US makes it harder for SK Hynix, Samsung to make chips in China

The United States is making it more difficult for chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix to produce chips in China by revoking authorizations that allowed the companies to receive American semiconductor manufacturing equipment there, according to the Federal Register.

The U.S. Commerce Department had given the companies exemptions to sweeping restrictions created in 2022 on the sale of U.S. semiconductor equipment to China.

The companies will now need to obtain licenses to buy the equipment for China. The federal filing also included Intel among the companies who lost their authorization for China, but Intel sold its Dalian China unit in a deal that was finalized earlier this year.

The Commerce Department and the three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The licensing change will likely reduce sales to China by U.S. equipment makers KLA Corp, Lam Research and Applied Materials. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shares of Lam fell 3.7%, Applied Materials dropped 1.9% and KLA shares were down 2%.

In June, when the Commerce Department raised the possibility of revoking the authorizations, a White House official said the United States was "just laying the groundwork" in case the truce in trade talks reached between the two countries fell apart.

The United States and China are now operating under a tariff truce, with levies of 30% on Chinese imports to the U.S. and 10% Chinese duties on U.S. goods locked in until November. The trade war between the world's two largest economies has affected everything from rare earths needed by U.S. industry to China's purchase of U.S. soybeans.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thousands of license applications by U.S. companies to export goods and technology to China also have been in limbo in recent months, creating a massive backlog, as Reuters reported earlier this month, including for billions of dollars' worth of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Foreign chipmakers like Samsung and Hynix now have what is known as Validated End User status, which allows U.S. suppliers to ship goods to them "more easily, quickly and reliably," as the Commerce Department says on its website, than they would if export licenses were required. That VEU status will be removed.

The move may help domestic Chinese equipment makers, whose tools can fill gaps. It also may help Micron, a major U.S. competitor to South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix in the memory chip sector. The revocations will not take effect for 120 days, according to the posting.

Intel sold its Dalian NAND memory manufacturing facility in China to Seoul-based SK Hynix.