President Trump’s administration has ordered American firms that provide the software used to design semiconductor chips to stop selling their services to China.

Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA — which make up about 80 per cent of China’s electronic design automation market — were told by the US Commerce Department to halt supplies of their tech in order to restrict China’s development of advanced artificial intelligence chips, according to The Financial Times, which cited several people familiar with the move.

The three companies use computer design software to produce and test advanced silicon chips used in everything from smartphones and laptops to cloud computing and military hardware.

Shares of Cadence and Synopsis fell by 10 per cent after the report was published, while Siemens AG, the parent company of Siemens EDA, fell nearly 3 per cent.

The Bureau of Industry and Security, a branch of the Commerce Department which enforces export controls on issues related to national security, is understood to have issued the directive.A spokesman for the Commerce Department confirmed it was reviewing exports of strategic significance to China. “In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licences or imposed additional licence requirements while the review is pending,” the spokesman said.The three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, with President Trump last monthJIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESThe ban marks the latest front in the Trump administration’s efforts to clamp down on the export of powerful AI chips to China as it seeks to maintain its competitive edge in military technology and artificial intelligence.In April, the Trump administration effectively banned Nvidia from selling its H20 AI chips to China by requiring the tech giant to obtain a licence for future sales.Nvidia reported its first-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday and exceeded forecasts on revenue, but fell short on adjusted earnings per share due to the impact of the ban on shipments of its H20 chips to China. • Nvidia beats sales forecasts despite Donald Trump’s H20 chip export banThe company reported that it expects to take a roughly $8 billion hit in sales of H20s in the second quarter.Jensen Huang, the Nvidia chief executive, said last week that US export controls designed to curb China’s access to AI chips had been “a failure”.Huang told reporters at the Computex technology expo in Taiwan that the move to restrict sales had led Chinese rivals such as Huawei to accelerate the development of their own products.