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☆ Futures dip as focus shifts to economic data
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Acquire Licensing RightsSummaryCompanies Futures down: Dow 0.02%, S&P 0.17%, Nasdaq 0.22%Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Monday as investors awaited economic data later this week that could shape expectations around how long the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated. Investors will focus on a slew of economic data this week as well as speeches from Fed officials for signs on the trajectory of interest rates amid growing expectations that the Fed is done hiking borrowing costs. Inflation data on Tuesday is expected to show headline consumer prices eased to 3.3% in October from 3.7% in September. The major U.S. stock indexes have rebounded strongly this month, fueled by a stronger-than-expected earnings season and on hopes that U.S. interest rates are near their peak. ET, Dow e-minis were down 6 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 7.75 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 34.75 points, or 0.22%.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, jitters, Moody's, Fitch, Mike Johnson, Sruthi Shankar, Maju Samuel Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Dow, Nasdaq, Federal Reserve, CPI, . House, Republican, Dow e, Boeing, Bloomberg News, APEC, Dubai's Emirates, Dubai Airshow, Micron Technology, Memory Technologies, U.S, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, China, Dubai, Bengaluru

☆ Chinese chipmaker YMTC sues Micron alleging patent infringement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 12 (Reuters) - Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. rival Micron Technology (MU.O) alleging infringement of eight of its patents. YMTC filed the lawsuit against Micron and unit Micron Consumer Products Group on Nov. 9 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the lawsuit, Micron turned to YMTC's patented technology to fend off competition from YMTC and to gain and protect market share. In May, China said Micron products failed a network security review and barred purchase of them by operators of key infrastructure. ($1 = 7.2934 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Aly, YMTC, YMTC's, Anirudh Saligrama, Brenda Goh, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Micron, REUTERS, Memory Technologies, U.S, Micron Technology, Micron Consumer Products Group, Northern, Northern District of, South, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, Northern District, Northern District of California, U.S, Fujian, Xian

☆ China's semiconductor state fund invests $2 billion in memory chip firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration//File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) - China's state-backed chip investment fund has invested 14.56 billion yuan ($1.99 billion) in a memory chip company called Changxin Xinqiao, records showed. According to company registration website Qichacha, Changxin Xinqiao was founded in 2021 in Hefei city, in the eastern Anhui province. Its general manager is Zhao Lun, who is the general manager of ChangXin Memory Technologies, one of China's leading memory chip companies. Changxin Xinqiao and the Big Fund did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The organization raised 138.7 billion yuan for its first fund, and 204 billion yuan for its second fund.

Persons: Florence Lo, Changxin Xinqiao, Zhao Lun, YMTC, Changxin, Yelin Mo, Roxanne Liu, Brenda Goh, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, National Enterprise, Technologies, Big Fund, Memory Technologies, Huawei Technologies Co, Big, Reuters, Thomson Locations: China, Rights BEIJING, Changxin, Hefei city, Anhui, United States, Changxin Xinan, Hefei Xinyi, Taiwan, South Korea, Beijing, Shanghai

It is likely to be the biggest of three funds launched by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund. Its target of 300 billion yuan ($41 billion) outdoes similar funds in 2014 and 2019, which according to government reports, raised 138.7 billion yuan and 200 billion yuan respectively. China's finance ministry is planning to contribute 60 billion yuan, said one person. Backers of the Big Fund's previous two funds include the finance ministry and deep-pocketed state-owned entities such as China Development Bank Capital, China National Tobacco Corporation and China Telecom. INVESTMENT MANAGERSThe Big Fund is considering hiring at least two institutions to invest the new fund's capital, said the three people.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Florence Lo, China's, Julie Zhu, Kevin Huang, Yelin Mo, Roxanne Liu, Sumeet Chatterjee, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: U.S, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Big Fund, Washington, Information Office, Ministry of Industry, Information Technology, REUTERS, China Development Bank Capital, China National Tobacco Corporation, China Telecom, Big, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, HK, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Memory Technologies, IC, China Aerospace Investment, China Aerospace Science, Technology Corporation, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, BEIJING, China, Beijing, U.S, Japan, Netherlands

SHANGHAI, June 29 (Reuters) - Geopolitics and the national security concerns of some countries are threatening the globalisation of the world’s chip industry and its future growth, the chairman and acting CEO of memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) said on Thursday. "Our industry itself is cyclical, and each practitioner has his own way of dealing with the cycle. The move barred YMTC's suppliers from shipping U.S. goods to it without a difficult-to-obtain licence. Chen hinted at YMTC's own troubles during his speech, with a direct appeal to equipment suppliers in attendance. "For YMTC that I manage, we can no longer procure parts and components for equipment we had legally bought.

