The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a criminal probe into the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the U.S. for allegedly violating sanctions through exports to China, according to Reuters.
The DOJ is investigating top chip equipment maker Applied Materials for sending hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment to the partially CCP-owned Semiconductor Manufacturer International Corporation (SMIC) through South Korea without an export license, according to Reuters. The alleged move from Applied Materials would violate restrictions placed on SMIC by the U.S. Commerce Department in the ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. (RELATED: Foreign Automakers Post Big Profits As Big Three Suffer From Strike)
Applied Materials allegedly produced semiconductor manufacturing equipment from its plant in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then repeatedly shipped that…
