U.S. tightens export controls to China, clouding Korean semiconductor manufacturers - South Korean report

Recently, demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has increased rapidly around the world, and new AI semiconductor products are being released one after another in South Korea. For example, in 2020, AI semiconductor manufacturer Sapon announced that it will be the first Korean AI semiconductor company to develop
The company released the "X220" and the "X330" in November this year. Samsung Electronics and IT giant Naver are also jointly developing AI semiconductors.
The problem, however, is that some products appear to be subject to U.S. export controls to China. Large in sales of AI semiconductors
This is because if we are unable to export to China, which accounts for a large proportion of our exports, our business will be directly affected. Regarding this situation, an industry official said, ``Not only fabless manufacturers without factories but also foundries.
- (Semiconductor contract manufacturing) is also in a critical situation. In the case of foundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), which has the top market share, will also be greatly affected."
For Nvidia, the top company in the AI semiconductor market, China accounted for 22.24% of its total sales in the July-September period, the third largest after the United States (34.77%) and Taiwan (23.91%).
In this regard, the U.S. House of Representatives' Special Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party stated in its report that ``we must take prompt action to prevent China from monopolizing the general-purpose semiconductor market.''
"It is necessary," the Ministry of Commerce announced the addition of tariffs on general-purpose semiconductors produced in China.