The United States has asked South Korea not to urge its chip makers to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc from selling chips, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. .
The news comes ahead of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the US on Monday for a summit with President Joe Biden.
Yoon’s April 24-29 visit will be the first state visit by a South Korean leader to the US since 2011 and the 70th anniversary of the countries’ alliance.
Washington asked Seoul to encourage Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to stop increasing sales to China if Micron is banned as a result of the investigation by Beijing, the FT cited people familiar with the situation.
China’s cyberspace regulator said in March it would conduct a security review of Micron products sold in the country. The chipmaker said last month that it was cooperating with the Chinese government, and that its operations in the country were normal.
The White House did not comment on the FT report, but added that the Biden and Yoon administrations have made efforts to coordinate investment in the semiconductor sector, secure critical technologies and address economic pressures.
The US has imposed a series of export controls on chip-making technology to China over fears it could be used to produce chips for military applications. It has blacklisted several of China’s biggest chip firms, including Micron rival Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Mrinmoy Dey in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sonali Paul)
Disclaimer: This report is generated automatically from Reuters news service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.
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