chip

The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

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SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) is the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer with a global market share 5.32%. Only TSMC and Samsung surpass it. Currently this is the only Chinese company that has the necessary technology to manufacture 7nm integrated circuitsbut Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second largest chip producer, is developing the technology necessary to manufacture this class of semiconductors. The US Department of Commerce has confirmed without intending it that Hua Hong Semiconductor is very serious with its 7nm photolithography. And it has done so because, according to Reutershas notified the most important lithography and wafer processing equipment manufacturers in the US that they no longer have permission to deliver their most advanced machines to this Chinese company. The purpose of this US entity is clear: it aims to make it difficult for Hua Hong Semiconductor to conclude the development of its 7nm lithography. Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA already have one more obstacle in China Department of Commerce technicians analyze export requests within the framework established by current regulations and approve or deny the sale of integrated circuits and wafer processing equipment to China. The current regulation is the most effective tool at the disposal of the US Government to try to slow down the development of China’s semiconductor industry and prevent it from acquiring the capacity to manufacture cutting-edge integrated circuits in the short or medium term. Hua Hong is preparing to start production of 7nm chips at its Shanghai plant Hua Hong Semiconductor’s division specializing in third-party chip manufacturing is called Huali Microelectronics, and it is preparing to launch the production of 7nm integrated circuits at its Shanghai plant. The sources that have revealed this information assure that Huawei has collaborated with Huali Microelectronics on this project, which invites us to reach two reasonable conclusions. The first is that Huali’s 7nm lithography is likely to play an essential role in GPU production capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) from both Huawei and other Chinese companies. And the second conclusion is actually a plausible hypothesis. And, like SMIC, Huali does not have access to ASML SVU teams. For this reason, it is very likely that with the help of Huawei it has developed security techniques. multiple patterning to be able to manufacture 7nm chips with the UVP machines in its possession. Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA are three of the US companies that the Commerce Department has notified that they can no longer provide Hua Hong Semiconductor with their most advanced wafer processing equipment. China is a very important market for these companies, so presumably they are going to lose several billions of dollars in sales. Lin Jian, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has declared that his country expects the United States to stabilize global industrial and supply chains and keep trade functioning normally. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | TSMC is already the highest-earning chipmaker on the planet. It has beaten two semiconductor giants

