US lawmakers propose curbs on chip tool sales to China

US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan House bill to tighten controls on exports of chipmaking equipment to China, including tools made by allied firms such as ASML and Tokyo Electron, with a Senate version expected later this month.

The proposed Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware, or MATCH Act, would align restrictions on foreign suppliers with those already applied to US companies and would bar certain engineers from servicing tools at specified Chinese facilities.

It would also expand the list of controlled technologies, including ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion lithography machines, which face narrower licensing limits under current Dutch rules.

The bill would add tougher limits on sales to named Chinese chipmakers such as ChangXin Memory Technologies, and calls for broader restrictions on China’s domestic chip tool sector, without naming firms.

ASML has forecast China will make up about 20% of 2026 revenue, down from nearly 30% in 2025.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Why the US is pushing allies toward tighter chip-tool export controls

The bill presses allies to line up their rules, since gaps in the current system leave room for workarounds.
Many allies do not have legal levers similar to the U.S. Commerce Department’s “Entity List” (a trade blacklist that restricts exports to named organizations). Their export controls also lean on slower, consensus-based pacts like the Wassenaar Arrangement (a multinational agreement covering conventional arms and dual-use goods), which includes Russia and prohibits targeting specific countries 1.
Those gaps have left openings for China to import deep ultraviolet immersion lithography equipment, tools for printing chip patterns using deep ultraviolet light, and use them to produce advanced AI chips at scale 2.
Chinese entities bought 70% of ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion lithography systems in 2024. Looser allied export rules have also helped allied-country competitors take market share from U.S. equipment makers such as Applied Materials 2.

The chip war’s next phase compels alignment and tests global supply chains

The MATCH Act moves from requests for cooperation to the threat of one-sided steps if allies do not align.
The bill would push the Commerce Department to use regulatory powers that could pressure allies to halt exports to China, including the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR), which can assert U.S. jurisdiction over certain foreign-made goods that incorporate U.S. technology or software 3.
Allied companies face real revenue risk, since ASML expects China to make up about 20% of total net sales in 2026.
China could answer with retaliation, since it has previously responded to efforts aimed at its AI capabilities by cutting off U.S. access to critical minerals needed for high-tech industries 3.