Semicon Briefing

Huawei's chief executive publicly states that US export restrictions have actually accelerated China's semiconductor industry – without the pressure, they would never have developed their own technologies. With 2,410 upvotes and a 492-point top comment, this is one of the most discussed chip stories of the week; SMIC stock rose +7.6% following Huawei's LogicFolding announcement.

Nvidia has lost its near-complete market share in AI chips in China due to US export controls, while Huawei and ByteDance are massively accelerating their domestic development. This demonstrates the strategic failure of US restriction policy and permanently strengthens Chinese alternatives.

According to X posts, Japan and South Korea have signed a historic $40 billion semiconductor cooperation agreement aimed at joint manufacturing and supply-chain resilience in East Asia. The alliance reshapes geopolitical weight in semiconductor policy and strengthens both countries against US and China pressure.

South Korea's semiconductor exports jumped +202% in the first 20 days of May compared to the prior year, total exports +64.8% – an extraordinary signal of strong AI chip demand. Samsung and SK Hynix are the direct major beneficiaries, making the valuation discrepancy at Samsung (preferred stock at 37% record discount) even more striking.

China is flooding the global market with DRAM chips at half prices – Corsair has already turned its back on Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix are under pressure. YMTC is simultaneously scaling up to 500,000 wafers/month and planning an IPO; US sanctions have had the opposite of the intended effect here.

Samsung chipworkers have agreed to an average bonus of $340,000, ending months of strike threats – but reports suggest that dissatisfaction with the deal is further burdening productivity in Samsung's already struggling foundry division. In contrast, TSMC is considering bonus cuts of 20–30% despite a 58% profit jump, putting both conglomerates under labor pressure.