This is the silent crisis of the chip of the future

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While the world has its eyes on the race for traditional silicon and artificial intelligence, a silent crisis is brewing in the global technological bowels. The United States and Europe are investing billions to recover the sovereignty of microchips, but they have ignored a material that could put the future of robotics, defense and energy in check: gallium. Western blindness to an absolute monopoly. Gallium is not as high-profile as lithium, it is not even technically a “rare earth”—as the specialized publication China Talk—but it is of irreplaceable critical importance. While the US administration strives to shield its supply chains, Beijing has been moving its chips around the board with impeccable stealth. The data is overwhelming. China currently controls 99% of the global primary production of galliumwhile the United States stopped producing it almost four decades ago. The great particularity of this material, according to Geopolitical Monitoris that it is not extracted directly from a mine, but is a byproduct of the processing of aluminum and zinc. This makes it deeply vulnerable: its production cannot magically increase no matter how much demand rises. This dependency is not a mere theory. China has already started using this domain as a geopolitical weaponimposing export restrictions in 2023 and escalating to a complete ban on shipments to the United States at the end of 2024. From mastering the mineral to conquering the factory. The Asian giant’s strategy was not the result of chance. As pointed out China Talksince the early 2000s, China forced its aluminum producers to extract gallium, achieving self-sufficiency and global control of the raw mineral (what is known in the industry as a market upstream). But the real drama for the West is happening right now in the final products (downstream). China has given birth to the “TSMC of GaN”: Innoscience. This Suzhou-based company has burst the global market for Gallium Nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, sinking its American rivals – such as Navitas or EPC – by offering prices up to 50% lower. Such a collapse in prices is not magic. The secret lies in a lethal combination of state financial muscle and technical audacity. As revealed China Talkin its early years Innoscience It operated with negative gross margins of 266%, supported by more than $350 million in government funds. They were willing to lose money to gain the world. Added to this is its industrial business model. While Western companies are fabless (they design the chip but pay third-party factories, such as the Taiwanese TSMC, to assemble it), Innoscience manufactures its own chips. They were the first to mass produce 200mm wafers, allowing them to get 80% more components out at a fraction of the cost. Against this backdrop, the pattern that is drawn is chilling and mirrors that of the solar panel industry: European giants such as STMicroelectronics They have ended up surrendering to the superiority of Innoscience, injecting $50 million into the Chinese firm in exchange for access to its factories. Goodbye to traditional silicon. To understand the seriousness of the issue, you have to understand why silicon is no longer enough. As they point out from AZOM, Silicon is reaching its physical limits. Gallium Nitride (GaN), on the other hand, is a “broadband” semiconductor (wide bandgap). Compared to 1.1 eV for silicon, GaN has a bandgap of 3.4 eV, allowing it to operate at much higher voltages and temperatures without melting. Translated into simpler words: GaN provides greater energy efficiencythe devices do not heat up and allow the size of the components to be drastically reduced. That’s why our mobile phone chargers are now smaller but charge the battery in minutes. Beyond a phone. Gallium Nitride is the master pillar of critical technologies: AI data centers: These chips reduce energy losses by up to 30%, something vital in the face of the devouring electrical appetite of Artificial Intelligence. Electric vehicles: They are key for on-board chargers and converters, radically improving their autonomy. Defense and Military: Advanced radars, missile systems, electronic warfare and the 5G antennas that connect us all depend on GaN. A future dictated from Suzhou. The market is about to explode. From Geopolitical Monitor projects that the sector GaN semiconductor devices It will go from generating 3.06 billion dollars in 2024 to almost 12.5 billion dollars in 2030. And the lion’s slice seems to have a Chinese name. It is a fatal mistake to think that Innoscience He wins only because he is cheap thanks to the million-dollar subsidies from his government. As clarified China Talkthe company innovates at the highest level, designing chips across the entire voltage spectrum (from 15V to 1200V). Its quality is such that it has become the only Chinese partner of American giants like NVIDIA and Google to design the 800-volt power architectures that will power the “AI factories” of the future. The forecast is dark, but there is an ace up the sleeve. If the West does not react, Innoscience will go from having a dominant position to an absolute monopoly. If a new trade war breaks out, car, robot and data center manufacturers in the US and Europe will have to ask permission from a single Chinese company to be able to turn on their machines. Despite the pessimism, the battle is not entirely lost. Western companies and governments are testing various containment strategies: The judicial trench: Companies like EPC and Infineon They have sued Innoscience in the US for patent infringement, achieving some import restrictions. However, this is just a patch; The bans usually apply to loose chips, but not to final products assembled in China, and the Asians can redesign their models to bypass the ban. The technological leap (300 mm): The great hope is in changing the rules of the game. Texas Instruments (USA) and Infineon (Germany) are leading the move to larger, 300mm GaN wafers. They have the advantage that the highly specialized machinery to manufacture them is in German and American hands, heavily protected by export controls. Furthermore, at the basic … Read more

