Companies worldwide are doing everything they can to curb the growing Random Access Memory (RAM) crisis; SK Hynix, the South Korean chipmaker, is trying to establish new manufacturing hubs worldwide. However, it has hit a roadblock, as the US withheld approval for American chipmaking equipment that SK Hynix needs to expand production in China. This has complicated the chipmaker’s plan to establish a plant in the USA, New York, to be precise.
The chipmaker is seeking US export licenses to equip its plant in Dalian, China, arguing that the production expansion will help SK Hynix generate the revenue it needs to fund the US expansion. Its US subsidiary, Solidigm, has planned to invest about $45 billion in Macy, New York, two people said, with investment potentially reaching about $100 billion over time. This is the funding SK Hynix is looking for.
Now the question is how far the Trump Administration is willing to bend the US security guardrails that let the US enjoy a monopoly in the tech it develops to allow foreign investment in the States.
Leland Miller, a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan panel created by the US Congress, said, “Ultimately, none of this is going to go forward without a green light from the White House.”
For now, US Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler held to his position of not letting any more American chipmaking tools go to China to upgrade and expand its capacity.
