Japanese chip equipment firms count on China sales amid U.S. moves to block high-end exports to Beijing

Published

8 months ago

September 6, 2024

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This picture taken on May 1, 2024 shows professors and students looking at a Minimal Fab, a small-scale semiconductor factory that does not require a clean room, at Tokyo University in Tokyo. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP) (Photo by YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Yuichi Yamazaki | Afp | Getty Images

Japanese semiconductor equipment providers have been counting on China as their largest source of revenue, even as they have got caught in the U.S.-China crossfire.

Japanese semiconductor equipment powerhouse Tokyo Electron with a market cap of nearly $72 billion, saw its share of China revenue jump to 44% in financial year ended March 2024 compared with 23% a year earlier, according to the company’s earnings report.

That share increased to nearly 50% in the first quarter of financial year 2025 compared with 39.3% in the same period last year.

Screen Holdings, meanwhile, generated as much as 43% of its total sales from China in the financial year ended March 2024, up from 19% in financial year 2023. That share rose to 51% in the first quarter of the current financial year from 23% in the same period last year.

The company expects China sales share to be at 41% for the fiscal year ending in March 2025.

The large business of Japanese chip companies in China underscores the challenge that the U.S. ally faces in balancing White House’s demands with its domestic economic interests.

The U.S. is introducing new export-control measures, including for quantum computing and chip-related goods, according to a statement from the Department of Commerce on Friday.

The manufacturing equipment that Japanese companies are supplying to China is expected to be for legacy chips, used in cars rather than smartphones or for training advanced artificial intelligence models.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that China had threatened to retaliate if Japan further expanded its export controls on equipment sales to China.

Beijing refuted that report and said it was “committed to keeping the global industrial and supply chain secure and stable,” Mao Ning, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said at a regular press briefing Monday, adding that its export control measures have been “just, reasonable and non-discriminatory.”

When Japan first introduced export controls to limit sales of chip equipment to China in June last year, China’s Ministry of Commerce called it an “abuse of export control” and “serious violation of WTO’s mandated duties,” according to a CNBC translation of the ministry’s statement in Mandarin.

China has been under increasing pressure from the the U.S. and allies that have sought to cut the country’s access to the most advanced chips.

China has not been able to secure chip-making equipment from Dutch firm ASML, which is the only supplier of tools capable of making some of the more advanced chips. The country’s government has blocked the equipment’s exports to China.

But analysts expect that China will soon be able to produce the majority of chips it needs for most applications.

China has ramped up its purchases of chip-making equipment since the second quarter of 2023, according to industry body SEMI, which said in a Thursday report that China purchased about $25 billion worth of chip equipment in the first half of 2024, more than the combined total of the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan and Japan combined.

—CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Technology

Trump aims to cut $6 billion from NASA budget, shifting $1 billion to Mars-focused missions

Published

3 days ago

May 2, 2025

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Trump aims to cut billion from NASA budget, shifting billion to Mars-focused missions

The Trump administration has floated a plan to trim about $6 billion from the budget of NASA, while allocating $1 billion of remaining funds to Mars-focused initiatives, aligning with an ambition long held by Elon Musk and his rocket maker SpaceX.

A copy of the discretionary budget posted to the NASA website on Friday said that the change focuses NASA’s funding on “beating China back to the Moon and on putting the first human on Mars.”

NASA also said it will need to “streamline” its workforce, information technology services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities, and terminate multiple “unaffordable” missions, while reducing scientific missions for the sake of “fiscal responsibility.”

Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in an agency-wide email on Friday that the proposed lean budget, which would cut about 25% of the space agency’s funding, “reflects the administration’s support for our mission and sets the stage for our next great achievements.”

Petro urged NASA employees to “persevere, stay resilient, and lean into the discipline it takes to do things that have never been done before — especially in a constrained environment,” according to the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. She acknowledged the budget would “require tough choices,” and that some of NASA’s “activities will wind down.”

The document on NASA’s website said it’s allocating more than $7 billion for moon exploration and “introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs.”

SpaceX, which is already among the largest NASA and Department of Defense contractors, has long sought to launch a manned mission to Mars. The company says on its website that its massive Starship rocket is designed to “carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”

Musk, who is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, leading an effort to slash the size, spending and capacity of the federal government, and influencing regulatory changes through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk, who frequently makes aggressive and incorrect projections for his companies, said in 2020 that he was “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

Petro highlighted in her memo that under the discretionary budget, NASA would retire the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion spacecraft and Gateway programs.

It would also put an end to its green aviation spending and to its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program, which sought to use rockets and robotic systems to “collect and send samples of Martian rocks, soils and atmosphere back to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis,” according to a website for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Some of the biggest reductions at NASA, should the budget get approved, would hit the space agency’s space science, Earth science and mission support divisions.

Petro didn’t name any specific aerospace and defense contractors in her agency-wide email. However SpaceX, ULA and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are positioned to continue to conduct launches in the absence of the SLS. Boeing is currently the prime contractor leading the SLS program.

“This is far from the first time NASA has been asked to adapt, and your ability to deliver, even under pressure, is what sets NASA apart,” she wrote.

President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, still has to be approved by the U.S. Senate. His nomination was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

WATCH: CNBC’s interview with NASA’s astronauts on their nine months in space

Technology

Temu halts shipping direct from China as de minimis tariff loophole is cut off

Published

3 days ago

May 2, 2025

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Temu halts shipping direct from China as de minimis tariff loophole is cut off

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Chinese bargain retailer Temu changed its business model in the U.S. as the Trump administration’s new rules on low-value shipments took effect Friday.

In recent days, Temu has abruptly shifted its website and app to only display listings for products shipped from U.S.-based warehouses. Items shipped directly from China, which previously blanketed the site, are now labeled as out of stock.

Temu made a name for itself in the U.S. as a destination for ultra-discounted items shipped direct from China, such as $5 sneakers and $1.50 garlic presses. It’s been able to keep prices low because of the so-called de minimis rule, which has allowed items worth $800 or less to enter the country duty-free since 2016.

The loophole expired Friday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. Trump briefly suspended the de minimis rule in February before reinstating the provision days later as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a mountain of low-value packages.

Jeff Bezos discloses plan to sell up to $4.8 billion in Amazon stock

Published

3 days ago

May 2, 2025

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Jeff Bezos discloses plan to sell up to .8 billion in Amazon stock

Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, takes the stage during The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Dec. 4, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares in the company over the next year, according to a financial filing on Friday.

Bezos, who stepped down as CEO in 2021 but remains Amazon’s top shareholder, is selling the shares as part of a trading plan adopted on March 4, the filing states. The stake would be worth about $4.8 billion at the current price.

The disclosure follows Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report late Thursday. While profit and revenue topped estimates, the company’s forecast for operating income in the current quarter came in below Wall Street’s expectations.

The results show that Amazon is bracing for uncertainty related to President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. The company landed in the crosshairs of the White House this week over a report that Amazon planned to show shoppers the cost of the tariffs. Trump personally called Bezos to complain, and Amazon clarified that no such change was coming.

Bezos previously offloaded about $13.5 billion worth of Amazon shares last year, marking his first sale of company stock since 2021.

Since handing over the Amazon CEO role to Andy Jassy, Bezos has spent more of his time on his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and his $10 billion climate and biodiversity fund. He’s used Amazon share sales to help fund Blue Origin, as well as the Day One Fund, which he launched in September 2018 to provide education in low-income communities and combat homelessness.

WATCH: Amazon has levers to pull with tariffs