Difficult Decision
The U.S. government is demanding confidential information and data from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in exchange for subsidies.
According to some industry sources, the companies are likely to follow the United States in the end as cooperation with it in the industry is essential and they are going to further increase their investment in it. According to others, U.S. government subsidies provided in exchange for the data and information will be insufficient to cover a decline in competitiveness to follow the sharing.
Many other companies in the industry, including TSMC, are facing the same demand. Both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are likely to check how they respond until immediately before the deadline. They are closely watching the KORUS summit scheduled for April 26, too.
“Forcing the South Korean suppliers may lead to supply setbacks and then the United States cannot but be affected as a large memory chip consumer,” said an industry source, adding, “The South Korean companies need to dispel U.S. concerns by, for example, promising not to produce cutting-edge chips in China, or chips for military use.”