SK hynix CEO says CHIPS Act crimson tape is just too sticky to hassle
The co-CEO of South Korean chipmaker SK hynix has taken a swipe on the US CHIPS Act subsidy program, labelling the method to use for funding overly onerous.
SK hynix plans to spend $22 billion on semiconductor and battery manufacturing amenities in america. That is simply the type of funding the US desires because it strives to make sure that extra of the silicon it wants is made onshore, quite than on the finish of stretched and dangerous provide chains. The CHIPS Act is designed, partly, to advertise such investments with some authorities money.
However SK hynix vice-chair and co-CEO Park Jung-ho yesterday reportedly informed his annual shareholder assembly yesterday that the chip store thought of making use of for CHIPS Act funding however “we discovered the method too demanding.”
Park provided that evaluation at the same time as he acknowledges that SK hynix’s deliberate stateside investments are for semiconductor packaging amenities, that are much less complicated than semiconductor manufacturing and due to this fact would require disclosure of much less delicate info.
His remarks come after South Korea’s authorities warned Washington that the CHIPS Act’s necessities for detailed disclosure of technical and monetary info should not appreciated by the nation’s chipmakers, who concern they will should reveal secrets and techniques to safe funding. South Korean chip champs Samsung and SK hynix have additionally chafed at US sanctions that restrict the extent of their actions in China – the place each have invested billions in manufacturing amenities.
The US final week signaled it might ease the latter considerations, by permitting chipmakers with present Chinese language amenities to develop them by as much as ten % – double the previously-touted 5 % restrict.
Korean officers described that coverage as avoiding the worst-case state of affairs.
Park additionally informed the assembly that SK hynix is reviewing all its investments amid depressed demand and costs for semiconductors.
However in a letter from the CEO [PDF], Park talked up the enterprise’s prospects.
“Within the brief run, we can be able to cope with adjustments within the macroeconomic panorama together with full-scale DDR5 adoption from launch of latest CPUs, higher demand for high-performance servers, and the reopening of China,” he wrote. “In the long run, digital transformation – resembling AI and autonomous driving – that may make our life way more handy, should go hand-in-hand with enhancements in reminiscence expertise and demand. As there’s solely a handful of firms that may notice such tech-innovation, the reminiscence market will inevitably bear long-term development.”
Park recognized “processing in reminiscence, next-generation reminiscence options based mostly on Compute eXpress Hyperlink, and computational storage” because the fields he thinks SK hynix must pursue, including the caveat that it will not strive to take action by itself.
“Going ahead, as a substitute of performing alone, we’ll have interaction in shut cooperation different international massive tech firms and place ourselves because the business chief sooner or later AI computing setting,” he wrote.
The letter additionally reveals that SK hynix has “established a devoted group … for objective of sensing geopolitical dangers.” Park famous that the Korean concern has seen “intensifying US-China competitors, the extended Russo-Ukrainian Warfare, and escalating battle within the Taiwan Strait” and determined it must be prepared for “the rising risk of the present international geopolitical panorama to change into the brand new regular, which is able to evidently result in elevated enterprise uncertainty.”
The chance-sensing workforce will assist hynix “determine and reply to international uncertainties prematurely.” ®
