This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
After months of silence on chip policy, the Trump administration just fired a precision missile at China’s semiconductor lifeline. Washington is revoking key export waivers that allowed Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), SK Hynix, and an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) unit to freely import US chipmaking gear into their Chinese fabs. These so-called VEU (validated end user) exemptionsquietly maintained since 2023gave the firms room to operate without fresh licensing hurdles. Now, with just 120 days left on the clock, that runway is vanishing fast.
Samsung and SK Hynix have the most to lose. Both South Korean giants rely on China not just as a marketbut as a manufacturing base. Massive swaths of their DRAM and NAND output come from facilities inside China’s borders. Those chips are essential to everything from smartphones to consumer gadgets built on the mainland. When the Biden administration extended these waivers last year, it was a lifeline. Now, with the plug pulled, those fabs face a bureaucratic thicket of license approvals just to keep humming.
What’s next? The US is leaving the door opentechnicallyby allowing companies to apply for new licenses. But with geopolitics sharpening by the week, investors shouldn’t count on business as usual. Intel, Samsung, and SK Hynix haven’t commented publicly yet. But the signal from Washington is loud: even the world’s largest chipmakers are no longer insulated from the frontlines of the US-China tech war. The memory chip supply chain just got a lot more fragile