The chip industry has its own Lego black market. ASML created it by accident

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Rick Lenssen works as a data analyst at the Dutch company ASML and builds Lego models on the weekends. It could have remained there, a mere hobby shared with his children if the company that employs him did not design and manufacture the lithography machines necessary to produce microchips, one of the key elements of current technology and one of the key suppliers of TSMC, Samsung or Intel. Now, his Lego designs imitating the original machines reach four-digit figures on eBay. 380 million in 851 pieces. It appeared in the ASML online store at the end of November 2024: a Lego model called TWINSCAN EXE:5000, measured 35 centimeters long and cost $227.95. It reproduced the high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet (High-NA EUV) lithography machine that the company delivered to Intel in late 2023 and that allows chips to be printed from its 2 nanometer node. The actual equipment weighs 165 tons, has more than 100,000 parts and had to be transported in three Boeing 747s. The Lego set reproduced it in the style of the popular toy brand, it included a purple ray that represented ultraviolet light and a minifigure with the full clean room suit that technicians wear. The product sheet, perhaps anticipating what was to come, already warned that multiple orders from the same customer would be cancelled. Brick Lenssen. This is the nickname given to Rick Lenssen, a 39-year-old company employee who became interested in Legos. by chanceafter taking his children to a toy fair in the Netherlands. His first personal project was an exact replica of the ASML campus in Veldhoven: two years of work, 2,500 euros out of his pocket and 25,000 pieces, with details as obsessive as the peregrine falcon that nests on a roof of the complex, accompanied by a pigeon that, according to him, acts as food. He designed everything first on the computer and assembled it in the attic of his house. Where do I put this. Lenssen then encountered a drama that will be familiar to any Lego fan: what to do once you finish building the set. He offered it to the campus itself, but they didn’t want it. Lenssen wrote to ASML’s CEO on a Friday night, and within hours he wrote back saying he loved the set. To get the model out of the attic, it had to be dismantled piece by piece (like the real ASML machines), and company workers loaded it into a van. Today it is the first thing visitors see when they arrive at the company’s reception. It’s official. The jump to merchandising officer arrived later, with a model of the skyline of the campus in charge of promoting an internal app, and then the two models of machines. He was not the first: Jeroen Ottens, an ASML engineer who had worked at Lego, I had modeled a previous version. The cheapest model in the current range, the TWINSCAN NXE:3400C, at $166.70, was not born as a commercial product either: it started as internal training tool before becoming a special edition open to the public. It took Lenssen a few weeks to design the current two sets, one with a 61-page instruction manual. Your only compensation is a copy of each model. Employees only. The sales policy is one unit per person and verified ASML email is mandatory. For weeks, some fans managed to place orders bypassing that restriction due to a security hole in networks, and measures had to be taken: in December 2024 ASML began canceling orders from buyers without an actual corporate email. The EXE:5000 file even disappeared and can only be consulted today through the Wayback Machine. The same corporate email restriction covers the rest of the merchandising of the company, yes, much less coveted: sweaters, mugs, pins and Christmas decorations. eBay fever. Of course, speculation was not long in coming, as It usually happens with Lego sets that disappear from the market. Individual sets of those designed by Lenssen have been seen for $600, while the complete collection reaches $4,500. Before closing that section of the store, ASML sold 1,355 units of the latest model (there are 44,000 company employees, possibly not all of them interested in building with toy blocks). Although the comparison is absurd, only six of the real machine have been sold. In Xataka | The great fear of the US is that ASML’s UVP machines will continue to arrive in China. So he is going to intensify his trade war

