TSMC, Korean Firms ‘Can Send Chipmaking Tools to China Plants’

The U.S. government has issued licenses to Asia’s three largest chipmakers, allowing them to ship U.S. chipmaking equipment to their factories in China.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s leading chipmaker, announced the news on Thursday, saying its factory in Nanjing, China, has received approval to import equipment.

The approval “ensures uninterrupted fab operations and product delivery,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.

See also: China now requires chipmakers to use at least 50% local equipment

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also obtained similar import licenses.

Asian companies have previously benefited from exemptions from Washington. Sweeping restrictions on Chinese chip-related exportspart of the U.S.’s effort to stay ahead of China in technological development.

But those privileges (i.e. verified end-user identity) expired on December 31, and the companies must seek new U.S. export licenses in 2026.

“The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued an annual export license to Nanjing TSMC, allowing the supply of U.S. export-controlled products to Nanjing TSMC without the need for a separate supplier license,” TSMC said in a statement.

It added that the license “ensures uninterrupted factory operations and product delivery”.

The Nanjing factory produces 16nm and other mature node chips, not TSMC’s most advanced semiconductors. TSMC also has a chip manufacturing plant in Shanghai.

TSMC said in its 2024 annual report that revenue from its Nanjing factory accounted for about 2.4% of total revenue.

• Reuters Additional editing by Jim Pollard

See also:

Chinese artificial intelligence chip maker Biren Technology shares rise 76% in latest Hong Kong IPO

U.S. begins review of license to sell H200 chips to China

China hopes to solve problems of addiction and self-harm caused by artificial intelligence imitating humans

China’s big technological secret: Dutch chip-making machine replicated in laboratory

Chinese companies lobby for Nvidia H200 but retain local chips

ByteDance, Alibaba “seeking to place large orders for Nvidia’s H200”

Nvidia’s biggest Chinese buyer can no longer use its chips for artificial intelligence

Powerful Nvidia chips could put Chinese chipmakers in trouble

U.S. delays new chip tariffs on China to keep peace

China ‘cuts electricity bills in half’ for its AI chip companies – FT

Chinese AI firms form alliance with chipmakers to ditch foreign technology

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd newspapers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before traveling to South East Asia in the late 1990s. He served as a senior editor at The Nation for more than 17 years.