The share price of the world’s largest chipmaker, TSMC, dropped 6 per cent in early Taiwanese trading today (October 11) following last week’s release of the Biden administration’s latest and much broader restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, as markets reflected mounting concern over their potential impact on Sino-US technology trade.
The new rules set sweeping prohibitions on the sale of both devices and fab tools for logic processes below 14nm, DRAM below 18nm and NAND memories with 128 or more layers. They specifically target military research, supercomputing, and artificial intelligence but export licences for other uses will be subject to a “presumption of denial.” That may make them almost impossible to get.
One short-term exception – from now until April 2023 – covers fab and other supplies to the Chinese semiconductor subsidiaries of US companies and those from allied countries for products intended for export outside the mainland,...