Washington has signalled to South Korea’s leading chip companies that it will extend permission for them to send US chipmaking tools to China, a concession to an ally that is key to curbing Beijing’s access to cutting-edge semiconductors.
The Biden administration in October gave Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two of the world’s leading producers of memory chips, a one-year reprieve from export controls designed to reduce China’s ability to develop high-end chips.
Four people familiar with the situation said the US had now sent a clear message that the Korean producers would be given another waiver for their plants in China for at least another year.