35% of its chip manufacturing machines are already of Chinese origin

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Foreign lithography and wafer processing equipment manufacturers are selling less and less in China. In 2024, the country led by Xi Jinping represented 41% of ASML revenuebut in 2025 this figure dropped to 33%. And presumably in 2026 will contract up to 20%. Something very similar has happened to the American wafer processing machine manufacturer Applied Materials: its sales in China have gone from 37% of its total sales in 2024 to 30% in 2025. In addition, sales in China of the American companies Lam Research and KLA, and the Japanese Tokyo Electron, also have decreased during 2025 compared to those they obtained in 2024. This obvious trend is the consequence of two factors. On the one hand, US sanctions prevent US and allied manufacturers of lithography and wafer processing equipment from delivering their most sophisticated machines to their Chinese clients. The Dutch company ASML is most likely the most affected in this scenario. On the other hand, in response to pressure from the US, the Chinese Government is supporting the adoption of machines of Chinese origin in its integrated circuit factories. In fact, in 2025 the national tools represented 35% of the equipment in use in semiconductor plants, and Xi Jinping’s Government aims to reach 50% in new factories during 2026. Its purpose is clear: China’s chip industry needs to achieve technological independence as soon as possible in its fight with the United States. China has made great progress, but lithography remains its weakest point The resources that the Chinese Government is allocating to its designers and manufacturers of wafer processing equipment are bearing fruit. And they already compete face to face with foreign companies in the field of deposition, thermal processing, etching and cleaning of wafers. However, there are still no extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography machines of Chinese origin in Chinese IC factories. Presumably they will arrive before this decade endsbut this is for the moment China’s real Achilles heel. One of the Chinese companies worth keeping track of is Pulin Technology. This organization has opted, like Naura Technology, AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China) or Piotech Inc., to develop your own cutting-edge photolithography machines. And the achievements are coming little by little. In mid-2025 Pulin sent one of his clients your first cutting-edge equipment using nanoimprint lithography technology (known as NIL for its English name NanoImprint Lithography). In mid-2025, Pulin sent one of its clients its first cutting-edge equipment NIL technology is not new. The Japanese company Canon has its own commercial NIL solution for yearsand presumably its operating principles are essentially the same as those of the machine designed by Pulin. On paper, NIL photolithography equipment is an alternative to printing machines. extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) designed and manufactured by the Dutch company ASML, although no to the high aperture version of these teams. The latter are currently the most sophisticated and expensive that exist. Very broadly speaking, the production of silicon wafers in the latter requires very precisely transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask to the surface of the silicon wafer using ultraviolet light and extremely refined optical elements. NIL lithography, however, allows the pattern to be transferred to the wafer without the need for intervention in the process. an extremely complex optical system. This strategy is simpler and cheaper, but it also involves the execution of several sequential processes that make it slower than UVE and UVP lithography. Canon assures that its nanoimprint lithography equipment can be used to manufacture integrated circuits comparable to the 5nm chips that TSMC, Samsung or Intel produce with ASML’s UVE machines. And in the future, with the refinements that will arrive, they will be able to manufacture 2nm chips. In addition, a NIL equipment costs ten times less than an ASML EUV machine: 15 million dollars compared to the 150 million dollars that the Dutch company asks its clients for an EUV machine with numerical aperture 0.33. We still don’t know how much each Pulin NIL machine costs, but it is reasonable to predict that at most it will have a cost comparable to that of the Canon machine. Image | Naura Technology More information | Tom’s Hardware In Xataka | Japan wants to end the Netherlands’ leadership in lithography equipment. This is your plan to get it

China prepares a 2nm AI chip to end NVIDIA’s dominance. Your problem is how you are going to manufacture it

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A new chip designer for artificial intelligence (IA) is preparing to take the field in China. And he intends to make a lot of noise. In fact, it is already doing so. It’s called Dishan Technology, and, according to SCMP, is already verifying the prototype of a 2nm AI GPU that uses a hybrid integration technology that combines FinFET and GAA transistors (Gate-All-Around). However, this is not the only thing that has emerged. According to Dishan Technology, this chip will be 40% more energy efficient than its predecessor and will be compatible with CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), from NVIDIA. This latest technology brings together the compiler and development tools used by programmers to develop their software for NVIDIA GPUs, so if Dishan’s chip is really compatible it will be much easier to integrate it into facilities that already have GPUs from this American company. Although, as I mentioned above, Dishan already has a prototype of its chip, it will take another year or two to refine its technology enough to make large-scale manufacturing possible. Be that as it may, what has not been revealed is who is going to manufacture it. SMICthe largest Chinese semiconductor producer, can currently only manufacture 7nm chips using the multiple patterning. And TSMC, Intel and Samsung, which could produce it, will hardly do so in the current geopolitical context due to the demands of the US sanctions on China. We will see how Dishan Technology solves this challenge. China already has three “champions” in its AI chip ecosystem The country led by Xi Jinping you already have three alternatives very clear to NVIDIA. Although not as well-known as Huawei or Moore Threads, Cambricon Technologies is one of the companies specialized in designing GPUs for AI with the greatest growth potential. In fact, in August 2025 it received approval from the Shanghai Stock Exchange (China) to raise $560 million. He is allocating them to the design of four chips for training and inference of AI models, and also to the development of an alternative to CUDA. Moore Threads has developed several GPUs that rival advanced solutions from NVIDIA, AMD or Huawei On the other hand, Moore Threads has developed several GPUs for AI applications that, on paper, rival some of the advanced solutions that NVIDIA, AMD or Huawei have placed on the market. The cards MTT S4000 and MTT S3000 They are its most interesting proposals right now, although, curiously, the MTT S80 card also appears in its portfolio, a proposal for games and content creation that, according to Moore Threads itself, has a computing capacity of 14.4 TFLOPS in single-precision floating point operations. The other indispensable player in the Chinese AI chip industry is Huawei. His most ambitious proposal right now is the chip Ascend 950PRwhich aims to surpass the performance of the GPU NVIDIA H100. However, this Chinese company also launched its chips last year Ascend 910D and 920. This last solution is clearly intended to compete in the Chinese market with NVIDIA’s H20 GPU. Presumably at the end of 2026 it will launch its Ascend 950DT chip, and the Ascend 960 and 970 GPUs will arrive in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | SCMP In Xataka | TSMC acknowledges that it has considered taking its factories out of Taiwan. It’s impossible for a good reason. In Xataka | The looming bottleneck in AI is neither RAM nor gas: it’s that TSMC’s N3 node is absolutely saturated

