The Commerce Department gave the companies 120 days to obtain the licenses to continue supplying their China-based plants.
The federal government is making the process of building semiconductors in China for chipmakers such as Samsung and SK Hynix more difficult by rescinding authorizations that allowed the companies to receive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment there, according to a recent filing by the Federal Register.
Previously, the Department of Commerce had offered the companies exemptions to a series of restrictions established in 2022 on selling American semiconductor equipment to Beijing.
The filing, created by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 29 and set to be published in the Federal Register on Sept. 2, says the agency had terminated the companies’ verified end-user (VEU) status. That program allowed companies approved by the U.S. government to bypass licensing rules and import, transfer, and export certain goods that usually required licensing.
“Use of Authorization VEU reduces the licensing burden on industry by allowing U.S. exporters to ship designated items to pre-approved entities under a general authorization instead of under multiple individual export licenses,” according to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The companies will now need to apply for licenses to buy American semiconductor manufacturing equipment to be used in China. Intel was also included in the filing, although it sold its impacted Dalian, China, group earlier this year.
The Commerce Department gave the companies 120 days to obtain the licenses to continue supplying their China-based plants, including for semiconductor manufacturing and other controlled goods.
In a statement, the agency said that the U.S. government intends to grant license applications to let the companies continue operating their current facilities in China, but that it does not plan to grant licenses to increase capacity or upgrade infrastructure.
SK Hynix said it would “maintain close communication with both Korean and the U.S. governments and take necessary measures to minimize the impact on our business.”
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
By Jacob Burg
