(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (LON:0593xq) Co Ltd became the latest company to confirm that investigators from China's State Administration for Market Regulation visited its sales offices in the country last week.
Chipmaker Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) had said on Friday that the officials had visited its sales offices, while the Wall Street Journal reported https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-launches-probe-of-foreign-chip-makers-1528098432 on Monday that investigators had also visited the offices of Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc.
A Samsung spokesman said the company was cooperating with the Chinese authorities, but did not provide more details on the visit. U.S. representatives of SK Hynix declined to comment.
The three companies are the biggest suppliers of DRAM chips used in smartphones and personal computers to store data and the visits by Chinese investigators to their offices come at a time when prices of these chips have gone up considerably.
"China (is) trying to protect their PC and smartphone market from rising DRAM costs. Typically, China PC and smart phones sell at lower costs/margins than those in other countries," Stifel Nicolaus analyst Kevin Cassidy said.
China is looking for billions of dollars in funds to propel its domestic ambitions in chips to cut a heavy reliance on imports.
Chinese firms have also had a number of overseas deals to buy foreign chip companies blocked by U.S. regulators in recent years, including a bid by Tsinghua Unigroup to acquire U.S. chip group Micron Technology Inc.
In April, the Trump administration banned American companies from selling components to Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp (HK:0763) <0000063.SZ 0763.HK> for seven years after breaking an agreement reached after it was caught illegally shipping goods to Iran and North Korea.