An export restrictions agreement meant to keep Seoul in line with Washington’s larger tech war against China will allow North Korean tech companies to send American chip-making tools to their factories in China without getting agreement from US authorities.
The US Commerce Department is updating its” validated close person” list, according to South Korea’s presidential office, on Monday( October 9) to enable chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix to provide specific US chip-making devices to their China-based production facilities for an indefinite period.
Which entities may get exports of which technology is particularly indicated on the list. Companies on the list are exempt from licensing requirements in order to deliver US software products to China. & nbsp,
In response to the US news, Choi Sang-mok, South Korea’s senior political minister for economic matters, stated that” difficulties about North Korean silicon firms’ operations and investments in China have been greatly eased.” & nbsp,
On the other hand, Foreign critics were less than enthusiastic about the carefully considered US choice. & nbsp,
An unknown investment in the chip industry stated to the Economic Observer in China on Tuesday that the US’s most recent decision should not be interpreted as a rest of the nations’ device export restrictions against China. To suggest that the US will remove its chip limits for Chinese chipmakers is premature.
He pointed out that North Korean chipmakers operate independently on the mainland of China and do not frequently collaborate or interact with native Taiwanese manufacturers. The US statement, according to him, will only strengthen economic ties between China and South Korea and lessen geopolitical tensions in the area. & nbsp,
According to a Chinese device expert, the US statement aims to lessen the damaging effects of its sanctions against China on the two South Korean companies, which are powerful negotiators because of their dominance in the memory chip industry. & nbsp,
As of the end of June this year, Samsung and SK Hynix jointly held a 50 % share in the global NAND flash market and 70 % share, according to market intelligence provider Trendforce.
Currently, Samsung manufactures 40 % of its NAND chips at its Xi’an, China, plant, compared to SK Hynix’s 20 % and 40 % DRAM chips, respectively, in Dalian and Wuxi.
DRAM chips, which are typically used in gadgets to speed up getting, lose the data they store when the power is turned off. NAND cards, which are primarily used in USB memory sticks and painful drives, can store data without power.
In an article, a Hubei-based author with the last name Wu asserts that the US wants North Korean businesses to outdo their Chinese competitors by pouring their memory chips into Chinese markets.
” The US forbade all China-based chipmakers, with the exception of South Asian ones, from obtaining its chip-making machinery.” What caused it to do that? Wu claims. ” The US may want to use South Korean companies to reduce China’s semiconductor business ,” we may be warned.
He claims that the US wants to support North Korean businesses in order to drive out Chinese rivals after realizing that its limits had failed to stop China from grooming its unique chipmakers over the past few years. He asserts that in the 1980s, the US employed the exact strategy to stifle Japan’s chip industry. & nbsp,
In order to give local chipmakers and their vendors enough money to survive and expand their businesses, he adds, China should promote its state-owned enterprises to purchase Chinese chips. & nbsp,
The Bureau of Industry and Security ( BIS ) of the US Commerce Department put a number of new restrictions on China’s chip industry on October 7 of last year. At the time, it stated that in order to receive US chip-making tools, any China-based chip factory that produces DRAM cards of 18 micrometers or less or NAND flash memory cards with 128 layers or more must apply for a certificate. In addition, & nbsp,
It stated that while services owned by multinational corporations will be decided on a case-by-case schedule, those held by Chinese institutions will likely be denied.
The US government after granted Samsung and SK Hynix a one-year waiver to remain shipping US goods to China in response to their opposition. Media reports in late August claimed that the US would prolong the exemption, which was set to expire on October 11th. The ban has now been lifted indefinitely by the two Vietnamese companies. & nbsp,
The US choice, according to Samsung, will considerably allay concerns about how its chip factories in China will operate. However, SK Hynix stated that the choice will contribute to stabilizing global semiconductor products.
The two biggest memory chip producers in China are Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp ( YMTC ) and ChangXin Memory technologies( CXMT ). According to reports, YMTC is able to produce 232-layer NAND chips( the more layers there are, the more store there is on a memory chip ). Now, CXMT may produce 19nm DRAM chips. & nbsp,
In contrast, Samsung has begun mass-producing 236-layer NAND fries and plans to do so in 2024. In order to make 321-layer Switch cards in the first half of 2025, SK Hynix is currently producing 10nm DRAM bits and 238 – layerNAND chip. & nbsp,
According to some Chinese critics, Samsung and SK Hynix can then increase their China-based creation and possibly launch a price war to take over China’s market. They claimed that several Chinese manufacturers of digital goods might try to use South Asian chips, which are typically of higher quality than those produced in China. & nbsp,
Huawei Technologies unveiled the Mate60 Pro, its flagship handset, on August 29. Its Kirin 9000s computer was a self-developed model. & nbsp,
The Kirn 9000s is a 7nm chip made by China’s top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp( SMIC ), according to Canadian research firm TechInsights. Additionally, it claimed to have discovered two SK Hynix chips — a DRAM and a NAND chip — in the Mate60 Pro.
According to public data, SK Hynix’s DRAM and NAND chips could be produced at speeds of 50 % and 100 %, respectively, faster than those of CXMT and YMTC.
Read: The US extends the China device pavement waiver for the fabs of the allies.
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