The latest subpoena was from the US Department of Commerce which was also responsible for the first subpoena last year. In between, there have been two subpoenas from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and one from the SEC.
All five relate to shipping chip manufacturing equipment to China in contravention of the US export restrictions.
The company is alleged to have shipped the equipment from Massachusetts to a subsidiary in South Korea and then on to SMIC.
SMIC, which was put in the US government’s Entity List in 2020 which banned it from buying advanced manufacturing equipment, made a 7nm processor (pictured) for a Huawei smartphone which caused eyebrows to rise in Washington.
43% of Applied’s Q2 revenue came from China.
