The U.S. Department of Commerce has reportedly ordered several toolmakers to halt shipments of specific items to Hua Hong, China’s second-largest chipmaker. According to Reuters, the company, through its contract chipmaking subsidiary Huali Microelectronics, is starting to build a 7-nm production line at its Shanghai facility, a part of Beijing’s push to increase leading-edge chip output by five times in the next couple of years.
Washington has been aggressively using export controls to stymie Beijing’s efforts to become self-sufficient in its semiconductor industry. As part of this, both TSMC and ASML have since been banned from providing or selling their most advanced services and equipment to many Chinese tech companies. This has forced China to build its own chips at home and even rely on domestic chip-making tools. Because of this, many local chipmaking tool makers, like Naura, AMEC, AMC Research, and Piotech, saw record revenues in 2025.