Persons: Chen Nanxiang, Taiwan's TSMC, Morris Chang, Chen, Casey Hall, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christina Fincher Organizations: Technologies, Huawei Technologies Co, Shanghai Newsroom, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, Shanghai, United States, Washington

☆ House lawmakers urge US to rally allies over China Micron ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The move came a day after leaders of the G7 industrial democracies agreed to new initiatives to push back against Chinese economic coercion. McCaul and Gallagher urged Raimondo to work with Japan and South Korea to ensure that companies from those countries "do not take market share lost to the ban and undercut Micron." The lawmakers added that China "lashed out with an arbitrary economic embargo against one American company. Raimondo on Saturday said the United States will not tolerate China's action and is working closely with allies to address such "economic coercion." Reuters has reported Gallagher previously urged Raimondo to put trade curbs on Changxin Memory after Beijing's actions against Micron.

Persons: Joe Biden's, Michael McCaul, Mike Gallagher, Gina Raimondo, Gallagher, Raimondo, Saturday, McCaul, David Shepardson, Will Dunham Organizations: Micron Technology, Foreign Affairs Committee, Chinese Communist Party, . Commerce, Micron, Commerce Department, Embassy, Technologies, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Japan, South Korea, China, Washington, Beijing, United States, People's Republic of China, U.S

As Japan and the United States place fresh curbs on Chinese technology firms, local investors are scooping up shares of those firms and state companies, and reaping handsome rewards. New fund launches will potentially channel money into China's technology and chipmaking leaders, including ZTE Corp (000063.SZ), Unisplendour Co (000938.SZ), Montage and Cambricon Technologies (688256.SS). Cutting-edge innovation requires huge and long-term investment, which is beyond the ability of private companies, "but SOEs can do it," Yang said. For example, China's chipmaking sector is now trading at 60 times earnings, compared with 16 for the broad market. But "China needs high valuation in some sectors ... Why don't you put down your wager, while also supporting the country's development?"

☆ China fails Micron's products in security review, bars some purchases
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

According to China's broad definition of critical information infrastructure, this could include sectors ranging from transport to finance. "The review found that Micron's products have serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China's critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China's national security," the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement. China announced its review of Micron's products in late March. The larger chunk of Micron's products flowing into China are being purchased by non-Chinese firms for use in products manufactured there, according to analysts. China in September 2021 imposed rules aimed at protecting critical information infrastructure, which require their operators to comply with stricter requirements around areas such as data security.

☆ China says Micron's products fail security review, bars some purchases
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"The review found that Micron's products have serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China's critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China's national security," the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement. Operators of critical information infrastructure will be required to stop procuring from Micron, the CAC added. According to China's broad definition of critical information infrastructure, this could include sectors ranging from transport to finance. The CAC did not detail what risks it had found nor what Micron products this would impact. China in September 2021 imposed rules aimed at protecting critical information infrastructure, which require their operators to comply with stricter requirements around areas such as data security.

☆ ‘De-Americanize’: How China Is Remaking Its Chip Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Chang Che | John Liu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last October, construction plans for a hulking semiconductor factory owned by a major state-backed company in central China fell into disarray. The facility belonged to Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation, or YMTC, a memory chip company that Xi Jinping, China’s president, has extolled as a flag-bearer in China’s race toward self-reliance. Now, the chip maker and its peers are hurriedly overhauling supply chains and rewriting business plans. Nearly seven months later, the U.S. trade barriers have accelerated China’s push for a more independent chip sector. Western technology and money have pulled out, but state funding is flooding in to cultivate homegrown alternatives to produce less advanced but still lucrative semiconductors.

☆ US urges South Korea not to fill China shortfalls if Beijing bans Micron chips, Financial Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 23 (Reuters) - The United States asked South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans memory chipmaker Micron (MU.O) from selling chips, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The United States made the request as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prepares to travel to Washington on Monday, the newspaper reported, according to four people familiar with the talks. China's cyberspace regulator Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in March that it would conduct a cybersecurity review of products sold in the country by Micron. In a response, Micron said that it is cooperating with the Chinese government and that its operations in China are normal. It has blacklisted a number of China's largest chip firms, including Micron rival Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd.

