criteria to qualify for new us semiconductor subsidies could be burdensome for companies such as samsung electronics co ltd and sk hynix inc south koreas trade minister said conditions include sharing excess profit with the us government and three industry sources said the application process itself could expose confidential corporate strategy subsidies would come from a 52 billion pool of research and manufacturing funds earmarked under the united states socalled chips act for which the commerce department announced guides and templates this month sk hynix parent sk group plans to invest 15 billion in the us chip sector including building an advanced chip packaging factory and has said it is considering applying for funding samsung is building a chip plant in texas that could cost more than 25 billion and has said it is reviewing the guidelines however funding applications may require detailed cost structure information as well as projected wafer yields utilization rates and price changes which three korean chip sources told reuters was akin to revealing corporate strategy all of this is confidential information the most important thing in chips is the cost structure experts will be able to tell our strategy at a glance said one of the sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter the united states subsidy provisions should reflect the opinions of the government and companies of south korea so they do not impose any undue burden on those companies south korean trade minister ahn dukgeun said in a statement on thursday the statement followed a meeting between ahn and united states trade representative katherine tai in south korea a leading chipmaking country and investor in the us chip sector the us department of commerce will accept subsidy applications for leadingedge chip facilities from march 31 and for currentgeneration maturenode and backend production facilities from june 26 taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co ltd the worlds largest contract chipmaker which is investing 40 billion in a new plant in arizona declined to comment later on thursday south koreas parliament approved a bill offering large tax breaks to strategic industries including the semiconductor industry which invest at home to strengthen supplychain security while boosting the economy the approval comes in the same month the government announced a 550 trillion won 424 billion privatesector investment plan to maintain the competitiveness of hightech industries while other countries are actively bolstering theirsfacebooktwitterlinkedinend of article10910131298799128