(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Jasper Ward; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Thomas Derpinghaus and Lincoln Feast.) By Karen Freifeld and Jasper Ward WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday announced a $252 million settlement with Applied Materials for illegally exporting chipmaking equipment to China's top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. In 2023, Reuters exclusively reported that Applied Materials was ...