After American chip technology was only allowed to be exported to China to a limited extent, the US is now also asking allies to restrain themselves.
The US publicly confirms that the country is putting pressure on allies to limit their collaborations or current contracts regarding chips or machine maintenance as much as possible. “We are pushing to de-maintain these key components, which are conversations we are having with our allies,” Alan Esteves, Deputy Minister for Trade for Industry and Security, told a press briefing.
This includes Germany, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands. For our northern neighbors this specifically concerns ASML. The company from Veldhoven makes the machines used to build advanced chips and is a crucial player in global chip production.
Belgium is not explicitly mentioned, but our country is also home to imec, a player that has been presenting itself as a Switzerland for chip research for decades. But it recently became clear that the Leuven research institute is also reducing its ties with China.
