Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment.
Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have supported the Chinese government’s efforts at harnessing commercial technology for military use and making advanced chips or chipmaking tools. ACM denies the allegations.
Photo: REUTERS
The two so-called wet etch tools, used for removing material from the silicon wafers that are transformed into semiconductors, were tested for possible use in Intel’s most advanced chipmaking process, known as 14A. That process is due for an initial launch in 2027.
Reuters could not determine if Intel had made a decision to add the tools to the advanced chipmaking process and has no evidence that the company violated any US regulations.
ACM said it could not comment on “specific customer engagements,” but could confirm that “ACMR’s US team has sold and delivered multiple tools from our Asian operations to domestic customers.”
It also said it has disclosed the shipment of three tools to a “major US-based semiconductor manufacturer,” which are being tested and some of which have met performance standards.
However, the fact that Intel, which is now part-owned by the US government, would consider adding tools made by a firm with sanctioned units into its most advanced manufacturing line, raises important national security concerns, China hawks said.
They flagged the possible transfer of Intel’s sensitive technological knowhow to China, the eventual displacement of trusted Western tool suppliers with China-linked firms and even the potential for sabotage efforts by Beijing.
Intel’s testing of ACM tools “highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies and should not be permitted,” said Chris McGuire, a former White House National Security Council official under former US president Joe Biden and senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Chinese tools could easily be remotely or physically manipulated by Beijing to degrade or even halt US chip production. And US companies should play no part in helping China improve its chipmaking tools, which are the foundation of all advanced technology development,” he added.
ACM said it does not pose a national security threat, adding that its US operations are “bifurcated and isolated” from the sanctioned Shanghai-based unit, and that US customers are supported directly by US personnel, with robust safeguards to protect customer trade secrets.
ACM Research was founded in 1998 by David Wang (王暉), who still serves as CEO and owns more than 57 percent of the company’s voting shares. ACM’s Chinese-language Web site lists Wang as a US citizen with Chinese permanent residency.
ACM also sells equipment to sanctioned Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (長江存儲) as well as China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (長鑫存儲), which was named by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military-backed company, according to a recent presentation on its Web site.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), another ACM customer targeted by US sanctions over alleged ties to the Chinese military industrial complex,
While the company is headquartered in California, most of the company’s research and development take place in China, where ACM established its Shanghai-based research-and-development facility in 2006, according to a May investor presentation.
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