US reportedly will exempt allies from China chip controls; ASML shares rise

Shares of ASML jumped as much as 10% on Wednesday after a Reuters report suggested that the company could be exempted from expanded export restrictions on chipmaking gear to China.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the U.S. is considering expanding the so-called foreign direct product rule, but that allies that export key chipmaking equipment — including Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea — will be excluded.

Exports to China from countries including Israel, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia will be impacted by the U.S. rule, according to Reuters. Taiwan is the home of TSMC, the world’s biggest chip manufacturing plant.

This comes in contrast to a Bloomberg report earlier this month, which suggested that companies from these countries would be included in an expansion of the rules.

The foreign direct product legislation frames that any company that produces semiconductor-related products using even a small part of American technology may not be able to export those goods to China. This U.S. rule can impact foreign companies, since they often rely on American technology.

Netherlands-headquartered ASML — a critical semiconductor firm, because it makes a machine that is required to manufacture the world’s most advanced chips — was trading around 7% higher at 3.59 a.m. ET, in the wake of the Reuters report.

Shares of Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor equipment maker in Japan, also closed more than 7% higher on Thursday after the report.

Both these companies’ shares fell after Bloomberg’s initial report earlier in the month.

Shares of South Korean memory chip firms Samsung and SK Hynix were also higher in South Korea, following the Reuters report. Samsung’s boost also came after the company posted second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, beating market expectations.