Japan Warns Korea On U.S. Responses To Memory Dominance

From Korea's Maeil Business, July 8:

"South Korea's Memory Monopoly Will Be Openly Harassed by the United States"... A Warning from the Former No. 1 Nation 

Japanese media warn of semiconductor monopoly risks "It brought down Japan, which was No. 1 in the market in the 1980s" Concerns grow over a repeat of past U.S. trade pressure 

As Samsung Electronics drew market attention by posting record quarterly operating profit, Japanese media outlets from the country that once ranked No. 1 in the world warned about the risks of South Korea's dominant position in the semiconductor industry. Their analysis suggests that South Korea could follow the same path as Japan's semiconductor sector, which was weakened by overt pressure from the United States in the past.

According to Yonhap News Agency on the 8th, Japanese media including Nikkei, Inc. gave prominent coverage to reports that Samsung Electronics posted a preliminary operating profit of 8.94 trillion won in the second quarter, marking a record high for the third consecutive quarter. The outlets said the sharp rise in prices for memory chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) has instead become a new management risk for South Korea's semiconductor industry.

The Nikkei in particular pointed to class-action lawsuits filed by some U.S. consumers against major memory chip makers such as Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron over alleged price inflation. It also identified as a major threat the move by U.S. companies struggling with severe memory shortages to increase their use of Chinese semiconductors from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC).

Concerns were also raised about the possibility of intense trade pressure tied to global market share. Citing a South Korean expert, The Nikkei noted that the combined global market share of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix has reached 60 percent. It said the Donald Trump administration could use South Korea's dominance as a pretext to force companies to move production to the United States or make massive investments there. The report recalled how the United States in the 1980s used the U.S.-Japan semiconductor agreement, along with exchange-rate and trade pressure, to bring down Japan, which had dominated the global market....

....MUCH MORE 

As Clausewitz might have said, had he been born 200 years later than he actually was:

Chips are just war by other means. 

I know. It's a paraphrase/misquote. But work with me here. And have some Clausewitz for being so patient:

The Softer Side Of Clausewitz