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☆ Futures dip as focus shifts to economic data
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Futures down: Dow 0.02%, S&P 0.17%, Nasdaq 0.22%Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Monday as investors awaited economic data later this week that could shape expectations around how long the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated. Investors will focus on a slew of economic data this week as well as speeches from Fed officials for signs on the trajectory of interest rates amid growing expectations that the Fed is done hiking borrowing costs. Inflation data on Tuesday is expected to show headline consumer prices eased to 3.3% in October from 3.7% in September. The major U.S. stock indexes have rebounded strongly this month, fueled by a stronger-than-expected earnings season and on hopes that U.S. interest rates are near their peak. ET, Dow e-minis were down 6 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 7.75 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 34.75 points, or 0.22%.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, jitters, Moody's, Fitch, Mike Johnson, Sruthi Shankar, Maju Samuel Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Dow, Nasdaq, Federal Reserve, CPI, . House, Republican, Dow e, Boeing, Bloomberg News, APEC, Dubai's Emirates, Dubai Airshow, Micron Technology, Memory Technologies, U.S, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, China, Dubai, Bengaluru

☆ Chinese chipmaker YMTC sues Micron alleging patent infringement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 12 (Reuters) - Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. rival Micron Technology (MU.O) alleging infringement of eight of its patents. YMTC filed the lawsuit against Micron and unit Micron Consumer Products Group on Nov. 9 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the lawsuit, Micron turned to YMTC's patented technology to fend off competition from YMTC and to gain and protect market share. In May, China said Micron products failed a network security review and barred purchase of them by operators of key infrastructure. ($1 = 7.2934 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Aly, YMTC, YMTC's, Anirudh Saligrama, Brenda Goh, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Micron, REUTERS, Memory Technologies, U.S, Micron Technology, Micron Consumer Products Group, Northern, Northern District of, South, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, Northern District, Northern District of California, U.S, Fujian, Xian

☆ China's semiconductor state fund invests $2 billion in memory chip firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration//File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) - China's state-backed chip investment fund has invested 14.56 billion yuan ($1.99 billion) in a memory chip company called Changxin Xinqiao, records showed. According to company registration website Qichacha, Changxin Xinqiao was founded in 2021 in Hefei city, in the eastern Anhui province. Its general manager is Zhao Lun, who is the general manager of ChangXin Memory Technologies, one of China's leading memory chip companies. Changxin Xinqiao and the Big Fund did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The organization raised 138.7 billion yuan for its first fund, and 204 billion yuan for its second fund.

Persons: Florence Lo, Changxin Xinqiao, Zhao Lun, YMTC, Changxin, Yelin Mo, Roxanne Liu, Brenda Goh, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, National Enterprise, Technologies, Big Fund, Memory Technologies, Huawei Technologies Co, Big, Reuters, Thomson Locations: China, Rights BEIJING, Changxin, Hefei city, Anhui, United States, Changxin Xinan, Hefei Xinyi, Taiwan, South Korea, Beijing, Shanghai

☆ Maxlinear scraps nearly $4 bln deal for Taiwan's Silicon Motion
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Maxlinear (MXL.O) said on Wednesday it has scrapped a near $4 billion deal to acquire Taiwan-based Silicon Motion . MaxLinear had agreed to buy the memory controller-maker Silicon Motion in May last year in a cash-and-stock deal worth $4 billion. Memory controllers are used to manage data in memory chips. NAND flash memory chips do not need power to retain data and are used in smartphones, personal computers and data center servers. MaxLinear was to pay $93.54 in cash and about 0.4 of its share for each Silicon Motion's American depositary shares, representing a total consideration of $114.34 per ADS.

Persons: chipmaker, MaxLinear, Akash Sriram, Chavi Mehta Organizations: Kioxia, Micron Technology, Samsung, SK Hynix, Western, Silicon, Thomson Locations: Taiwan, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ US targets China over semiconductors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The case initially started as a dispute between Micron Technology (MU.O) and the Chinese firm. Trump's move escalated it into the realm of an international trade conflict between the United States and China. January 2020: Reuters reported that the Trump administration had since 2018 had mounted an extensive campaign to block the sale of Dutch chip manufacturing technology to China. May 2020: The Trump administration blocks shipments of semiconductors to China's Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, crippling its HiSilicon chip and smartphone divisions. December 2022: The U.S. adds Chinese memory chip maker YMTC and dozens of other Chinese firms to its trade blacklist.

