Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s top economic regulator to extend a cooperation arrangement with a focus on semiconductor manufacturing and artificial intelligence, China Daily reported.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Samsung previously signed a three-year agreement.
The MoU comes after NDRC officials spoke to Samsung in December 2017 about the soaring price of memory chips over the prior 18 months. The commission hasn’t taken any action about the price surge, which had drawn complaints from China-based mobile phone makers, the newspaper said.
An NDRC representative told the newspaper the MoU with Samsung does not cover the rising cost of memory chips.
Roger Sheng, research director at Gartner, said Samsung may establish a “dynamic random-access memory chip unit in China in the future.” He noted Samsung won’t likely transfer core technologies related to memory chips to China even if it invests in new factories,China Daily reported.
Samsung operates a memory chip factory in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and in August 2017 announced plans to invest $7 billion over the following three years to expand production.
China is keen to boost local chip production to reduce the country’s heavy dependence on imports. International Business Strategies estimated about 90 per cent of the $190 billion worth of chips used in China were imported or made locally by non-domestic companies as of late July 2017.