☆ China to examine US chipmaker Micron's products for cybersecurity risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 31 (Reuters) - China's cyberspace regulator will conduct a cybersecurity review of products sold in the country by U.S. memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology Inc (MU.O), the regulator said on Friday. It gave no other details, including which Micron products it was reviewing. The Netherlands, which makes advanced lithography equipment critical for the manufacture of advanced chips, made a similar announcement earlier this month. Weak consumer demand has roiled the memory chip market, which is dominated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). The larger chunk of the company's products flowing into China are being purchased by non-Chinese firms for use in products manufactured in the country, according to analysts.

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Chinese chip design company Unisoc (Shanghai) Technologies Co is seeking to raise 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in a new funding round that will value the firm at about 70 billion yuan ($10.3 billion), three people with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. Unisoc has approached several state-backed investment funds for the round, tapping increased local investor interest in China's domestic chip industry, which is gearing up to be more self-sufficient in the face of U.S. pressure, the people said. Unisoc is controlled by private equity firm Wise Road Capital, which took over the company in 2022 after Tsinghua Unigroup, its former parent company, faced bankruptcy. In its statement from Feb. 8, it added it had reached revenue of 14 billion yuan in 2022. A statement in July 2022 said it had revenue of 11.7 billion yuan in 2021.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmakers caught in U.S.-China tech spat
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

TSMC is the world's most valuable chipmaker and counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) among major clients. Its government-backing and ambition to make high-end chips caught the attention of the United States which put the firm on its Entity List in 2020. To date, most of SMIC's sales are made using the outdated 45 nanometer process node and above. Since late 2020, this specialisation in older chips has proven a boon due to a global shortage of lower-end chips. It produces DRAM at the 19 nanometer node and is moving into the 17 nanometer node - process nodes behind the industry leading-edge.

☆ U.S. Places Top Chinese Memory Chip Maker on Export Blacklist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Asa Fitch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. is ratcheting up restrictions aimed at holding back the development of China’s semiconductor industry. The U.S. said it would add China’s most advanced memory-chip manufacturer to an export blacklist on Thursday, ratcheting up restrictions aimed at holding back the development of the country’s semiconductor industry. The addition of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. to the Commerce Department’s so-called entity list could further disrupt the company’s business following an earlier round of restrictions in October that led chip-manufacturing equipment companies to pull out staff based at its facilities and pause their activities there. The blacklisting is due to take effect Friday, the Commerce Department said in a statement.

☆ U.S. slaps restrictions on Chinese chipmaker and other companies over national security worries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration said Thursday it was "severely" restricting dozens of mostly Chinese organizations, including at least one chipmaker, over their efforts to use advanced technologies to help modernize China's military. The Bureau's latest action comes more than two months after the Biden administration imposed new curbs on China's access to advanced semiconductors. "I've long sounded the alarm on the grave national security and economic threats behind YMTC and other CCP-backed technology companies, like CXMT and SMIC," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday morning. "YMTC poses an immediate threat to our national security, so the Biden Administration needed to act swiftly to prevent YMTC from gaining even an inch of a military or economic advantage," Schumer said. Four more were added due to "their significant risk of becoming involved in activities that could have a negative impact" on U.S. national security of foreign policy, according to the release.

☆ U.S., UK export controls hit China's access to Arm's chip designs -FT
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 14 (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cannot buy some of the most advanced chip designs after the SoftBank-owned (9984.T) British chip tech firm Arm Ltd determined that U.S. and Britain would not approve licences to export technology to China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. This is the first known time that Arm has decided it could not export its most cutting-edge designs to China, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The British chip tech firm concluded that the United States and Britain would not approve the sale of its latest Neoverse V series because the performance was too high, the report added. Arm launched its next generation of data center chip technology called Neoverse V2 earlier this year to meet the explosive growth of data from 5G and internet-connected gadgets. Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. to add over 30 Chinese companies to trade blacklist -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 13 (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to place Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and 35 other Chinese firms on a trade blacklist that would prevent them from buying certain American components, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The U.S Department of Commerce will add the Chinese companies to a so-called Entity List as early as this week, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter. Once a company is added to the entity list, its U.S. suppliers must seek a special license to ship even low-tech items to it. Dozens of other Chinese entities, including YMTC, were "at risk" of being added to a trade blacklist as soon as Dec. 6, a U.S. Commerce Department official said in prepared remarks seen by Reuters last month. In October, 31 entities, including YMTC, were added to a list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.