Persons: Florence Lo, Joe Biden's, Donald Trump's, Trump's, Trump, Biden, Brenda Goh, Jamie Freed Organizations: REUTERS, Trump, Washington, Reuters, Former U.S, U.S . Justice Department, Micron Technology, Huawei Technologies, HK, Nvidia, Micron Devices, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Netherlands, Former, Fujian, United States, ASML, Shanghai

SHANGHAI, June 29 (Reuters) - Geopolitics and the national security concerns of some countries are threatening the globalisation of the world’s chip industry and its future growth, the chairman and acting CEO of memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) said on Thursday. "Our industry itself is cyclical, and each practitioner has his own way of dealing with the cycle. The move barred YMTC's suppliers from shipping U.S. goods to it without a difficult-to-obtain licence. Chen hinted at YMTC's own troubles during his speech, with a direct appeal to equipment suppliers in attendance. "For YMTC that I manage, we can no longer procure parts and components for equipment we had legally bought.

Persons: Chen Nanxiang, Taiwan's TSMC, Morris Chang, Chen, Casey Hall, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christina Fincher Organizations: Technologies, Huawei Technologies Co, Shanghai Newsroom, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, Shanghai, United States, Washington

☆ ‘De-Americanize’: How China Is Remaking Its Chip Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Chang Che | John Liu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last October, construction plans for a hulking semiconductor factory owned by a major state-backed company in central China fell into disarray. The facility belonged to Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation, or YMTC, a memory chip company that Xi Jinping, China’s president, has extolled as a flag-bearer in China’s race toward self-reliance. Now, the chip maker and its peers are hurriedly overhauling supply chains and rewriting business plans. Nearly seven months later, the U.S. trade barriers have accelerated China’s push for a more independent chip sector. Western technology and money have pulled out, but state funding is flooding in to cultivate homegrown alternatives to produce less advanced but still lucrative semiconductors.

☆ Micron says operations normal in China amid government review
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 3 (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) on Monday said that its business operations in China are normal while it is cooperating with a Chinese government cybersecurity review of its products. Last week, the Cyberspace Administration of China said it would conduct a security review of Micron's products sold in the country. The move comes amid a deepening rift between the United States and China over chip technology that has left companies caught in the crossfire. Micron is the only U.S.-based player in the global market for memory chips and is building a new $15 billion factory in upstate New York. Chinese companies have also been working to break into the memory market, but the U.S. last year restricted export of chipmaking tools to the country.

☆ ASML, China customers haunted by uncertainty on new Dutch chip export rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Tosterling Philip Blenkinsop | Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The "installed base" segment contributed about 25% of ASML's worldwide revenue in 2022. ING analyst Marc Hesselink calculated that the new Dutch rules could possibly affect products that account for 10% of ASML's worldwide sales. The Chinese may have a competitive advantage there, and ASML's sales in China could even grow modestly. Regardless, ASML will thrive outside China in the long run as chipmakers worldwide expand capacity, he said. "The demand for ASML machines is not going to be impacted, it's simply going to shift to a different region," he said.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmaking equipment manufacturers filling void left by U.S. export restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Naura's most advanced etching machine supports 55 nm and 28 nm chipmaking technology, well behind the leading edge of chip manufacturing. The firm also makes deposition machines, which apply chemicals and gases to silicon wafers throughout the chipmaking process. It produces machines that can service the 14 nm to 28 nm process nodes of its deposition machines. ADVANCED MICRO-FABRICATION EQUIPMENT INC CHINA (AMEC) (688012.SS)AMEC makes etching equipment used to remove excess material from the surface of silicon wafers. BEIJING E-TOWN SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY CO LTD (BEST)BEST produces degumming equipment used to remove photoresist chemicals during the lithography process.

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Chinese chip design company Unisoc (Shanghai) Technologies Co is seeking to raise 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in a new funding round that will value the firm at about 70 billion yuan ($10.3 billion), three people with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. Unisoc has approached several state-backed investment funds for the round, tapping increased local investor interest in China's domestic chip industry, which is gearing up to be more self-sufficient in the face of U.S. pressure, the people said. Unisoc is controlled by private equity firm Wise Road Capital, which took over the company in 2022 after Tsinghua Unigroup, its former parent company, faced bankruptcy. In its statement from Feb. 8, it added it had reached revenue of 14 billion yuan in 2022. A statement in July 2022 said it had revenue of 11.7 billion yuan in 2021.

