Micron pushes US Congress to crack down on chip tool sales to Chinese rivals, sources say

By Karen Freifeld

April 22 (Reuters) – Micron Technology, the largest U.S. memory chipmaker, is a driving force pushing the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday voted to advance the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on U.S. companies like Lam Research and Applied Materials.

The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, as well as critical technology countrywide.

Micron has told lawmakers that Washington needs to do more to inhibit Chinese development in the memory market, according to people familiar with the matter. They said increased U.S. action is necessary to prevent China from dominating memory chip manufacturing the way it has the solar energy industry and other sectors, and is a national security issue.

Micron did not respond to requests for comment. CXMT, YMTC and SMIC did not respond to requests for comment.

KOREAN CHIPMAKERS DOMINATE MEMORY MARKET

South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix now dominate the memory market, with Micron the No. 3 maker and sole major U.S. supplier. 

But YMTC and CXMT are growing fast, despite curbs on exports to them imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department.   

YMTC has been on a restricted trade list since 2022. CXMT’s advanced facilities have been subject to U.S. export curbs.

The bill as now drafted would restrict more equipment from going to China – including DUV immersion machines countrywide, a market dominated by the Netherlands’ ASML – and legislate how to impose restrictions if diplomacy fails. 

It also would require a license for ASML and other foreign companies to service equipment at covered facilities.

Micron representatives have engaged with lawmakers throughout the drafting process, sources said. They added that about a month ago, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra held a closed-door roundtable with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He held a similar roundtable last month with Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, according to a person familiar with the matter.

OTHER COMPANIES LOBBYING ON BILL

Micron, based in Boise, Idaho, is building a megafacility in New York. Other companies in the industry are also lobbying on the bill, said one source, citing Tokyo Electron and U.S. toolmakers Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA, which lose sales from export controls. 

This month, the Commerce Department also posted photos of ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The MATCH Act is only one of many bills tied to export controls to be voted on Wednesday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Others target the Commerce Department’s licensing, interagency process, Entity List, enforcement, and penalties. 

A House foreign affairs panel staffer touted the slate as the biggest legislative push in the sphere since the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.

Kate Koren, who this year left the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, said the bills were a message from Congress that the bureau’s leadership had not been doing its job.  

“It seems there’s a pretty strong bipartisan consensus that BIS has not really been functioning as it should be over the past year,” said Koren, now at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The bureau has been in turmoil and held off new restrictions during a detente with China tied to trade talks.

A BIS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 

If the MATCH Act and other bills advance on Wednesday, it is only one step toward their potentially becoming law. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate and may eventually be included as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Sanders and David Gregorio)