China’s semiconductor manufacturers are upgrading their advanced chipmaking equipment in ways that bypass global export controls, as the country seeks to rival the US in developing artificial intelligence. According to people familiar with the matter, Chinese fabrication plants producing advanced smartphone and AI chips have bolstered the performance of advanced deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines made by Netherlands-based ASML. US and Dutch export controls prevent ASML from supplying its most advanced DUV machines to China, leaving many Chinese fabs to rely on older equipment — notably the Twinscan NXT:1980i system — to manufacture the seven-nanometre chips needed to develop AI systems. In industry parlance, “nanometres” denotes successive generations of chip, rather than physical dimensions.

Full report : China is retrofitting older models of ASML’s DUV machines to produce advanced smartphone and AI chips, exposing cracks in US-led export controls.