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US grants TSMC annual licence to import American chipmaking tools into China
The approval ‘ensures uninterrupted fab operations and product deliveries’, according to the world’s largest contract chipmaker
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The US government has granted an annual licence to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to import American chip manufacturing equipment to its fabrication facility in Nanjing, the capital of eastern China’s Jiangsu province, according to the company.
The approval “ensures uninterrupted fab operations and product deliveries”, TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said in a statement on Thursday to Reuters.
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Previously, the Asian companies had benefited from exemptions from Washington’s sweeping restrictions on semiconductor-related exports to China, part of US efforts to try to stay ahead of the world’s second-largest economy in technological development.
But those privileges – known as validated end-user status – expired on December 31 and the companies had to seek US export licences instead for 2026.
“The US Department of Commerce has granted TSMC Nanjing an annual export licence that allows US export-controlled items to be supplied to TSMC Nanjing without the need for individual vendor licences,” the chipmaker said in its statement.
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