According to the China Daily, the agreement between China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the world’s memory maker focuses on chipmaking, artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing.

In December, China Daily reported that the NDRC was paying close attention to a recent surge in the price of chips used for long-term data storage in phones and could look into possible price fixing by the manufacturers.

The newspaper said the agreement with Samsung had “nothing to do with the price rises in storage chips”.

Roger Sheng, research director at Gartner, said Samsung might establish a “dynamic random-access memory chip unit in China in the future”. He noted Samsung was unlikely  to transfer core technologies related to memory chips to China even if it invests in new factories.

Samsung operates a memory chip factory in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and in August 2017 announced plans to invest $7 billion over the following three years to expand production.

China is keen to boost local chip production to reduce the country’s dependence on imports. International Business Strategies estimated about 90 percent of the $190 billion worth of chips used in China were imported or made locally by non-domestic companies as of late July 2017.