U.S. prepares new restrictions on China's chip manufacturing. Which stocks will be affected?

A group of U.S. lawmakers has proposed a bill that would tighten restrictions on exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, including a ban on servicing installations already delivered. These actions by U.S. lawmakers could affect Europe's most expensive company ASML and a number of others.

A bill to impose new export restrictions on China's semiconductor industry was introduced by a bipartisan group in Congress on April 2. The "Multilateral Approval of Technology Controls for Hardware" (MATCH for short) bill aims to preserve U.S. leadership in AI by limiting Chinese companies' access to critical technologies, according to a report from the Congressional Select Committee on China. Previously, similar measures to restrict exports have come from US Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, not Congress: for example, the August 2025 ban on chip-printing machines, Reuters noted.

The bill involves restrictions on the supply of key equipment, in particular immersion DUV lithography units used to create circuits on chips. This market segment is dominated by Dutch company ASML, as well as its Japanese competitor Nikon, Reuters notes.

Supplies and service equipment for China's largest chip makers, including SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Huawei, CXMT and YMTC, could also fall under the restrictions, the Congressional Committee on China said .

The document also stipulates that similar restrictions must be observed by companies from U.S. allied countries to level the playing field with U.S. suppliers.

One of those affected by the possible passage of the bill could be ASML, the only manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (UAV) chip printing equipment and one of the leaders in deep ultraviolet (DUV) chip printing, Reuters writes.

China is the largest market for ASML, accounting for 33% of the company's revenue in 2025. At the same time, the share decreased compared to 2024 (41%) due to U.S. export restrictions and normalization of demand after the surge, Yahoo Finance wrote. ASML itself predicts that China's share of revenue will drop to around 20% in 2026.

Current rules agreed upon by the U.S. and the Netherlands already prohibit ASML from supplying China with its most advanced units. Nevertheless, the company continues to sell older DUV systems, including to Chinese customers and foreign manufacturers with facilities in China, Reuters noted. The new law could completely ban ASML from such cooperation, the agency added.

ASML is now the most expensive company in Europe by market capitalization ($443.5 billion). Its shares have risen by 26% since the beginning of the year on the stock exchange in Amsterdam. Most analysts confidently recommend buying the company's shares: they have 36 Buy and Overweight ratings versus five Hold and three Underweight ("below market", corresponding to the advice to sell), according to FactSet.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor