Intel, Nvidia, Lam Research most at risk from China restrictions: BofA
Justin Sullivan

Semiconductor giants Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and some chip capital equipment firms are the companies with the most at risk from new U.S. rules on restricting China chip shipments, according to an assessment by analyst Vivek Arya at Bank of America.
Arya noted that Intel (INTC), more so than Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), along with Nvidia (NVDA) and Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), could see a sales impact of between 5% and 10% due to the new rules, which are believed to be aimed at supercomputing. 
Arya said the restrictions "seem in line with prior media reports" regarding closer scrutiny and additional export controls" with an additional step of obtaining a license on specific technologies that could have military uses.
Additionally, Arya added that the majority of U.S. semiconductor shipments to China are for consumer smartphone use and not supercomputing, suggesting the overall impact to the sector will be between 5% and 10%. 
On Friday, Nvidia (NVDA) told Seeking Alpha that the new export controls from the U.S. government would not have a "material impact" on its business.
Arya said that although the additional step is a verification tool to prove the chips are not being used for military purposes and not an outright ban, it is still likely to impact certain areas of logic chips, NAND memory and DRAM chips.
Arya also noted that some U.S. chipmakers, including Micron Technology (MU) and Western Digital (WDC), could "benefit incrementally" as they take advantage due to the restrictions placed upon Chinese memory chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies.
Earlier this month, Bank of America reiterated its buy rating on Nvidia (NVDA) and several other cloud-related semiconductor companies, noting the group is likely to still benefit from increased cloud computing spending.