☆ U.S. to add Chinese entities tied to balloon program to export blacklist -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The United States is expected on Friday to add Chinese firms connected to Beijing's suspected surveillance balloon program to an export blacklist, three sources familiar with the plans said. Earlier this week the U.S. had said it would explore taking action against entities connected to China's military that supported the flight of a Chinese spy balloon into U.S. airspace last week. The United States has used restrictions on tech exports to China to keep that country from advancing militarily. The Biden administration, and before it the Trump White House, had added numerous Chinese companies to the Commerce Department's Entity List. Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip sector were added to the trade blacklist in December, broadening the crackdown on China's chip industry.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmakers caught in U.S.-China tech spat
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

TSMC is the world's most valuable chipmaker and counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) among major clients. Its government-backing and ambition to make high-end chips caught the attention of the United States which put the firm on its Entity List in 2020. To date, most of SMIC's sales are made using the outdated 45 nanometer process node and above. Since late 2020, this specialisation in older chips has proven a boon due to a global shortage of lower-end chips. It produces DRAM at the 19 nanometer node and is moving into the 17 nanometer node - process nodes behind the industry leading-edge.

☆ PC giant Dell will reportedly stop using Chinese chips as soon as next year, and it shows how Washington-Beijing tensions are forcing companies to diversify their supply chains
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dell is planning to halt the use of Chinese semiconductor chips by 2024, per Nikkei. The PC giant also plans to slash the amount of other made-in-China parts in its products. It's not just made-in-China chips made by Chinese companies. Other than chips, Dell has also asked suppliers of other electronic parts — such as modules and circuit boards — to ramp up production capacity in countries outside China, per Nikkei. Even tech giant Apple was burned late last year when its iPhone output was hit by the country's zero-COVID drive.

HONG KONG, Dec 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - America’s chip war against China will make only partial inroads in 2023. After unveiling sweeping new export restrictions in October, Washington appears to have successfully lobbied friendly governments including Japan and the Netherlands to join. Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher already said in November her government "will not copy the American measures one-to-one". Rival Nikon (7731.T) made sales of over 153 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in China, some 28% of total. In November, Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher confirmed the Netherlands was in talks with the U.S. government about new export restrictions.

☆ Factbox: Chinese companies added to U.S. entity list
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip sector to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry. YMTC was added to the list over fears it could divert American technology to previously blacklisted Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL] and Hikvision (002415.SZ). Here is a brief overview of some of the key actions taken as part of the package:FRESH ENTITY LISTINGSThe Biden administration added 35 Chinese companies and one Japan-based subsidiary of a Chinese company (YMTC) to the entity list, barring their suppliers from selling them U.S. technology without a hard-to-obtain permit. REMOVALS FROM THE UNVERIFIED LISTThe Biden administration removed 27 Chinese entities from the unverified list. Companies are added to the unverified list if the United States cannot complete on-site visits to determine whether they can be trusted to receive sensitive U.S. technology exports, inspections which in China require approval from the commerce ministry.

☆ Biden blacklists China's YMTC, crackdowns on AI chip sector
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry. It also comes as Congress prepares to finalize legislation to bar the U.S. government from buying products that contain semiconductors made by YMTC, Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT or China's top chip manufacturer SMIC. The Commerce Department on Thursday also targeted nine Chinese entities for allegedly seeking to support China's military modernization, including Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE), China's only lithography company. Two of the Chinese companies removed from the unverified list - YMTC and SMEE- were added to the entity list. Being added to the unverified list forces U.S. suppliers to perform greater due diligence before shipping to the targeted companies.

☆ Biden to blacklist China's YMTC, crackdown on AI chip sector
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday plans to add Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry, the Commerce Department said. A total of 35 Chinese entities will be added to the trade blacklist, known as the entity list. The Biden administration plans to remove 26 Chinese entities from the so-called unverified list thanks to successful site visits. Being added to the unverified list forces U.S. suppliers to perform greater due diligence before shipping to the targeted companies. Commerce Department officials have attributed greater cooperation from Beijing in site checks to a new rule announced in October.

