Micron, Western Digital rise as U.S. considers limiting equipment for Chinese memory chip makers: report
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The Biden administration is deliberating whether to limit chipmaking equipment from American companies for Chinese memory chip makers, Reuters reported.
The news outlet, citing four people familiar with the matter, would be done to protect domestic memory chip makers such as Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), but also impact China's companies, such as Yangtze Memory Technologies.
Though it is under investigation from the U.S. Commerce Department over whether it violated an agreement by selling chips to Chinese telecom Huawei, which is already on the restricted list, Yangtze Memory Technologies is purportedly in discussions with Apple (AAPL) to supply flash memory chips.
However, it could also negatively impact South Korean memory makers such as Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) and SK Hynix, one of the sources added, as Samsung has two factories in China and SK Hynix is buying Intel's (INTC) flash memory chips business in China.
If approved, the crackdown would bar equipment to manufacture advanced NAND chips, which would be the first time the U.S. targets production of memory chips that do not have specialized military purposes, Reuters added.
Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) are the two foremost suppliers of tools for making NAND chips with more than 128 layers, which are the tools under consideration for being banned. 
Micron (MU) and Western Digital (WDC) gained on back of the report, with early gains of 2.5% and 2%, respectively. Lam Research (LRCX) shares fell slightly more than 0.5% to $496.86, while Applied Materials (AMAT) was fractionally higher on Monday.
Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), Micron (MU), Western Digital (WDC) and the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Last month, Micron said it would bring leading-edge memory manufacturing to the U.S. after Congress passed the $280B "Chips and Science" legislation.