US chip stocks fell more than 4% on Wednesday after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sounded lukewarm about defending Taiwan and a report that Washington is mulling tighter curbs on export of advanced semiconductor technology to China.
The US has told allies it is considering using the most severe trade curbs available if companies continue giving Beijing access to advanced semiconductor technology.
US-listed shares of the Dutch chipmaking equipment provider ASML Holding fell about 9% following the report even as it beat second-quarter profit estimates.

US chip cos slip on fears of tighter curbs on China

Shares of AI heavyweight Nvidia fell about 4%. Smaller rival AMD shed 6% and Qualcomm, Micron Technology, Broadcom and Arm Holdings were all down more than 5%.
Intel bucked the trend, trading up 5%, with analysts pointing to its efforts to build plants in the US. Smaller contract manufacturer GlobalFoundries also soared more than 11%.
The Biden administration has moved aggressively in recent months to curb Chinese access to cutting-edge chip technology, including sweeping restrictions issued in Oct to limit exports of AI processors designed by firms including Nvidia.