China’s memory-chip industry is already facing a shortage of U.S. parts and labor. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of America’s leading chip-equipment manufacturers are pulling workers from China’s largest chip maker because of new restrictions on semiconductor exports.
Firms such as KLA and Lam Research are withdrawing dozens of technical support staff and pausing upgrades of highly specialized chip-production tools at state-owned Yangtze Memory Technologies.
The suppliers are responding to new U.S. rules aimed at preventing China’s military from benefiting from American technology as the Communist country accelerates its push for self-sufficiency in industries like semiconductors. U.S. companies supply 41% of global chip-production equipment.
The pullback threatens to slow operations and stifle the maintenance and upgrades China’s firms need to develop chips.