Samsung is tired of being second in the chip race. Now they are preparing to dethrone the titan of Taiwan

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When we talk about artificial intelligence, there are several proper names that star in the conversation. NVIDIA has become the foundation and cement of AI thanks both to their products as, above all, your money. But it’s impossible to leave Samsung out of the equation. Your HBM4 memories They are the ones that will allow NVIDIA and AMD manufacture their platforms new generation, but South Koreans do not want to stop there. They seek to be the largest advanced factory in the world and have launched a plan to wipe TSMC where it hurts the most. In the expansion throughout the United States. An x8 thanks to AI. 2025 was a transition year for Samsung. While its great rival in the memoir segment –SK Hynix– dominated the HBM chip marketSamsung is preparing to make the leap with HBM4 chips. This is the new generation of high-bandwidth memory designed to power the new AI platforms from both NVIDIA and Samsung. The effort paid off by overtaking SK and becoming the supplier of the two giants, and it is something that is already materializing. At least in estimates profit, of course. Now the company forecast profits of about 38 billion dollars for the first quarter of the year, something that destroys the profits of the same period last year, being eight times more. Texas. The company does not stop manufacturing the new HBM4 memory, but even so it cannot satisfy the enormous demand of its customers and there are already those who expect that the prices of these chips will increase by more than 50%. To meet demand, Samsung is moving, and The United States is key in its ambitious expansion. The South Korean company seeks to invest 37,000 million dollars in US soil, and 17,000 million of them they will stop to the Taylor, Texas plant. According to Korea Heraldthe company is finalizing hiring for this semiconductor plant where they hope to produce cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips. It is estimated that 1,500 people will be directly employed and the idea is to produce transistors with gate-all-around architecture. TSMC in the spotlight. Recent reports indicate that Samsung has already begun producing test units of chips in that lithography with the aim of beginning mass production by 2027. But this expansion is not only occurring in the United States. At the Pyeongtaek Campus, Samsung’s operations center, building a new factory for which Samsung has just ordered 20 EUV lithography machines valued at almost $8 billion. As it could not be otherwise, they are from ASML and it is estimated that the plant will have 70 units in total to support the production of HBM4 memory chips. And these two movements have one goal in mind: to dethrone the queen of semiconductors. Currently, TSMC takes the lead with NVIDIA and Apple as its best clientsbut Samsung is another industry giant that may not take the global throne, but is aiming for something more concrete: to be the one who leads the way in the United States. Both Samsung and TSMC are in full expansion throughout the United States, but if Samsung manages to start mass manufacturing of 2nm chips by 2027, it would overtake TSMC -focused on 2/3nm chips– in that development of advanced chips in the United States. It is still a vital race, since Tesla, Apple, NVIDIA or AMD are trying to get chips manufactured in the US and thus meet the demands of Donald Trump’s government. Trojan horse. In the end, it’s a move that Samsung can only win from. On the one hand, expand its HBM4 chip capacity to power AI platforms that do not seem to stop increasing in the short term. On the other hand, continuing to settle on American soil where it maintains a battle with the Taiwanese giant. But, also, Samsung is one of the founding members of the EPIC program of Applied Materials together with SK Hynix. They are positioning themselves to be the big player in semiconductors both as a factory and when it comes to designing machines and processes that allow for shorter development times for cutting-edge chips. and all this foreign companies are doing it on US soil when what the current government wanted was for were American companies those who will take the lead. In fact, Samsung’s plans are so ambitious that they are already looking for master 1nm chip production by 2030. In Xataka | ASML has discovered a way to further improve its SVU machines. This is terrible news for China and the US.

