Trump takes aim at South Korean chipmakers’ China operations

HONG KONG – The US government is making it harder for South Korean chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix to secure American equipment for their factories in China, hamstringing their operations in the country and walling Beijing off from certain semiconductor technology.

The Commerce Department said Aug 29 that it would revoke authorisations that had allowed the companies to ship critical semiconductor machinery to China. The companies will now need to secure licences from the Trump administration if they want to purchase American equipment for their Chinese factories.

Under former President Joe Biden, the government issued sweeping restrictions in 2022 in an attempt to cut off China’s access to important US technology. But in 2023 it granted waivers to the South Korean chipmakers.

The current administration’s move takes aim at two of South Korea’s most important companies. It could also put a strain on trade discussions between South Korea and the United States just as many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs were invalidated by a federal court.

Mr Trump and South Korea’s president, Mr Lee Jae Myung, met this past week

to discuss how to make progress in continuing trade negotiations.

Samsung declined to comment. Spokesperson Yixi Lee for SK Hynix said the company would “maintain close communication with both Korean and the US governments and take necessary measures to minimise the impact on our business”.

Chipmakers have been on the front lines of an escalating face-off between the United States and China that has increasingly involved advanced technology. Washington is trying to cut off China’s access to semiconductors to stunt Beijing’s progress in developing artificial intelligence.

SK Hynix and Samsung dominate the global production of memory chips, which are at the heart of AI and crucial to the systems built by OpenAI in the United States and ByteDance, DeepSeek and others in China. NYTIMES