South Korea has called on Washington to review its conditions for new semiconductor subsidies, revealing its concerns over the impact of US legislation on Korean chipmakers’ operations in China.
The US Chips and Science Act offers $52bn in subsidies to chipmakers building new production facilities in the US, but contains “guardrails” detailing the limits on those receiving federal funds, in terms of expanding or upgrading their advanced chip capacity in China over the next 10 years.
South Korea is home to leading memory chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, who are boosting investments in US production facilities even as they remain heavily exposed to the Chinese market.