China stockpiled 343 immersion DUV tools for advanced chipmaking

What happened

China stockpiled 343 immersion DUV tools for advanced chipmaking, according to Tom's Hardware. Centre for Technology & Statecraft (CTS) calls for banning exports of all immersion DUV tools to China, echoes the MATCH Act by U.S. Chinese chipmakers have accumulated an estimated 343 immersion DUV lithography chipmaking tools from 2012 to early 2026, many of which can be used to make chips using 7nm-class process technologies, according to a report from the Centre for Technology & Statecraft (CTS).

The Washington-based group asserts that this equipment gives Chinese fabs considerable potential to produce sophisticated processors despite their inability to procure ASML's more advanced EUV systems. While the total number of ArFi tools owned by Chinese chipmakers seems plausible, some other estimates look questionable.

China has been particularly aggressive in procuring wafer (the disc of silicon that chips are cut from) fabrication equipment in recent years as the U.S. government has been busy imposing various curbs on its semiconductor industry.