The founder, chairman and chief executive of a key Chinese semiconductor tools company has renounced his US citizenship and restored his Chinese nationality, amidst growing trade friction between the two countries.

The change of citizenship for Gerald Yin, also known as Yin Zheyao, was disclosed in the latest annual report from Shanghai-based Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) published on Friday, local media reported.

Yin was identified as a US citizen in AMEC’s annual reports for 2020, 2021 and 2022, but was not stated in its 2023 report, the South China Morning Post reported.

US restrictions

The move follows the introduction of new rules from the US Department of Commerce in October 2022 that banned “US persons” from being involved in the development or production of chips at “certain China-located semiconductor fabrication facilities”.

Yin, 81, previously worked in the US at Applied Materials, Lam Research and Intel before founding AMEC in 2004.

In 2024 two AMEC executives with US citizenship, Ni Tuqiang and Yang Wei, departed from their positions as “core technical personnel”, the Post’s report said.

At the time the company said their loss would not have a material impact on its research and development operational capabilities or competitiveness.

AMEC was added to a US Department of Defence blacklist of companies with alleged ties to China’s military in January of last year, but was dropped from the list of “Chinese military companies operating in the US” in December without explanation.

The company is a major supplier within China of tools for semiconductor etching and deposition, at a time when the country is boosting efforts to become technologically self-sufficient in the chip industry.

Domestic demand

Those efforts, given increasing urgency by rising US trade barriers against China, saw AMEC’s revenue surge 44.73 percent year-on-year to more than 9 billion yuan (£930m) in sales, while net profit fell 9.52 percent amidst heavy R&D spending.

Competitor Naura Technology Group said it expected revenues for the first three months of 2025 to grow up to 51 percent year-on-year and net profit to rise 53 percent amidst strong demand.

Dutch chip equipment maker ASML, which leads the worldwide market, said last week that it expects new US sanctions on China to affect its finances, while Intel expressed similar concerns to its Chinese customers and Nvidia said it would take a $5.5bn charge due to the new regulations.