Seoul, Nov 26th : There is growing concern that SK hynix’s plans to upgrade its Chinese factory with cutting-edge machine-chipmaking machines could be put at risk by US opposition. Earlier this week, Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative (USTR), acknowledged that Washington had opposed South Korea’s efforts to bring in advanced machines at its chip fabrication plant in Wuxi in China.
This was during a radio interview in Seoul.
She stated that there are legitimate concerns about where this technology ends up, which could lead to the possibility of high-tech tools being used to boost Chinese military capabilities.
According to Yonhap news agency, the technology is ASML Holding’s Dutch extreme ultraviolet (EUV lithography), which allows for ever smaller transistors to be packed in microchips to make them more efficient, faster, and more powerful.
The precarious geopolitical position SK Hynix is in contrast to a recent announcement from Samsung Electronics, the largest memory chip manufacturer in the world, to make a $17billion investment in the US to boost its competitive edge in global semiconductor manufacturing.
Two days after Tai made these remarks, Samsung announced plans to build a new Taylor chip fabrication plant to produce advanced chips for applications such as mobile, 5G and high-performance computing.
ASML has been a close partner of Samsung since the early 2000s, helping to develop breakthroughs in semiconductor technology.
It is a close partner, investor, and customer of the Dutch company.
The South Korean tech giant, Samsung, adopted the EUV technology in DRAM production in March 2013.
SK hynix is a latecomer to the EUV technology application.It is the second-largest memory chip manufacturer in the world after Samsung.
SK Hynix, despite unexpected challenges, signed a five-year contract earlier this year with ASML to purchase approximately 20 additional EUV machines.This was a significant investment to improve its facilities and increase its competitiveness.
SK hynix is believed to have two to three EUV machines, which is far less than the 17-19 machines held by Samsung and 40 by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.(TSMC).
Yonhap News Agency was informed by a spokesperson for the company that there were no discussions to bring EUV equipment to China and that there was no immediate plan to do so.It was also premature to discuss with the US any restrictions on its plans to overhaul its Chinese plant.
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