prepares total blockade of chip manufacturing machines arriving in China

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The US has been exercising its control over advanced integrated circuit manufacturing equipment for five years now to prevent it from reaching China. It is the strategy with the one that has managed to slow downbut in no way slow down, the technological development of the country led by Xi Jinping. In 2021, it approved the first restrictions that prevented machines from extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) of ASML and other advanced equipment arrive in China. From that moment on, the US Government has continued to deploy new sanctions with the purpose of increasingly limiting the access of Chinese semiconductor manufacturers to lithography and wafer processing equipment that comes not only from the US, but also from the Netherlands, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. The US is exercising ownership of some of the patents that these machines use, and also their ability to influence the decisions made by their allies. However, the Administration led by Donald Trump still has room to tighten its siege on China. And presumably it will do so in the short term because several senators belonging to both parties (Democrats and Republicans) have proposed new legislation which seeks to impose an essentially total ban on exports of advanced chip manufacturing and wafer processing equipment to certain corporations in adversary nations. It is clear that China is in their sights. Objective: Prevent ASML’s UVP photolithography machines from reaching China State-of-the-art lithography equipment is extraordinarily complex and sophisticated. Currently, the most used by integrated circuit manufacturers to produce cutting-edge chips are deep ultraviolet (UVP) and extreme ultraviolet (UVE) machines. A priori, UVP machines are suitable for manufacturing semiconductors up to 10 nm. And with EUVs it is possible to go up to 2 nm. However, by refining the processes involved in transferring the pattern to the wafer and turning to multiple patterning It is possible to go beyond these integration technologies. The US is especially targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT This technique broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It may have an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity, but it works. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturerhas resorted to multiple patterning for manufacture 7nm integrated circuits using ASML’s Twinscan NXT:2000i UVP lithography equipment. US export controls currently prevent the sale of UVP equipment to specific factories in China that may or may not appear on the US blacklist, but do not prohibit its sale to the companies that own these plants. This is precisely what the MATCH Law seeks to change (Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware) that US senators have proposed. In practice this proposal will, if successful (and it probably will), prevent ASML’s UVP machines and other advanced wafer processing equipment from reaching any facilities of major Chinese chipmakers. The US is targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT, and also their subsidiaries. He picks it up clearly. the published document by Senator Michael Baumgartner. In reality this proposal does not introduce new restrictions; what it does is change how shipping is allowed of advanced tools to prevent Chinese companies from continuing to develop sophisticated techniques, such as multiple patterningwith the purpose of producing cutting-edge chips. Be that as it may, in the medium term, China will need to have your own advanced lithography machines to be able to sustain its technological development. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Congressman Michael Baumgartner In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

What is SMIC, China’s big chip manufacturer, doing right now? According to the US, sell them to Iran for the war

