South Korea’s presidential office announced on Monday that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two largest global memory chipmakers, have been granted permission to supply US chip equipment to their factories in China without separate approvals from the US government indefinitely. This decision was well-received by both companies, as they have invested billions of dollars in their chip production facilities in China. In October 2022, the US issued a regulation prohibiting US enterprises from exporting cutting-edge semiconductor production equipment to China. However, under the strong opposition of Samsung and SK Hynix, these two Korean companies were exempted from shipping related chip equipment to China for one year, with the exemption period ending on October 11, 2023. [DoNews, in Chinese]