The U.S. government is making it harder for the South Korean chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix to secure American equipment for their factories in China, hamstringing their operations in the country and walling Beijing off from certain semiconductor technology.
The Commerce Department said on Friday that it would revoke authorizations that had allowed the companies to ship critical semiconductor machinery to China. The companies will now need to secure licenses from the Trump administration if they want to purchase American equipment for their Chinese factories.
Under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the U.S. government issued sweeping restrictions in 2022 in an attempt to cut off China’s access to important American technology. But in 2023 it granted waivers to the South Korean chipmakers.
The current administration’s move takes aim at two of South Korea’s most important companies. It could also put a strain on trade discussions between South Korea and the United States just as many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs were invalidated by a federal court. President Trump and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, met earlier this week to discuss how to make progress in continuing trade negotiations, which have yet to be codified in any public documents.
Samsung declined to comment. Yixi Lee, a spokesperson for SK Hynix, said in a statement that the company would “maintain close communication with both Korean and the U.S. governments and take necessary measures to minimize the impact on our business.”
Chipmakers have been on the front lines of an escalating face-off between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest superpowers, that has increasingly involved advanced technology. Washington is trying to cut off China’s access to semiconductors to stunt Beijing’s progress in developing artificial intelligence.
SK Hynix and Samsung dominate the global production of memory chips, which are at the heart of artificial intelligence and crucial to the systems built by OpenAI in the United States and ByteDance, DeepSeek and others in China.
China is an important part of the supply chain for Samsung and SK Hynix, and the companies rely on China’s advanced manufacturing abilities to make their chips, said Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, a tech research firm.
“By limiting their access to the latest production technology, the production capability of the top tier chips will be affected,” Mr. Su said. This will put the companies at a disadvantage compared with other chipmakers like Micron that rely less on China to make their semiconductors.
The notice on Friday comes as President Trump is also threatening a 100 percent tariff on foreign semiconductors. While the world’s top chipmakers could be spared because of an expected exemption for companies investing and building factories in the United States, tariffs would most likely disrupt a complex and global supply chain. Both Samsung and SK Hynix are making big investments in U.S. production.
“The Trump administration is committed to closing export control loopholes,” Jeffrey Kessler, the administration’s under secretary of commerce for industry and security, said in a statement.
The Commerce Department said the change would take effect in 120 days. The companies can apply for a new license each time they want to import equipment to China in the future.
Alexandra Stevenson is the Shanghai bureau chief for The Times, reporting on China’s economy and society.
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