'Chip war' disturbs global industry and supply chains leaving no party unscathed

TSMC and Samsung face new US restrictions on exports of advanced chips to the Chinese mainland. And Tokyo Electron and ASML have been also subject to mounting US pressure to plug all the loopholes in the ban on exports of their high-end chipmaking equipment to the Chinese mainland.

Although the ramping up of the Joe Biden administration's "chip war" was initiated at the height of the US presidential election, the latest pressure applied during the power transition period suggests that the Biden administration expects the next administration to carry on the efforts to build a "chip iron curtain" against the Chinese mainland, just as the Biden administration did when it accepted the baton of the outgoing administration's tariff war against China.

The Biden administration released a large-scale government support policy in September, CHIPS Incentives Program's Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities, with the aim of catalyzing long-term economically sustainable growth in the domestic semiconductor industry in support of "US economic and national security".