German chip giant Infineon's CEO warns against excessively limiting chip exports to China

By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Jul 20 -- Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of German chip giant Infineon, has warned against overly restricting chip exports to China last week at the Infineon factory in Dresden, according to German media Handelsblatt.

“The semiconductor industry is already limited in delivering high-performance processors to China - ‘for good reasons.’ Products for decarbonization are being manufactured in Saxony, whose export to China should also be in Germany's interest. And therefore, we hope that these limitations will be confined to the very few critical areas," he said.

The German government published its China Strategy last week and urged companies to reduce and avoid unilateral dependencies on China. “Complete independence from any country is unimaginable in the semiconductor industry,” said Hanebeck.

Economic Minister Robert Habeck, who visited the Infineon factory together with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, emphasized that German and European investments in China would be viewed "from the aspect of economic security". The Federal Government had capped investment guarantees at three EUR3 billion ($3.36 billion) per country.

At the European level, it is being examined which areas should be particularly controlled because critical knowledge could flow out.