South Korea unveiled plans by leading firms such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to spend more than US$470 billion establishing the world's largest chipmaking cluster, joining a global race to safeguard domestic supply.

Japan's Kioxia on Tuesday reported a JPY100.8 billion (US$664.5 million) operating loss in the second quarter as earnings were hit by a slump in demand for memory chips used in smartphones and personal computers (PC).

SK Hynix has divided its procurement team for the first time, a move meant to strengthen the purchasing of components and equipment used in the back end of chip production.

A weak memory market and US sanctions on China semiconductor producers are driving factors behind the expected 19% drop in semiconductor capital spending in 2023.

Republican lawmakers have warned Apple that it will face intense scrutiny from Congress if the California company procures memory chips from a controversial Chinese semiconductor manufacturer for the new iPhone 14.

SK Hynix aims to select a US site for its advanced chip packaging plant and break ground there around the first quarter of next year, two people familiar with the matter said, helping the United States to compete as China pours money into the burgeoning sector.

Micron Technology, the biggest maker of computer memory chips in the US, said the growing crisis in Ukraine highlights the complexity and vulnerability of the semiconductor supply chain. Some of the gases used in the production of chips comes from the country which the US says Russia is invading.

China's state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has scrapped major memory chip projects in two cities as new investors push to turn around the debt-stricken company that has been left reeling from US restrictions on its access to vital technology.

Plans by Korea's SK Hynix to overhaul a huge facility in China so it can make memory chips more efficiently are in jeopardy, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, because US officials do not want advanced equipment used in the process to enter into China.

Micron Technology forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations and warned that shipments for its memory chips were set to dip in the near term as its customers making personal computers face shortages of other parts.

Japan's Kioxia Holdings, the world's second largest maker of flash memory chips and formerly known as Toshiba Memory, plans an initial public offering as early as September, weekly financial magazine Diamond reported on Thursday.

Micron Technology on Wednesday forecast fiscal third-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates due to a rise in demand for memory chips thanks to 5G smartphones and artificial intelligence software that is pushing memory chip prices upward.

While Micron's solid report card didn't exactly come as a surprise, it was nonetheless a positive end to the fiscal year. There's work to be done to get back to record sales and profits, but 2020 at least brought an end to a year-and-a-half-long memory chip industry slump and a return to growth.

Micron has not yet obtained new licenses needed to sell its memory chips to China's Huawei, which will cut its sales over the next two quarters, company executives said on Tuesday.

Kioxia, the world's second-largest maker of flash memory chips, on Monday postponed plans for what would have been Japan's largest initial public offering (IPO) this year, as U.S-China tensions cloud the global chip market.

Kioxia Holdings, the world's second-largest maker of flash memory chips, warned on Thursday that tighter U.S. restrictions on Huawei could cause memory chip oversupply and drive down market prices.

Kioxia Holdings, the world's second-largest maker of flash memory chips, will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 6 in an initial public offering worth up to $3.6 billion, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday.

Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Monday it planned to sell down its 40.2% stake in flash memory chips firm Kioxia Holdings and will return a majority of the net proceeds to shareholders.

Micron Technology raised its revenue forecast for the third quarter on Wednesday to a range of US$5.2 billion to US$5.4 billion from US$4.6 billion to US$5.2 billion, sending its shares about 3% higher.

While spot markets make up a small percentage of the memory chip market, Ike Cho, a Bernstein analyst, said the South Korean groups are pushing up prices as they negotiate contracts for the third quarter with their customers.

The world's biggest chipmaker on Tuesday said first-quarter results will fall short of estimates as prices for memory chips and displays slid more than expected, just days ahead of releasing preliminary earnings. That came after Apple, which buys smartphone screens from Samsung, cut its revenue outlook in January for the first time in almost two decades.

Samsung Electronics slashed 2018 capex by more than a quarter on Wednesday and warned of lower profit until early next year, calling an end to a two-year boom in memory chips that fueled record third-quarter profit.

China has launched a probe into Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology, the three semiconductor makers who control the market for DRAM memory chips.

Chinese memory chip manufacturers pose no serious threat yet to established players, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, citing high barriers to entry for aspiring global suppliers.

Western Digital will invest about JPY500 billion ($4.68 billion) over the next three years in a memory chip venture with Toshiba, helping their joint operations recover after a bruising legal spat between the companies.

Toshiba expects the sale of its $18 billion memory chip business to be completed by June at the latest, if not by an agreed deadline of the end of March, as it awaits antitrust regulatory approval from China.

Intel intends to expand its partnership with Beijing-backed Tsinghua Unigroup by providing NAND flash memory chips as soon as this year, according to industry sources.

Samsung Electronics has decided to cooperate with the Chinese government to develop next-generation technologies including artificial intelligence (AI). With China having been putting pressure on Samsung Electronics due to a rise in the price of memory chips supplied to Chinese smartphone makers, some market watchers say that the partnership can settle a series of conflicts between the two.

Western Digital gave strong profit forecasts for the current quarter and the full year on Thursday and said the flash memory market would grow faster this year, easing investor jitters that the surging demand for memory chips was fading.

The South Korean chip industry is tightening its monitoring of increasing protectionist moves by China and the US as they are faced with probes and suspicions of price collision.

Toshiba is considering an IPO of its prized memory chip business if an agreed $18 billion sale to a Bain Capital-led consortium fails to gain antitrust approval by the end of March, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Foxconn chairman Terry Gou told Nikkei Asian Review about the arrangements in an exclusive interview, a week after he said that Apple and Amazon were financially backing Foxconn's efforts in vying for Toshiba's memory chip unit.

Toshiba temporarily canceled all meetings and decisions related to the sale of its memory chip business to address concerns raised by an industry partner, people familiar with the matter said.

The complaint specifically refers to Toshiba flash memory chips and products containing such chips-including memory cards, solid-state drives, wearable devices, digital camcorders, mobile devices, advanced audiovisual systems, car navigation systems, computers, servers, and other consumer electronic devices-as infringing products.

Micron Technology gained more than 7% in late trading Thursday after the chipmaker reported better earnings than expected amid reported price hikes for its memory chips.

The Japanese government, fretting over the future of Toshiba's flagship memory chips unit, is prepared to block a sale to bidders it deems a risk to national security, sources said, a stance that gives US suitors a major advantage.

Samsung Electronics has reported a 50% profit surge in its guidance for the fourth quarter despite the fiasco with its flagship Note 7 phone. The earnings estimate is higher than analysts predicted and would mark its highest quarterly profit since 2013.

Samsung was Apple's main supplier for the iPhones from the very beginning, making the A-series processors and supplying both NAND flash and DRAM memory chips.

Toshiba raised its forecast for first-half operating profit by 36% to JPY95 billion (US$906 million), crediting growth in memory chips and hard disk drives, as well as cost-cutting measures.

Micron Technology has said it is seeing signs of tight supplies of memory chips, a good omen for the company's bottom line but a potential worry for makers of smartphones, computers and other high-tech products.