The Biden administration has decided to eliminate current restrictions on chipmakers seeking to expand and maintain operations in China. This means that chip giants TSMC and Samsung will be given free reign to increase their factory capacity without the US government jumping on their case.

Semiconductor manufacturing has been going through a bit of a hellstorm lately. The U.S. has threatened a 10-year ban on companies receiving funding as part of the CHIPS and Science Act. The situation is also difficult due to recent restrictions in U.S. export control policies. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration plans to expand exemptions from U.S. export control policies that currently restrict chip trade between the U.S. and China.

Last October, chip giants TSMC and Samsung received exemptions to limit the business impact of export control policies. These exemptions were scheduled to expire in October of this year, but will be extended for the time being, according to reports.

Last week, Alan Estevez, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, announced at the Semiconductor Industry Association that the government plans to extend the exemptions indefinitely. It is unclear whether this exemption will be extended to other companies.

Last year, TSMC founder Morris Chang spoke of the many problems the U.S. faces in rebuilding domestic chip manufacturing, calling the regulations "a very expensive and wasteful exercise."

Republican Senator Marco Rubio is one of the opponents of the export control exemption, believing in the importance of strengthening US control over technology exports. In a letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo, he writes that "companies are working hard to weaken and circumvent export controls in the rules."

Derek Scissors, a former member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, further asserts. . it looks very weak," and "you can't control technology with two giant corporations doing whatever they want to do."

With the chip manufacturing industry so spread out across the globe, it is easy to imagine that an exemption from the US export control policy would be beneficial to the industry as a whole. Nevertheless, whether it is fair to deregulate only certain companies is a matter of controversy within the industry.