WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Biden administration plans to spare SK Hynix (005930.KS) and Samsung (005930.KS) the brunt of new restrictions on DRAM and flash memory chipmakers in China aimed at thwarting Beijing’s technological ambitions and blocking its military advances, sources said.
The Commerce Department, which plans to lift new restrictions on tech exports to China this week, is likely to deny requests from U.S. suppliers to send equipment to Chinese companies like Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC) and ChangXin Memory Technologies, Inc (CXMT) whether they manufacture advanced DRAM or flash memory chips, the sources said.
However, license applications to sell equipment to foreign companies making advanced memory chips in China will be considered on a case-by-case basis, sources said, potentially allowing them to receive the equipment.
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“The goal is not to harm non-Indigenous businesses,” said one of the people briefed on the matter.
The White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment. SK Hynix, Samsung, YMTC and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment.
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Thursday called the expected rules “scientific and technological hegemony.” He accused the United States of using its “technological prowess…to impede and suppress the development of emerging markets and developing countries.”
Details of some of the new regulations facing China-based memory chip makers have not been previously reported.
Under the new restrictions, U.S. suppliers seeking to ship equipment to China-based semiconductor companies would not have to apply for a license from the Commerce Department if they were selling to companies producing DRAM chips overseas. above the 18-nanometer node, NAND Flash chips below 128 layers, or logic chips above 14 nanometers, the sources said.
However, US companies selling sophisticated technology to indigenous Chinese chipmakers producing DRAM chips at 18 nanometers or less, NAND flash chips at 128 layers or more, or logic chips at 14 nanometers or less would need to apply for a license that would be scrutinized with the harsh standard of “presumption of denial”.
U.S. suppliers seeking to sell the equipment to non-Chinese companies operating in China and producing these same types of chips would also face licensing requirements, but applications would be considered on a case-by-case basis, the sources added. .
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Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Sanders and Richard Chang
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