Export-Control Impact Simulator

U.S.–Netherlands–Japan Trilateral Chip Equipment Alignment (Jan 2023)

ActiveEffective: 2023-01-27 · as of 2026-06-04Read more →

Following extensive diplomatic negotiations, the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan reached an informal multilateral agreement — announced on or around January 27, 2023 — to align their semiconductor equipment export control frameworks. The Netherlands subsequently imposed DUV licensing requirements on ASML (effective September 2023), and Japan expanded its controls to 23 categories of advanced fab equipment (effective July 2023). The trilateral alignment effectively closed the most significant loopholes in restricting China's access to the equipment needed for leading-edge chip production, since restrictions by any single ally could previously be circumvented through the others.

Current Status

Active. The trilateral alignment remains the coordinating framework underpinning allied semiconductor equipment export controls. Both the Netherlands and Japan have since expanded their national controls substantially beyond the original January 2023 scope, adding EDA software, advanced packaging tools, and quantum computing equipment. As of mid-2026, the three countries continue to coordinate on further restrictions, though the Netherlands has pushed back against some U.S.-proposed extensions targeting ASML maintenance and software services.

6
Companies cut off
Tiers in cascade
12
Companies in cascade

Company cascade

Who loses access when this control fires — directly and downstream.

CHIP DESIGNERS
MEMORY (HBM)
CLOUD PROVIDERS
FOUNDRIES
MEMORY (HBM)
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CLOUD PROVIDERS
AI CONSUMERS
CLOUD PROVIDERS
6767 unaffected companies (shown for context)
CHIP DESIGNERS
OSAT / PACKAGING
AI CONSUMERS
EDGE DEVICES
OSAT / PACKAGING
EQUIPMENT
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CHIP DESIGNERS
EDA TOOLS
CHIP DESIGNERS
CLOUD PROVIDERS
MATERIALS
RAW MATERIALS
RAW MATERIALS
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CHIP DESIGNERS
MATERIALS
CHIP DESIGNERS
MATERIALS
EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
CHIP DESIGNERS
CHIP DESIGNERS
AI CONSUMERS
MEMORY (HBM)
CLOUD PROVIDERS
AI CONSUMERS
✓ UnaffectedNTT · 🇯🇵 Japan
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CHIP DESIGNERS
AI CONSUMERS
EDGE DEVICES
CLOUD PROVIDERS
CHIP DESIGNERS
SERVER ODMs
FOUNDRIES
RAW MATERIALS
MEMORY (HBM)
EDGE DEVICES
EQUIPMENT
MATERIALS
MEMORY (HBM)
CLOUD PROVIDERS
MATERIALS
SERVER ODMs
EDA TOOLS
EQUIPMENT
FOUNDRIES
RAW MATERIALS
FOUNDRIES
POWER & COOLING
SERVER ODMs
AI CONSUMERS
EDGE DEVICES

Cascade timeline

How the restriction propagates tier by tier.

  1. 1

    Rule applied

    • Restricting country: 🇺🇸 United States, 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇯🇵 Japan
    • ASML → SMIC
    • ASML → YMTC
    • ASML → CXMT
    • Applied Materials → SMIC
    • Tokyo Electron → SMIC
    • Lam Research → SMIC
    • SCREEN Holdings → YMTC
    • Kokusai Electric → YMTC
    • Kokusai Electric → CXMT
    • Lam Research → YMTC
    • Applied Materials → YMTC
    • Tokyo Electron → YMTC
    • Lam Research → CXMT
    • Applied Materials → CXMT
    • Tokyo Electron → CXMT
    • KLA → YMTC
    • KLA → CXMT
    • KLA → SMIC
  2. 2

    Round 1

    • SMIC
    • YMTC
    • CXMT
  3. 3

    Round 2

    • Huawei / HiSilicon
    • Cambricon
    • Biren Technology
    • Alibaba Cloud
    • Tencent Cloud
    • Baidu
    • ByteDance
    • Huawei Cloud
  4. 4

    Round 3

    • Huawei Cloud
    • Alibaba Cloud
    • ByteDance
    • Baidu
    • Tencent Cloud
  5. 5

    Round 4

    • DeepSeek

Geographic flow

Explore free-form

Build your own scenario. Both axes are multi-select — add as many countries as you like.

Restricting country
🇺🇸 United States🇳🇱 Netherlands🇯🇵 Japan
Target country
🇨🇳 China

Both Restricting and Target are multi-select chips, not single dropdowns — stack several restrictors against several targets at once.

How do GPU distributors manage export control compliance?

Distributors and hardware vendors must classify each shipment under ECCN, screen denied parties against the BIS Entity List, and maintain audit trails. Modern export compliance software automates these tasks — replacing spreadsheets and government portals.

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