, recently, the US Department of Commerce issued a notice to major semiconductor equipment giants: After prohibiting semiconductor equipment manufacturers from providing 14-nanometer and more advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, it is now targeting the manufacturing of memory chip in mainland China.
August 1 Reuters reported that according to four people familiar with the matter, the United States is considering restricting the provision of US semiconductor manufacturing equipment to memory chip manufacturers in mainland China and foreign storage manufacturers' factories in mainland China.
This will include China's local memory chip manufacturers including Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC). In addition, South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix may also be impacted in China's memory chip factories. Samsung has two large factories in China, and SK Hynix is acquiring Intel NAND flash chip manufacturing business in China.
If approved, this crackdown will include a ban on the export of US chip manufacturing equipment to factories that produce advanced NAND chips in China. The move aims to prevent the development of China's semiconductor industry and thus protect American companies.
data shows that the proportion of NAND chip production in mainland China's total global output has increased from below 14% in 2019 to more than 23% this year, while the U.S. production fell from 2.3% to 1.6% during the same period. For American companies, almost all of their chip production is done overseas.
According to two sources, according to the actions being considered, U.S. officials will ban the export of semiconductor devices used to manufacture NAND chips above 128 layers to mainland China. Lam Research Corp., headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA, and Applied Materials, are the main suppliers of such devices.
YMTC 128L Xtacking 2.0 Peripheral CMOS Die Floorplan
It is not clear what impact these potential restrictions may have on other companies in China. Intel press release said the company retained an operational management contract for a Chinese factory sold to SK Hynix and has now produced 144-layer memory chips at its Chinese factory.
