Decoupling global supply chains will be “very complicated, expensive and time-consuming”, one of the world’s leading chipmakers has warned, as rising US-China tensions threaten to worsen a sharp market downturn.
Lorenzo Flores, vice-chair of Kioxia, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the Japanese company was analysing the impact of the latest US export controls. The challenge, he added, was the uncertainty of how Beijing would retaliate against Washington’s moves to hamper its efforts to manufacture advanced semiconductors.
Washington’s controls have specifically targeted Kioxia’s Chinese rival Yangtze Memory Technologies. The company has had to ask American employees in core tech positions to leave the company as it rushes to comply with the export controls.