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| 2020-09-24(코리아타임스) |
By Kim Hyun-bin
U.S. tech giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) received the green light from the U.S. government to supply Huawei with certain products, raising hopes for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to be given the same opportunity.
Huawei was placed on the Entity List, which is a trade blacklist including 275 firms, in May 2019, banning U.S. companies from selling their technologies and products to the world's largest telecom equipment maker without prior approval.
Last week, the U.S. government announced new restrictions on U.S. firms supplying or servicing Huawei, meaning the Chinese tech company will be unable to buy any chips made with U.S. technology, which nearly all products contain.
The Trump administration argues that Huawei poses a national security threat and could turn over U.S. citizens' data to the Chinese government, although Huawei denies the accusations and claims its company has been targeted for geopolitical reasons.
According to the industry, AMD has received approval to sell its notebook. Meanwhile, an Intel spokesman said Tuesday that the chip manufacturer has received licenses from the U.S. government to supply Huawei with certain products. It did not specify which products.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have submitted their requests and are waiting for the U.S. government's approval. Although Intel and AMD are able to export their products to Huawei, the same opportunity might not be granted for the two Korean tech companies.
"The story for Samsung and SK could be different from Intel and AMD as they are U.S. companies and develop processors and CPUs for PCs, which are seen as less of a security risk," an industry official familiar with the matter said. "However, Samsung and SK supply Huawei with mobile components, a sector which the U.S. sees as a major security risk from the Chinese firm."
If the U.S. government rejects their requests, it will lead to severe losses for the two Korean tech giants.
According to the industry, the U.S. ban on Huawei will result in annual sales losses of around 10 trillion won.
Huawei accounts for 3.2 percent or 7.3 trillion won of sales in Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business unit, while SK hynix depends on 11.4 percent or 3 trillion won in sales from the Chinese company annually, according to each company.
Data provided by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) showed China accounted for around 41 percent of Korea's chip exports in the first seven months of this year.
The value of the country's chip exports stood at $54.74 billion in the seven-month period, of which $22.49 billion came from China.
On the other side of the spectrum, some experts say the approval of Intel and AMD itself is meaningful as it could expand to the other product lines.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix say they are "closely monitoring the situation," as the approval was not in the memory semiconductor business.
"This is not a matter to be hastily decided, as there is the U.S. election as a variable and the outcome could change the current U.S.-China relations. All Korean companies could do is keep a close eye on the matter and swiftly counter any issues that come their way," an industry official said.
There have been reports that SK hynix has been denied approval from the U.S. government, but the company claimed the reports were false and it is still awaiting confirmation.
The Chinese government says it plans to retaliate by creating their own blacklist of U.S. firms which is expected to include Apple, Qualcomm, Boeing and Tesla, which once released could further escalate tensions between the U.S. and China.
According to reports, China's Ministry of Commerce has included Cisco on the blacklist. Cisco is a U.S. telecommunications equipment maker and a major competitor of Huawei.
