The administration of US President Donald Trump is working on more ways to restrict China's semiconductor industry, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

The plan includes putting pressure on allies of the United States to restrict China's chip businesses, the report said on Monday.

Administration officials recently met with Japanese and Dutch officials on the sidelines of a summit in Japan about restricting Tokyo Electron and ASML engineers from maintaining semiconductor equipment in China, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The objective, which was also a priority for the previous Joe Biden administration, is to see key allies follow limits that the US has placed on its chip gear companies.

"China has repeatedly expressed its firm stance against the US' malicious blockade and suppression of China's semiconductor sector," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Tuesday.

"The US has been politicizing and weaponizing trade and technology issues, overstretching the concept of national security while continuing to strengthen its chip export controls to China and coercing other countries to suppress China's semiconductor industry.

"This has impeded the development of the global semiconductor industry and will ultimately backfire," he said.

It could be months before any new US regulations are announced, as Trump makes staffing decisions at federal agencies; and there is also the question of whether allies will be more receptive to the change in US leadership, Bloomberg reported.

Some in the administration are also looking to further restrict what kind of Nvidia chips can be exported to China without a license, the report said.

They are also discussing tightening existing curbs on the quantity of AI chips that can be exported globally without a license, it added.

Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, said the news report was "adding to this matrix of new worries that haven't been in the market before this".

"If Nvidia can't put up another gigantic number just to sustain its current price, the market is ripe for a sell-off," he said.

Spending questioned

The quarterly earnings results due on Wednesday for tech giant Nvidia, based in California, will be crucial for tech companies as investors question the industry's massive spending on artificial intelligence after competition — at far lower costs — from China's DeepSeek rattled markets last month.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies are ramping up orders for Nvidia's H20 AI chip because of booming demand for DeepSeek's low-cost AI models, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chinese tech giants Alibaba, ByteDance — the owner of TikTok- and Tencent have "significantly increased" their orders of the H20 — a chip specific to China because of US export controls.

The new US administration is also considering curbs on sales of those particular chips, Bloomberg reported.

Agencies contributed to this story.

hengweili@chinadailyusa.com