Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two largest global memory chipmakers, have spent roughly two years testing chipmaking equipment from the Chinese firm Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC), according to local news reports. The trials, first reported by Reuters on August 5, amount to a hedge against tightening U.S. export controls that could eventually cut Western companies off from servicing tools already installed inside the two firms’ Chinese factories.
Samsung has denied testing AMEC equipment at its China site or considering such a test, and SK Hynix has not commented on the matter. Even so, engineers at both companies began qualifying AMEC’s etching tools around two years ago. At the time, it was unclear whether Washington would keep allowing imports of U.S. chipmaking equipment into China.
In 2023, the U.S. Commerce Department designated Samsung and SK Hynix’s Chinese factories as validated end users. The status let the companies import certain controlled American equipment without applying for a license each time. However, Washington revoked the status in 2025, then granted both firms a narrower annual license covering equipment imports for 2026. Each policy swing left the two chipmakers less certain their existing American and Dutch tools would keep receiving spare parts, software updates, and repair support. Memory-chip production lines depend on equipment calibrated with extreme precision and supplier uncertainty is difficult for a fab to absorb.
Alongside tightening U.S. export controls, China’s chipmaking industry has been making rapid strides. A state-backed manufacturer based in Shanghai began mass-producing immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines in late July, aiming to deliver roughly five units this year and about 20 in 2027 to three of the country’s leading chipmakers. The manufacturer has been identified as Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group, a company built by absorbing engineering teams from several Chinese lithography startups.
Lithography machines etch the circuit patterns that give a chip its function. The technology has long been dominated by the Dutch firm ASML which builds the extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, systems needed for the most advanced chips. The Aishengna machines use DUV, an older process that falls well short of ASML’s capabilities and are not expected to pose an immediate commercial threat to the Dutch company.
China’s drive for chip-hardware self-sufficiency is now paired with a push into finished AI chips. Huawei plans to launch its Ascend 950 processors and Atlas 950 SuperPod computing system in South Korea in the fourth quarter of 2026, positioning them as a cheaper alternative to U.S. firm Nvidia’s export-compliant H20 chip. Huawei has signed distribution agreements with two Korean partners, Hansol PNS and SK Shieldus, and says its inference-focused chip delivers roughly 2.87 times the performance of Nvidia’s H20 at about a quarter of the price.
Experts point to Beijing’s approach to industrial regulation as one of its key drivers for this rapid development of cutting-edge technology. Carl Benedikt Frey, an associate professor of AI & Work at the Oxford Internet Institute and a Fellow of Mansfield College at the University of Oxford, recently argued that China’s “move fast and regulate later” strategy has spurred growth in emerging technology like artificial intelligence and renewable energy at an accelerated pace, although that strategy raises questions about the security and quality of Chinese innovations.
Security concerns about Chinese technology and doubts over software support could still slow Huawei’s adoption in South Korea, even as its AI chip launch stays on track for the fourth quarter of this year. Aishengna’s lithography output, meanwhile, is expected to grow to about 20 units in 2027. Samsung and SK Hynix have not said whether their AMEC trials will move beyond testing.
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