At the moment nothing indicates that Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House will relax the tension held by the US and China. The strategy of the new US government on many fronts is very different from the one defended by the administration of Joe Biden (The Ukraine War is one of them), but in what It refers to China a priori nothing changes. And does not do so because the nation led by Xi Jinping is the only one that has the ability to play world supremacy to the USA.
In fact, the government led by Joe Biden openly recognized the document that collects its National Security Strategy October 2022 that China has the necessary capacity and resources to dispute the US Its world leadership position. A good part of the sanctions deployed by the US government and its allies seeks to slow down the development of the Chinese semiconductor industry due to the deep impact that it has on its scientific, economic and military capacity. But China bids increasingly.
China leads chips research with overwhelming roundness
Currently the biggest challenge facing the China semiconductor industry is the set -up equipment of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) similar to those produced by the Dutch company ASML. The US and Netherlands sanctions prevent this company from selling them to their Chinese customers, and these equipment are necessary to produce on a large scale and with a competitive cost integrated avant -garde circuits.
In 2023 the Chinese government approved a 41,000 million dollar game for lithography equipment manufacturers
In this situation, the only way China can follow is to dedicate a lot of resources to research with the purpose of matching, or even exceeding the level of development they have achieved in the field of Taiwan semiconductors, USA, South Korea or Japan. And is doing it. At the beginning of September 2023 the Chinese government approved a departure of no less than 41,000 million dollars Destined precisely to the companies that produce the equipment involved in the manufacture of integrated circuits.
The achievements are already arriving, and are notable. SMIC and HUAWEI have opted, at least for now, for refining their lithographic processes and optimizing UVP lithography machines (deep ultraviolet) manufactured by ASML that they already have in their possession. Other companies, however, have chosen to develop their integration technologies relying on the new teams that Naura Technology, Amec (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China) or Piotech Inc. have taken to point. This is the path that You are following Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), the largest memory chips manufacturer in China.
However, China’s authentic strength is its ability to develop avant -garde research. He Emerging Technological Observatory (ETO), which is an international organization specialized in the analysis of the adoption of emerging technologies globally, points out that Between 2018 and 2023 475,000 articles were published dedicated to the design and manufacture of chips throughout the planet.
34% was produced by Chinese institutions, while Europe is formed with 18% of those articles and the US with an even more modest 15%. In addition, again according to Eto, Chinese articles are among the most mentioned, which supports their quality. This trend draws a future on the horizon in which China’s weight in the semiconductor industry will be increasing.
Image | ASML
More information | Eto
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