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The war in Iran continues. On the one hand it is said that it is almost finished, but on the other we have the shipment of thousands of American paratroopersmore calls for support and one sided offensives and from another. But in almost any conflict, not only those in the countries involved come into play, but also the allies. And the United States has leveled a pretty serious accusation against China: SMIC is selling chips to Iran. Well, “almost certainly.” SMIC in the spotlight. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp the great Chinese semiconductor foundry. Included in the blacklist of the United States government along with Huaweihas managed to develop advanced chips in record time. They have not only challenged everything the US thought they could dobut that association with Huawei and the country’s push for the technology industry have made it one of the spearheads of China’s technological sovereignty. That SMIC has been able to manufacture advanced chips when it was denied access to cutting-edge technology is something that upsets the US government, which reiterated the sanction and keeping the company on the blacklist for alleged ties to the Chinese government. And the latest accusations are not going to relax the tension. ANDUSA says yes. SMIC makes chips and obviously sells chips. And the United States claims that they are supplying technology to Iran. a few days ago, Reuters published an article in which it included two statements by “two senior officials in the Trump Administration” that suggested that Beijing, perhaps, is not staying as far away from the Iran war as they would have us believe. In the article they state that SMIC has been sending chip manufacturing tools to the Iranian army. This raised questions about Beijing’s stance in the conflict, with officials noting – on condition of anonymity – that the company began shipping the tools about a year ago and that they have “no reason to believe shipments have stopped.” A year ago, the United States was not at war with Iran, and China has long maintained a normal trade situation with Iran. US officials note that, in addition, “they have almost certainly also technically trained Iran on semiconductor technology.” And let’s remember that these chips are in everything: from routers to missiles. China says no. The Reuters article does not give any further information or details on whether Iranian tools that included US technology have been confiscated –something that does occur in other conflicts– and neither the Chinese embassy in Washington, SMIC or an Iranian spokesperson at the UN responded to requests for comment. Who has left Lin Jian, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke out and did not hesitate to classify the report as “false information.” He accused certain media outlets of launching self-serving news and then classifying all reports as “false information.” On this issue, China has been caught between two waters, first condemning the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khameini by the Israeli and US forcesbut also expressing his rejection of the Iran attacks on Gulf states that house US bases. Back in focus. Beyond Iran, the United States accusations are part of an operation that began a few years ago. The veto of Huawei marked the beginning of the current trade war between China and the United States, but it also marked China’s ‘awakening’ in technological matters, quest for sovereignty and a technological war that branched into chips, robotics, energy, communications, artificial intelligence and in the military arm. SMIC is the large Chinese manufacturer that defied US vetoes by managing to manufacture the chip of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro before whom The US authorities could not believe and, if they manage to demonstrate that they are involved in supporting Israel when China is not actively participating in the conflict, they will have more reasons to intensify the vetoes and sanctions. And all this is framed in a current situation in which Trump and Xi Jinping will meet in a few days to discuss international relations and where the purchase of American technology by China is expected to be one of the points of the day, with NVIDIA very interested in biting a piece of the $50 billion pie that the Asian giant represents. Images | Ballistic Missile, ASML In Xataka | While the US bombs Iran, something unusual has happened: drones attacking the nuclear bases in North Dakota

Lace Lithography is Europe’s opportunity to surpass the US and Asia in chip manufacturing. From Barcelona

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Lace Lithography is not just another startup. And it is not because it is developing a new photolithography technique that seeks to break down all the barriers that limit the performance of ultraviolet light technology used by the machines manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. And they are used by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix or SMIC, among other semiconductor manufacturers. A priori, the most prudent thing to do when faced with news like this is to adopt a skeptical stance, but Lace’s work deserves to be taken very seriously. Otherwise it would not have the support of Microsoft nor would it have raised $40 million in financing. The founders of this company are the Norwegian physicist Bodil Holst and the Spanish physicist and engineer Adrià Salvador Palau. These two scientists created Lace Lithography in 2023, and although their headquarters reside in Bergen (Norway), an important part of their research and development team operates from Barcelona. Be that as it may, the most important thing is that the strategy that this company has devised to solve the lithography of the next generation of integrated circuits does not resemble nor to ASML technology nor to any other innovation we have heard of so far. The first prototypes are already ready and the test plant will be ready in 2029 The itinerary that Lace Lithography seeks to follow is very ambitious. Its first prototypes, according to Reutersare already prepared, and intends to develop a test tool and a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing pilot plant in 2029. In any case, in addition to their plans, we know some details about their technology that are worth investigating. In the integrated circuit manufacturing equipment that ASML designs and produces, ultraviolet light is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. Lace Lithography uses a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer The light used by high-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment, which is the most advanced machine that ASML has Currently, it belongs to the most energetic portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes from 10 to 100 nanometers (nm). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine. Lace’s technology solves this and other problems that are closely linked to the use of ultraviolet radiation to manufacture chips. And instead of using light, the engineers at this company use a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer. However, the most striking thing is that this beam has the width of a single hydrogen atom (around 0.1 nm), so on paper this solution will make it possible to produce semiconductors ten times smaller than the smallest ones that TSMC, Samsung or Intel are currently manufacturing. “Our technology opens a path that potentially has the ability to expand (chip makers’) agenda, as well as make things possible that otherwise would not have been viable,” Bodil Holst declared. John Petersen, scientific director of lithography at IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), the most experienced laboratory in developing new integration and nanotechnology technologies that we have in Europe, maintains that the main advantage of using the helium atom beam is that it allows creating much smaller transistors than the current ones. “They are almost unimaginable,” Petersen pointed out. It sounds really good. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters | Lace Lithography In Xataka | China needs to develop a new type of chips immune to US sanctions. And your scientists have just achieved it

