Shares in major Asian computer chip makers have tumbled after the US announced tough new measures to restrict technology sales to China.
The US said it would ban American firms from selling certain chips used in supercomputers and artificial intelligence to Chinese firms.
The rules, announced Friday, also target sales by non-US companies using American devices.
Technology companies are also seeing a drop in demand as the global economy slows.
On Tuesday, shares in Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC fell 7.7%, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was down 2.3%, while Japan’s Tokyo Electron fell 5.5%.
The declines came after stock markets in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan reopened after being closed for public holidays on Monday.
Elsewhere in Asia, shares in China’s largest chipmaker SMIC in Hong Kong fell 1.7%.
- US slows chip sales to China
- US bans tech firms from building factories in China
Under the regulations, US companies must apply for a license to supply Chinese chipmakers with equipment capable of making more advanced chips.
Washington said the rules are aimed at curbing China’s military and technological advances.
The measures, some of which will take effect immediately, mark one of the biggest shifts in U.S. policy toward tech exports to China in decades.
In the US, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed Monday at its lowest level since July 2020, as shares in chipmakers Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Advanced Micro Devices fell.
Technology stocks around the world have also been hurt by lower demand for electronic products from computers to smartphones in recent weeks.
On Friday, South Korean tech giant Samsung warned of a 32% drop in its profits.
The world’s largest smartphone maker said profits from its microprocessor-making business suffered as global memory chip prices collapsed on weaker demand for consumer electronics.
Nomura research analysts Sonal Varma and Si Ying Toh said, “The chip downturn suggests a deeper export slump is on the horizon.”
“So far, export growth in India has already turned negative in September, but evidence is mounting that export growth in other Asian economies will turn negative in the fourth quarter,” they said in a statement Tuesday.
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