US
chip stocks
fell more than 4% on Wednesday after Republican presidential nominee Donald
Trump
sounded lukewarm about defending
Taiwan
and a report that Washington is mulling
tighter curbs
on export of advanced semiconductor technology to China.
The US has told allies it is considering using the most severe trade curbs available if companies continue giving Beijing access to advanced
semiconductor
technology.
US-listed shares of the Dutch chipmaking equipment provider ASML Holding fell about 9% following the report even as it beat second-quarter profit estimates.
Shares of AI heavyweight Nvidia fell about 4%. Smaller rival AMD shed 6% and Qualcomm, Micron Technology, Broadcom and Arm Holdings were all down more than 5%.
Intel bucked the trend, trading up 5%, with analysts pointing to its efforts to build plants in the US. Smaller contract manufacturer GlobalFoundries also soared more than 11%.
The Biden administration has moved aggressively in recent months to curb Chinese access to cutting-edge chip technology, including sweeping restrictions issued in Oct to limit exports of AI processors designed by firms including Nvidia.