☆ US adds YMTC to trade blacklist, toughens restrictions on Chinese tech firms linked to military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Washington CNN —The United States added a major Chinese chipmaker and dozens of other Chinese companies to a trade blacklist Thursday as it works to restrict Beijing’s high-tech and artificial intelligence industries. Adding chipmaker YMTC to the list of restricted companies escalates Washington’s attempts to crack down on companies that could be used to bolster China’s military. The restrictions would ban US companies from shipping goods to some of the blacklisted companies without first obtaining a special license. In October, the US imposed sweeping new curbs designed to curtail China’s access to technology critical to the manufacturing and operations of its military power. As part of Thursday’s announcement, the US also said it was removing some Chinese companies from a so-called “watch list” after the firms were deemed to not pose a risk to US national security.

"This falls into the category of a game changing view of Chinese companies because the threat of their delisting seems to have been eliminated," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial. However, the relief was not seen in Thursday's trading for U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, which were higher amid the news, but gave up gains and some ended sharply lower. Washington and Beijing reached a landmark deal in August to settle a long-running dispute over auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms. Authorities in China have long been reluctant to let overseas regulators inspect local accounting firms, citing national security concerns. U.S. lawmakers in 2020 agreed to legislation that would oust Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards.

☆ US toughens restrictions on Chinese tech firms linked to military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Washington CNN —The United States added a major Chinese chipmaker and dozens of other Chinese companies to a trade blacklist Thursday as it works to restrict Beijing’s high-tech and artificial intelligence industries. Adding chipmaker YMTC to the list of restricted companies escalates Washington’s attempts to crack down on companies that could be used to bolster China’s military. The restrictions would ban US companies from shipping goods to some of the blacklisted companies without first obtaining a special license. The US has been working steadily to limit what business US companies can do with Chinese firms that the US suspects of aiding China’s military or its human rights abuses. As part of Thursday’s announcement, the US also said it was removing some Chinese companies from a so-called “watch list” after the firms were deemed to not pose a risk to US national security.

☆ U.S. slaps restrictions on Chinese chipmaker and other companies over national security worries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration said Thursday it was "severely" restricting dozens of mostly Chinese organizations, including at least one chipmaker, over their efforts to use advanced technologies to help modernize China's military. The Bureau's latest action comes more than two months after the Biden administration imposed new curbs on China's access to advanced semiconductors. "I've long sounded the alarm on the grave national security and economic threats behind YMTC and other CCP-backed technology companies, like CXMT and SMIC," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday morning. "YMTC poses an immediate threat to our national security, so the Biden Administration needed to act swiftly to prevent YMTC from gaining even an inch of a military or economic advantage," Schumer said. Four more were added due to "their significant risk of becoming involved in activities that could have a negative impact" on U.S. national security of foreign policy, according to the release.

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to remove some Chinese entities from a red flag trade list, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday amid closer cooperation with Beijing. The plan to remove them soon from the so-called "unverified" list is thanks to greater willingness from the Chinese government to permit U.S. site visits, the person said. The decision, which mean U.S. exporters will no longer have to conduct additional due diligence before sending goods to the Chinese entities, may not herald a broader thaw. Companies are added to the unverified list because the United States cannot complete on-site visits to determine whether they can be trusted to receive sensitive U.S. technology exports. In October, YMTC was added to the unverified list along with dozens of other Chinese entities, fueling widespread speculation that the company would be added to the entity list.

☆ U.S. to add over 30 Chinese companies to trade blacklist -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 13 (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to place Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and 35 other Chinese firms on a trade blacklist that would prevent them from buying certain American components, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The U.S Department of Commerce will add the Chinese companies to a so-called Entity List as early as this week, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter. Once a company is added to the entity list, its U.S. suppliers must seek a special license to ship even low-tech items to it. Dozens of other Chinese entities, including YMTC, were "at risk" of being added to a trade blacklist as soon as Dec. 6, a U.S. Commerce Department official said in prepared remarks seen by Reuters last month. In October, 31 entities, including YMTC, were added to a list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.

☆ U.S. lawmakers ease planned curbs on Chinese chips amid corporate pushback
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The final version no longer forbids contractors from "using" the targeted chips and pushes the compliance deadline back to five years from the immediate or two-year implementation deadlines included in the first version. Chips made by SMIC are commissioned by companies all over the world and can be found in products as diverse as cell phones and cars. They are difficult to identify because chips are not typically labeled with the names of the companies that manufacture them. Lawmakers released a final version of the NDAA Tuesday night. Schumer's office, SMIC, YMTC, CXMT and the Chamber of Commerce did not respond to requests for comment.

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