The U.S. government is apparently mulling over the decision to replace indefinite wafer fab equipment export permissions for Samsung and SK hynix's with annual licenses. The decision will add significant regulatory complexity, but will at least maintain continuity for fab operations, which means no disruption to the highly-volatile global supply of DRAM and NAND memory, reports Bloomberg.
Previously, Samsung and SK hynix operated under validated end-user (VEU) status, which granted them blanket approval to import restricted wafer fab equipment (WFE) to their Chinese fabs based on upfront compliance with U.S. security and monitoring measures, which greatly streamlined their operations. Those permissions are set to expire at the end of this year.
