Applied Materials under US criminal probe for shipments to China’s SMIC

Reuters was first to report that semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials is under U.S. criminal investigation for potentially evading export restrictions on China’s top chipmaker SMIC. The largest U.S. semiconductor equipment maker is being probed by the Justice Department for sending equipment to SMIC via South Korea without export licenses. The news, which Bloomberg in its pick-up of the story credited for a 7% drop in Applied shares, was the topic of the first question on the company’s earnings call held with analysts the same afternoon.