05-01-2023, 08:49 AM
BY SOHEE KIM AND BLOOMBERG
January 3, 2023 at 6:00 PM GMT+8
In three decades at Samsung Electronics Co., Yang Hyang-ja helped shape the 84-year-old conglomerate’s present dominance in global memory chipmaking. Now, she’s taking on a far broader challenge: ensuring Korea remains relevant as the U.S. and China fight over semiconductors.
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“We’re in a chip war,” Yang said in a December interview. “Technology supremacy is a way that our country can take the lead in any security-related agenda, such as diplomatic and defense issues, without being swayed by other nations.”
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She’s one of a growing number of global policy makers who have embraced tech protectionism after pandemic-driven logistics snarls highlighted countries’ dependence on one another for key electronic components.
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Korea has a unique opportunity to counter this trend, Yang said. Taiwan—where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is based—produces the majority of leading-edge chips controlling the newest iPhones, servers and supercomputers. That’s triggered calls worldwide to diversify production away from an island that China claims and has threatened to invade.
“Samsung is the only company in the world that can fill in for TSMC,” said Yang.
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Escalating sanctions on advanced technology are putting increased pressure on the country to choose between the U.S., its security ally, and China, its biggest trade partner. Both have asked South Korea to expand chip production partnerships.
But Seoul has sidestepped explicit comments regarding its commitment to the Biden administration’s sanctions on exports of U.S.-affiliated knowhow to China.
That delicate situation highlights the need for Korea to build its own domestic technological capabilities—or risk growing ever more beholden to foreign powers, Yang said.
This is the time to offer Korean companies more incentives to build production capacity at home, rather than abroad, Yang said.
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“How else would our country survive?” she said. “It’d become a new technological colony.”
https://fortune.com/2023/01/03/south-kor...ina-japan/
January 3, 2023 at 6:00 PM GMT+8
In three decades at Samsung Electronics Co., Yang Hyang-ja helped shape the 84-year-old conglomerate’s present dominance in global memory chipmaking. Now, she’s taking on a far broader challenge: ensuring Korea remains relevant as the U.S. and China fight over semiconductors.
......
“We’re in a chip war,” Yang said in a December interview. “Technology supremacy is a way that our country can take the lead in any security-related agenda, such as diplomatic and defense issues, without being swayed by other nations.”
......
She’s one of a growing number of global policy makers who have embraced tech protectionism after pandemic-driven logistics snarls highlighted countries’ dependence on one another for key electronic components.
......
Korea has a unique opportunity to counter this trend, Yang said. Taiwan—where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is based—produces the majority of leading-edge chips controlling the newest iPhones, servers and supercomputers. That’s triggered calls worldwide to diversify production away from an island that China claims and has threatened to invade.
“Samsung is the only company in the world that can fill in for TSMC,” said Yang.
......
Escalating sanctions on advanced technology are putting increased pressure on the country to choose between the U.S., its security ally, and China, its biggest trade partner. Both have asked South Korea to expand chip production partnerships.
But Seoul has sidestepped explicit comments regarding its commitment to the Biden administration’s sanctions on exports of U.S.-affiliated knowhow to China.
That delicate situation highlights the need for Korea to build its own domestic technological capabilities—or risk growing ever more beholden to foreign powers, Yang said.
This is the time to offer Korean companies more incentives to build production capacity at home, rather than abroad, Yang said.
......
“How else would our country survive?” she said. “It’d become a new technological colony.”
https://fortune.com/2023/01/03/south-kor...ina-japan/