Chipmaker stocks take a dip as U.S. expands blacklist to more Chinese firms

The U.S. Commerce Department expanded its entity list to include five more Chinese companies, barring U.S. companies from supplying the Chinese firms with technology. The Commerce Department claimed the new additions are “acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” in an order (PDF) released last week.

The newly blacklisted companies include supercomputer maker Sugon; microchip designers Higon, Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit and Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology; and the Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology.

The move follows the Commerce Department’s decision to add Huawei and its affiliates to the list in May. Several U.S. technology firms, including Google, have argued that blacklisting Huawei will hurt U.S. companies. U.S. chipmakers that supply chips to Huawei have also been working behind the scenes to ease the U.S. government ban on sales to the company.

RELATED: Report: Quiet lobbying by U.S. chipmakers seeks to limit U.S. ban on sales to Huawei

News of the additions caused semiconductor stocks to dip slightly in the U.S. Crowd-sourced content service Seeking Alpha reported the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped down 0.6%;  AMD, which runs a joint venture with Higon, dropped 2.2%. Investment firm Baird also lowered its target for Micron.

The expansion of the entity list comes just a week before U.S. President Donald Trump is planned to meet with China’s president Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Japan. The two are expected to discuss trade relations between the continue countries amid an escalating trade war.