U.S. lawmakers eye ASML equipment ban

U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill to tighten chip-tool exports to China, aiming at machines from ASML and other foreign suppliers. (bloomberg.com) The bill is called the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act, or MATCH Act. Representative Michael Baumgartner introduced the House version on April 2, 2026, and Senators Jim Risch, Pete Ricketts, Andy Kim, and Chuck Schumer backed a Senate version on April 8, 2026. (baumgartner.house.gov) (foreign.senate.gov) Bloomberg reported the proposal would broaden controls to include ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion lithography systems, the workhorse machines used to print fine circuit patterns on silicon wafers. The same report said the bill is meant to put Dutch and Japanese suppliers under tougher rules closer to those already faced by U.S. toolmakers. (bloomberg.com) Washington has spent the past three years restricting the most advanced chips and the tools used to make them, but older chipmaking gear has remained a gap. The Senate sponsors said the new bill is meant to close “servicing and entity-specific loopholes” and align controls with allies. (foreign.senate.gov) That focus on equipment follows a House Select Committee investigation released on October 7, 2025. The committee said ASML, Tokyo Electron, Applied Materials, KLA, and Lam Research helped expand semiconductor manufacturing in China and sold to Chinese state-owned and military-linked companies. (chinaselectcommittee.house.gov) The committee said China accounted for 36% of ASML’s 2024 revenue, 44% of Tokyo Electron’s, 42% of Lam Research’s, and 41% of KLA’s. It also said sales by the five companies to Chinese state-owned enterprises rose from $9.5 billion in 2022 to $26.2 billion in 2024. (chinaselectcommittee.house.gov) The draft House bill names Chinese chip and equipment groups including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, Yangtze Memory Technologies, ChangXin Memory Technologies, Hua Hong, Huawei, Naura, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China, and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment. The text says those firms warrant “comprehensive export controls” because of their role in advanced-node production. (goodlander.house.gov) ASML is the biggest supplier of lithography systems, the machines that shine patterned light onto wafers to define chip features layer by layer. In its 2025 annual report, the Dutch company said its product line spans both extreme ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet systems, plus metrology and software used across chip production. (asml.com) ASML has already been blocked from shipping its most advanced extreme ultraviolet tools to China for years, and the Netherlands later tightened controls on some advanced deep ultraviolet models. The new U.S. push goes further by targeting a broader slice of the equipment stack sold by allied firms, not just finished processors. (bloomberg.com) (foreign.senate.gov) The bill is still a proposal, not a ban in force, and it would need to move through Congress and the export-control system before any new restrictions took effect. But the direction is clear: lawmakers are trying to squeeze China’s chip industry at the tool level, where a small number of companies still control the hardest machines to replace. (bloomberg.com) (foreign.senate.gov)