SEOUL – As a tech war rages between Beijing and Washington over Chinese flagship Huawei, indications are that South Korea’s national champion and global semiconductor powerhouse Samsung Electronics has sided with the US.
Widespread reports in South Korea that appeared in both TV and online news on Wednesday (September 9) stated that the country’s two major chipmakers, Samsung and its smaller rival SK hynix, will cease supplying semiconductors to Huawei as of September 15.
“I understand that Samsung Electronics will stop shipping chips to Huawei from next Tuesday, though there is a possibility of selling products after winning US approval,” an industry observer said, according to South Korea’s semi-official news agency Yonhap.
That’s the same day the latest round of US tech sanctions on Huawei are scheduled to take effect. The accuracy of Wednesday’s reports, quoting anonymous sources, could not be immediately verified by Asia Times.
But unless there is a brilliantly conducted smokescreen operation in place, drawing a cloud over a secret Huawei-Samsung relationship, they synch with a range of developments, indications, analyses and rumors that Asia Times has recently closely monitored.
