Micron Technology, the largest U.S. memory chip maker, is actively pushing Congress to pass legislation that would impose new export restrictions on equipment used by Chinese competitors to produce chips, according to people familiar with the matter. On April 22, a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives launched a meeting to review and vote on the so-called "MATCH Act." The bill aims to close loopholes in the existing export controls of chip manufacturing equipment to China and put pressure on foreign companies that supply equipment to Chinese chip factories to align them with the restrictions imposed on U.S. companies. It involves U.S. equipment merchants Kelei Research and Applied Materials.
The bill names relevant factories operated by China's Changxin Memory, Yangtze Memory, and SMIC, and covers key technical capabilities in China. In communicating with lawmakers, Micron said that Washington needs to take more forceful measures to curb China's development in the memory chip market to prevent China from gaining a dominant position like it has in industries such as solar energy and raising this to a national security level. Micron, as well as Changxin Memory, Yangtze Memory and SMIC declined to comment.
Currently, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dominate the global memory chip market, with Micron ranking third and the only major U.S. memory chip supplier. Although the U.S. Department of Commerce has previously imposed export restrictions on Yangtze Memory and Changxin Memory, with Yangtze Memory being included in the restricted trade list from 2022 and Changxin Memory’s advanced production lines also being controlled, the two companies are still expanding rapidly.
According to the current text, the MATCH Act will further restrict the export of more production equipment to China, including comprehensively tightening the supply of deep ultraviolet immersion lithography machines in China. This market is currently mainly occupied by ASML of the Netherlands. The bill would also require foreign companies such as ASML to obtain licenses when providing equipment maintenance and services for regulated factories. People familiar with the matter said that Micron representatives were fully involved in the drafting process of the bill and maintained close communication with members of Congress; about a month ago, Micron CEO Melo Tra held a closed roundtable meeting with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and held a similar exchange with Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee last month.
Micron, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, is currently building a large chip manufacturing base in New York state. Other sources revealed that other industry companies, including Tokyo Electronics and US equipment manufacturers Kelley Research, Applied Materials and Kelley Corporation (KLA), are also actively lobbying for the bill. These companies have lost some sales to China due to export controls. This month, the U.S. Department of Commerce also released photos of ASML’s CEO meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, showing that the U.S. government is maintaining high-level dialogue with key equipment suppliers.
The MATCH Act is just one of a package of export control-related bills scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that day. Other bills involve the Department of Commerce’s licensing process, inter-department coordination mechanism, the operation of the “Entity List”, law enforcement, and penalty arrangements. A staff member of the committee described this series of bills as the largest legislative action in this area since the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
The bills send a message that Congress is dissatisfied with BIS leadership, said Koren, who formerly worked at the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, and is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. She pointed out, "Over the past year, there seems to have been a fairly strong cross-party consensus in Congress that the Bureau of Industry and Security has not really performed its functions properly." Reuters previously reported that the Bureau's internal operations have been chaotic in recent years. During the trade easing negotiations with China, it suspended the introduction of new restrictive measures, resulting in the stalling of thousands of export approvals. A spokesman for the Bureau of Industry and Safety did not respond to a request for comment.
Even if the MATCH Act and other related bills pass at the House committee level, they still have many hurdles to cross before they finally become law. The Senate has proposed corresponding supporting bills, and these contents may be included in amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act for consideration.