Within China they are clear what they think of the US technological veto

On May 29, the Office of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce gave the order to its national EDA software companies (Electronic Design Automation): They had to stop selling their products to China. The movement sought continue torpedoing its semiconductor industryone in which this software is key to continue advancing in advanced lithographic processes. China’s response is being clear: they see it as one of the greatest growth opportunities in its history.

The context. The semiconductor industry is one in which the software is key to automating verification designs and processes. The margin of error is minimal, and there US companies such as Cadence, Synopsy and Siemens They have been key for years. These three companies dominate, in a combined way, 74% of the Global EDA market.

The United States has informed these three companies to stop selling their software to Chinese groups, in an attempt to isolate it from an essential tool to continue advancing in chips manufacturing.

Why is it important. The EDA software is the highway that each chip passes before entering production. The United States wants to stop the development of China in semiconductors, warned that the country has been preparing its greatest counterattack for years. At the beginning of September 2023 the Chinese government approved a item of 41,000 million dollars specifically intended for those companies that produce the equipment involved in the manufacture of integrated circuits.

China has invested billions of dollars to have your lithography teamsit is clear that prefers to prioritize its technology to adapt the existingand is about to Achieve self -sufficiency in the development of your own 5 nm lithography. The performance by wafer is still low but something is clear: sooner or later, China will be the world leader in chips.

The answer. Although the EDA industry stars three US companies, Chinese local companies have been moving forward in the development of this type of software. Specifically, there are three other big names playing in the country of Xi Jinping: Empyrean Technology, Primarius Technologies and Semitronix.

After knowing the news and the new US export restrictions, the action of each of these three companies shot over 20% in the case of companies such as Primarius. Yang Lianfeng, president of that company, He counted In an interview that EDA national suppliers are seeing in this movement “the best development opportunity in history”.

A national counteroffensive. Yang points out that China will not try to replicate the American EDA software. It will establish its own ecosystem, making this mosquadilla an opportunity to strengthen its self -sufficiency in national semiconductors.

Young companies such as Industrial Univista Software Group, founded by former Synopsy and Cadence executives, They have made free disposal free tests of its Eda Univista Archer platform. This company, founded in 2020, serves more than 200 Chinese companies for integrated circuit design, and struggle to be the fourth name in the list of companies that aspire to lead in EDA.

The limitations. China wants to answer these new restrictions as soon as possible, but the way will be complex. The race to jump to the two nanometers is crucial, one in which Nvidia, ASML and TSMC have been working for years.

Companies like Xuanjie, the Chips Design Unit founded by Xiaomi, would have trouble jumping to this lithographic process. Their chips are manufactured by TSMC and the Xring 01 It is based on the TSMC three nanometers process. But the designs are their own and without access to American Eda tools, currently, it does not seem possible to break this barrier. The American veto hits right in the most critical bottleneck in the chain, but also pushes China to accelerate in its national substitute.

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