The Netherlands company ASML, the world ' s leading producer of semiconductor equipment, ordered its employees in the United States to refrain from serving clients from China in accordance with the new sanctions measures taken against US President Joe Biden ' s Underneath Administration.
According to a letter sent by the U.S. unit's management to local staff, the ""s" are "but managers promise to clarify the specificity of the new U.S. restrictions; the ban applies to all U.S. employees, including citizens who possess Greencards and just foreigners who work in the country.
Last week, the U.S. banned the sale to Chinese companies of advanced chip production equipment without a special license, and restrictions were imposed on the hiring of American citizens by Chinese technology companies. This was done to limit China's economic and military development.
ASML has to balance its relationship with either the US or China, which is one of the company's key markets, while it has sold older lytographic DUV equipment to Chinese clients, but has refrained from supplying machines for advanced EUV-litography.
The ASML representative confirmed to Bloomberg journalists the existence and content of the letter, which appeared on Wednesday on social media, but stressed that it was intended solely for internal use, and said that the company was taking preventive measures to ensure that its activities were in line with all the requirements of the new American laws, and that further instructions would follow after an assessment of the situation had been carried out.
Many US suppliers have already begun to withdraw employees from one of China's largest chip manufacturers, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. Applied Materials Inc., KLA Corp. and Lam Research Corp., either already started or are preparing a "relocation" of employees.