☆ Apple is going to keep cozying up to the Chinese government, no matter how much it says it's investing in America, India, and other countries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Emilia David | Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Apple, which enjoys about 50% market share in the US and many other countries, still has room to run in China. Apple willing to play ball with China's governmentWhile pursuing the Chinese consumer, Apple has made concessions to the Chinese government. But in China, it offloaded iCloud servers to a Chinese state-owned company to comply with Chinese regulations. Popal said Huawei was the first Chinese brand to shake off the perception that Chinese phones were cheap. But with hundreds of millions of potential customers left to convert to iPhone users in China, Apple will absorb the hits.

☆ US curbs on China's microchip industry could throttle Xi Jinping's tech ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

One dramatic, and potentially disruptive aspect of the rules is the ban on American citizens and legal residents working with Chinese chip firms. The ban could lead to a mass resignation of top executives and core research staff working at Chinese chip firms, which will hit the industry hard, Dong from Georgetown University said. So far it’s not clear exactly how many American workers there are in China’s domestic chip industry. At Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), one of the country’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers, at least seven executives, including founder and chairman Gerald Yin, hold US citizenship, the latest company documents show. But some Western suppliers have already started preparing to halt sales to China in response to the US export curbs.

☆ China chip imports drop 12.4% year-on-year in September - govt data
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - China's chip imports fell 12.4 percent in September, according to official customs data published on Monday, continuing a decline amid tensions with the United States and an ongoing chip shortage. The country imported 47.6 billion chip units during the month, compared with 54.3 billion units in September 2021, according to the data, which had been due for release earlier this month but was delayed due to the Communist Party Congress. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterIn the first nine months of 2021, China imported 417.1 billion units of chips, down 12.8 percent year-on-year. Chip imports to China surged in 2021, as tensions between the U.S. and China over technology policy escalated and a global chip shortage caused many companies in China to stockpile supplies. Separate data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that domestic chip output in September fell 16.4% year-on-year to 26.1 billion units.

☆ China's YMTC asks core U.S. employees to leave due to chip export restrictions, Financial Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) Ltd has asked its U.S. employees in core tech positions to leave, as the company rushes to comply with the new U.S export restrictions, Financial Times reported on Monday. It was unclear how many U.S. citizens and green card holders would be forced to leave YMTC, Financial Times reported, quoting four people close to the company. The paper said several employees in China had already left the company. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China's YMTC denies report it took part in meetings on chip curbs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Flags of United States and China displayed on phone screens in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on May 15, 2022. Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) denied a media report that it had participated in emergency meetings convened by China's industry ministry to discuss the impact of U.S. sanctions. The company in a statement late on Thursday described the report as "false and sinister," adding that the report had damaged its corporate image and would have serious adverse effects on the semiconductor industry environment at home and abroad. Bloomberg News reported that YMTC, along with a number of other Chinese chip companies, met with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to discuss the impact of recent sanctions from Washington on China's chip industry. According to the Bloomberg report, many of the participants at the meetings argued that the U.S. curbs spell doom for their industry, as well as China's ambitions to untether its economy from American technology.

☆ China holds emergency talks with chip firms after U.S. curbs -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 20 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology convened a series of emergency meetings over the past week with leading semiconductor companies, seeking to assess the damage from the U.S. chip restrictions, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The ministry summoned executives from firms including Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) and supercomputer specialist Dawning Information Industry Co (603019.SS) to attend closed-door meetings, the report said. YMTC, Dawning and the industry ministry did not immediately reply to Reuters' requests for comment. On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for his country to "win the battle" in core technologies in his full work report as he kicked off the once-every-five-years Communist Party Congress. Experts have said the work report could signal an overhaul in Beijing's approach to advancing its tech industry, with more state-led spending and intervention to counter U.S. pressures.

☆ Apple freezes plans to use China's YMTC chips - Nikkei
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. tech giant Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has put on hold plans to use memory chips from China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) in its products, after Washington imposed tighter export controls against Chinese technology companies, the Nikkei reported on Monday. Apple had originally planned to start using state-funded YMTC's NAND flash memory chips as early as this year, Nikkei said, citing people familiar with the matter. The chips were initially planned to be used only for iPhones sold in the Chinese market. It was considering eventually purchasing up to 40% of the chips needed for all iPhones from YMTC, the newspaper said. Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, while YMTC declined to comment.

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