March 31 (Reuters) – China’s our on-line world regulator will conduct a cybersecurity evaluation of merchandise offered within the nation by U.S. reminiscence chip producer Micron Know-how Inc (MU.O), the regulator mentioned on Friday.
The transfer, which comes amid a spat over chip expertise between Washington and Beijing, is geared toward defending the safety of the availability chain for vital data infrastructure, forestall hidden dangers and safeguard nationwide safety, the Our on-line world Administration of China (CAC) mentioned in a quick assertion.
It gave no different particulars, together with which Micron merchandise it was reviewing.
In a press release to Reuters, Micron mentioned it was conscious of the announcement and was “in communication with the CAC and are cooperating absolutely.” It added that it stands by the safety of its merchandise and commitments to clients.
The U.S. has imposed a sequence of export controls on chipmaking expertise to China for concern it might be used to provide chips for functions resembling synthetic intelligence which might be utilized by China’s army, and blacklisted various China’s largest chip corporations, together with Micron rival Yangtze Reminiscence Applied sciences 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% to $61.15 on Friday.
“Punitive actions in opposition to Micron might counsel a broader shift in Chinese language coverage with different U.S. distributors with massive Chinese language publicity now probably susceptible to comparable actions,” Wedbush Securities analyst Matthew Bryson mentioned.
On Friday, Japan introduced it could align its expertise commerce controls with a U.S. push to curb China’s means to make superior chips. The Netherlands, which makes superior lithography gear vital for the manufacture of superior chips, made an analogous announcement earlier this month.
Weak client demand has roiled the reminiscence chip market, which is dominated by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics (005930.KS).
Micron derives round 10% of its income from China, but it surely was not clear if the evaluation 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 corporations to be used in merchandise manufactured within the nation, in line with analysts.
Micron has workplaces in Shanghai and Shenzhen, in addition to a chip packaging facility within the metropolis of Xian. In early 2022, the corporate introduced it could shut its DRAM design operations in Shanghai.
Reporting by Ella Cao, Meg Shen, Brenda Goh and Chavi Mehta; Extra reporting by Josh Horwitz; Modifying by David Goodman, Mark Potter and Shounak Dasgupta
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