China’s our on-line world regulator will conduct a cybersecurity evaluate of merchandise bought within the nation by US reminiscence chip producer Micron Expertise, the regulator stated on Friday.
The transfer, which comes amid a spat over chip know-how between Washington and Beijing, is aimed toward defending the safety of the availability chain for essential data infrastructure, forestall hidden dangers and safeguard nationwide safety, the Our on-line world Administration of China stated in a short assertion.
It gave no different particulars, together with which Micron merchandise it was reviewing.
The USA has imposed a sequence of export controls on chipmaking know-how to China for worry it could possibly be used to supply chips for functions comparable to synthetic intelligence which could possibly be utilized by China’s navy, and blacklisted plenty of China’s largest chip companies, together with Micron rival Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd.
Micron, one of many world’s largest reminiscence chip makers, didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark. The corporate’s shares fell 3 % on Friday.
“Punitive actions in opposition to Micron might counsel a broader shift in Chinese language coverage with different US distributors with massive Chinese language publicity now doubtlessly vulnerable to related actions,” Wedbush Securities analyst Matthew Bryson stated.
On Friday, Japan introduced it might align its know-how commerce controls with a US push to curb China’s means to make superior chips. The Netherlands, which makes superior lithography gear essential for the manufacture of superior chips, made an analogous announcement earlier this month.
Weak shopper demand has roiled the reminiscence chip market, which is dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
Micron derives round 10 % of its income from China, but it surely was not clear if the evaluate would have an effect on the corporate’s gross sales to non-Chinese language clients within the nation.
The bigger chunk of the corporate’s merchandise flowing into China are being bought by non-Chinese language companies to be used in merchandise manufactured within the nation, in line with analysts.
Micron has places of work in Shanghai and Shenzhen, in addition to a chip packaging facility within the metropolis of Xian. In early 2022, the corporate introduced it might shut its DRAM design operations in Shanghai.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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