On January 17, 2023 – Macau, a special administration region of China, has been banned from shipments of advanced chips and chipmaking equipment by an order from the Biden Administration.

This move follows the restrictions placed on the Republic of China in October of 2022 by the United States, effectively barring advanced computing semiconductor chips and chip fabrication equipment from China. These measures were put in place to slow down China’s military advancements and as a protest of China’s human rights violations.

As a special administrative region of China, Macau was seen as a potential loophole risk for semiconductor manufacturing equipment being diverted to China. High performance U.S. chips used for AI and computing, even foreign chips made with the use of U.S. software or tools, require a license to be imported into China.

How does this Impact China’s Semiconductor Capabilities? 

China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC, is currently producing 7mm node process chips, albeit at a very low yield, therefore the cost and reliability of these chips are suboptimal. 

Without American tools and software to manufacture semiconductor chips, China will be unable to meet the demand for high performance chips and the development of AI and military technology will be severely hampered. 

How Do We Track and Measure the Impact on Manufacturing? 

Within SiliconExpert’s BOM Manager platform, we compile a list of all supply chain impacting events and grade them according to how severe the impact is to manufacturers. Currently, we are still looking into the direct impact of the Macau chip restrictions, but also following correlated events, such as: 

• Statement from Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on US export control pact threatening global supply chain 
• ASML Holding, Dutch semiconductor lithography firm with 90% market share in EUV (node tech necessary below 5mm) impacted – Netherlands agrees not to sell EUV machines to China 
• Japan’s Nikon and Canon use DUV lithography, enabling chip node technology down to 7mm 
• U.S. stops granting licenses for U.S. company exports to China’s Huawei 
• Impacted Manufacturers: SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Yangtze Memory Technologies, Changxin Memory Technologies, Huawei