Chip EQUIP Act

Ban on foreign-made chip equipment

This bill would ban recipients of federal semiconductor grants or awards from buying, installing, or using certain foreign-made, fully assembled semiconductor manufacturing equipment for 10 years starting when each funding agreement is signed. It would add definitions for “completed, fully assembled” and for “ineligible semiconductor manufacturing equipment” and list covered machine types (for example, lithography, deposition, etching, inspection/test, wafer slicing and dicing, wire bonders, ion implantation, chemical mechanical polishing, diffusion/oxidation furnaces, thermal processing, and automated material handling systems). The ban would apply to awards under the federal semiconductor assistance programs referenced by sections 9902 and 9906 and would exclude ordinary parts, chambers, subsystems, and subcomponents. The Secretary could grant narrow waivers if U.S. or allied suppliers are not available, if equipment was refurbished by a foreign entity of concern after original manufacture, or if use complies with the Export Administration Regulations and a DNI or Secretary of Defense consultation finds a national security justification; nothing in the waiver authority would waive section 9907.