According to foreign media reports, semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials Inc. said that it received another subpoena this month from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) following November last year, regarding its Transactions with Chinese customers…

01 Reuters and Bloomberg

According to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, Applied Materials (AMAT), the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the United States, stated in a document submitted this week that after receiving a subpoena from regulatory authorities in November last year, the company once again collected. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued another investigative subpoena regarding its transactions with Chinese customers.

BIS asked companies to provide more information about product shipments to China.

The report believes that the move to issue another investigative subpoena on Applied Materials' shipments to Chinese customers is part of the United States' efforts to ensure the effective implementation of increasingly stringent trade restrictions against China.

02 Impacts of the matters

Applied Materials said in the filing that it is cooperating fully with the U.S. government in addressing these issues. These matters are subject to uncertainty and the Company cannot predict the results or reasonably estimate the extent of losses or penalties, if any, related to these matters.

It is reported that most of the previous investigations from various regulatory agencies focused on whether the company circumvented export controls and illegally transported high-value equipment to China.

It is worth noting that the company also received "multiple subpoenas" from multiple agencies in February this year, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, requesting information about certain Chinese customers. Shipping information.

It is well known in the industry that the U.S. government has restricted the types of chip manufacturing equipment that can be sold to Chinese customers. U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturers are required to obtain export licenses before exporting equipment capable of producing FinFET logic chips with 14nm/16nm technology or more advanced technology to Chinese companies.

After the U.S. government imposed sanctions, a wall was blocked between Chinese companies and the world's advanced process equipment, blocking China's access to advanced semiconductor equipment.

Applied Materials, the largest chip manufacturing equipment manufacturer in the United States, is the first to be affected. The company's sales plummeted when the U.S. export ban was first announced, but the Chinese market remains important, accounting for about a quarter of Applied Materials' revenue. The company said in its latest financial report that 43% of its total revenue in the second quarter came from China.

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