Query verified U.S. monthly IMPORTS of semiconductor-manufacturing EQUIPMENT (HS-8486) — customs value (USD) by country of origin — from the U.S. Census Bureau's International Trade data.
Use this for "is the fab buildout actually tooling up, and who supplies the machines" questions — the equipment leg of the fab lifecycle: construction spending (ai_infrastructure.construction) measures the shell, this measures the tools flowing in, and chip imports (ai_infrastructure.trade) measure the output side. HS-8486 covers machines and apparatus used solely or principally to MANUFACTURE semiconductor boules/wafers, devices, and integrated circuits — AND flat-panel displays (Census does not split them at this level); it is NOT the chips themselves (those are HS-8542). Filter by `country` (the verbatim Census name, e.g. "JAPAN", "NETHERLANDS", "KOREA, SOUTH"), `cty_code` (the Census country code), `country_level` ("total" = the all-countries TOTAL, "country" = an individual country, "grouping" = a Census bloc/continent like ASIA / APEC / EU), `year`, `data_month` (one month, ISO first-of-month e.g. "2026-04-01") or the `data_month_from`/`data_month_to` range. Group by any of `country`, `cty_code`, `country_level`, `data_month`, or `year`. Pass each parameter as a top-level key of `params` (flat — not nested under a `filter`, `filters`, or `where` key). Example: `{"country_level": "country", "group_by": ["country"], "order_by": "general_value_usd", "top_n": 5}` for the top tool-supplying countries; `{"country_level": "total", "group_by": ["data_month"]}` for the national trend. Returns JSON aggregates with citations and optional row-level records when `include_records` is true — every value cites the exact Census response row, re-verifiable via get_source_evidence_v1.
Measures: `general_value_usd` (general imports value) and `consumption_value_usd` (imports for consumption) — value only; no tool counts, and no tool-type or vendor breakdown (one HS4 heading: no lithography-vs-deposition-vs-etch split, no per-manufacturer series such as ASML). NEVER SUM across country rows: Census's groupings (ASIA, APEC, EU, OECD, ASEAN, the continents) OVERLAP each other and the individual countries, and the all-countries TOTAL contains everything — so adding rows double-counts; a cross-row sum returns a country_aggregation note and nulls the metric in ranking remainders. Filter `country_level=total` for the U.S. national figure. Country is the country of ORIGIN (Census attribution), not which U.S. fab, state, or operator receives the equipment — there is no U.S. place breakdown. Imports only (not exports), customs value (not landed/CIF/duty), and recent months are preliminary and revised in later Census releases.