the big inflow of foreign currency. The markets open to them will be countries like Russia, and maybe p
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Sure (Score:2, Insightful)
The Biden administration has said the measures are aimed at preventing Beijing's military from obtaining advanced semiconductors.
USA fighting for world peace not total world domination, episode 135...
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Don't a bunch of Iranian drones and Russian missiles use relatively common "western chips" from TI, etc?
Unless they will not sell any silicon to anyone outside their countries, they are not going to be able to effectively control what's going on.
No way (Score:2)
"There's no way China can build a leading-edge industry on their own. No chance,"
Is it a racist statement? I see no reason why Chinese researcher and engineers could not do what the western industry did. This will just slow them.
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It kinda is - just need to replace the word "China" with "Chinese" to see it clearly.
Whoever said that just needs to scan the photos of the top 10 winners of the various best student prizes that are regularly dolled out - ethnicity is pretty clear.
Whooosh! (Score:1)
Stupid analyst (Score:2)
"There's no way China can build a leading-edge industry on their own. No chance," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.
ASML did it. So did LAM Research etc do it.
What makes you think someone from China's can't do it eventually? Especially since it's something thats known to be possible.
And you can bet that China will pour a shit tonne of resources on it if they decide they need the tech.
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ASML and company has proven that certain things are possible.
Same with TSMC.
It's not blue sky research to recreate things that you know are possible. That makes it alot easier compared to being the extreme leading edge, when you don't know if the research you are doing will actually lead to improvements or will end up in a blind alley. Especially since you already know what has EUV been already made to do, DUV, etc.
They may not have the exact magic sauce, but am sure they already know the rough outline of w