US Adjusts Chip Equipment Bill Targeting China: Still Restricts ASML DUV Lithography Machines, Bans Use by SMIC, YMTC, and CXMT
The US "MATCH Act" targeting China's semiconductor industry has been revised. The new version has scaled back some of the more aggressive restrictions in the initial draft, but the core control measures remain unchanged. The bill, formally known as the "Hardware Technology Control Multilateral Alignment Act," was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 2nd by Republican Congressman Michael Baumgartner and received bipartisan support.
The core goal of the bill is to close loopholes in existing US export controls on chip equipment to China, promote policy alignment with equipment-supplying countries like the Netherlands and Japan, and maintain US technological leadership in the field of artificial intelligence.
The initial draft of the bill, released in early April, sparked strong backlash from the global semiconductor industry. Industry insiders described it as a "runaway train." It not only sought to force allies to fully comply with US export control rules for China but also introduced a broad-based equipment ban covering all of China. Equipment manufacturers widely worried that the strict restrictions would directly impact export volumes and damage corporate revenue.
The latest revised version significantly narrowed the scope of restrictions, removing several controversial clauses. This includes a nationwide ban on low-temperature etching machines across the entire Chinese market. The core suppliers of this equipment are US-based Lam Research and Japan's Tokyo Electron. The previously harsh policy of "uniformly rejecting" equipment repair permit applications has also been canceled, retaining only the requirement that equipment maintenance for restricted facilities requires prior permit application.
However, the core control content of the bill has not yielded at all. The revised version still retains the nationwide export restrictions on ASML DUV lithography machines. It also explicitly stipulates that foreign companies may not supply equipment to restricted production lines of Chinese chip companies such as SMIC, YMTC, and CXMT, which have been placed on the US restriction list. The bill also sets a clear deadline for negotiations with allies to align policies, after which the US will unilaterally escalate controls if no agreement is reached.
Currently, US semiconductor controls on China are only targeted at specific wafer fabs on the blacklist, not the corporate entities that own the production lines. Equipment manufacturers can export DUV equipment to mature process production lines of Chinese companies, only requiring a commitment from the companies not to use the equipment for advanced processes, but the US side has difficulty conducting effective audits.
This revised bill closes this core loophole, controlling transactions, use, resale, and maintenance throughout the entire lifecycle of the equipment.