Japan is advancing like a steamroller in the chip industry. It is already looking towards 1.4 nm and threatens Taiwan’s dominance

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If we stick to the field of technology, Japan has missed two very important trains that it should not have missed: the manufacturing of cutting-edge semiconductors and the development of models of artificial intelligence (AI) pointers. In its “Summary of the Strategy for the Revitalization of Semiconductors in Japan” of 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recognized the decline of its chip industry. Furthermore, Fumio Kishida, former Prime Minister of Japan, has declared openly that his country depends excessively on the US in the critical scenario of AI. Be that as it may, Japan wants to make up for lost time. And Fujitsu is one of its best assets to regain its former glory. In fact, this company has announced, according to Nikkei Asiawhich is going to develop cutting-edge 1.4nm chips for AI that are entirely Japanese. This project will have a development cost of approximately 363 million dollars, although, and this is what is really important, the manufacturing of these integrated circuits Rapidus will take carea company that seeks to compete face to face in the medium term with TSMC and Samsung in the semiconductor production market for third parties. Rapidus advances with firm step Japan is currently investing more money in its integrated circuits sector than the US, Germany, France or the UK. Not in terms of net value, but their effort is greater if we weight the investment of these countries over their gross domestic product (GDP). The US dedicates 0.21% of its GDP to its semiconductor industry, and Germany 0.41%. France, according Nikkei Asia0.2%, and, finally, the United Kingdom 0.04%. The difference is very significant and highlights the effort that Japan is making with 0.71% of its GDP. As expected, Japanese companies have a leading role in the reconstruction plan for the Japanese chip industry. Tokyo Electron, Canon and Nikon are the leading designers and manufacturers of integrated circuit production equipment. AND JSR Corporation leads the production of photoresist materials. Curiously, it is necessary to pour these fluids over the silicon wafers in order to prepare them for the transfer of the geometric pattern that delimits the distribution of the transistors, the connections and the other elements that make up an integrated circuit. Rapidus Corporation has been created expressly to put Japan back at the forefront of chips The surprising thing is that, in reality, none of the companies I just mentioned are Japan’s best asset to catapult the competitiveness of its semiconductor industry. Not even JSR, which, as we have just seen, leads the manufacture of photoresist materials. The company that is destined to compete face to face with TSMC, Intel or Samsung in the chip production market is Rapidus Corporation. In fact, it has been created expressly to once again place Japan at the forefront of integrated circuits. Rapidus is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese Government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting part, Sony, Toyota, NEC, SoftBank, Kioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and MUFG Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very large, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it have unquestionable relevance in the technology, automotive and telecommunications sectors. The state-of-the-art semiconductor production plant that this company has set up in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), began wafer processing tests in a pilot line in April 2025. The plan of the management of this factory is to begin large-scale production of 2nm semiconductors in 2027. What is causing this Rapidus plant to attract the attention of the semiconductor sector is that, according to Atsuyoshi Koikewho is the president of the company, will be completely automated. Its purpose is to use robots and AI to set up an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2nm chips for AI applications. Their plan is, ultimately, to produce integrated circuits faster, at a lower cost and with higher quality. And after 2 nm, as we have seen, 1.4 nm integrated circuits will arrive. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Nikkei Asia In Xataka | Japan takes the lead with nuclear fusion and sets an extremely ambitious date: the 2030s In Xataka | Japan has taken out the checkbook to once again dominate the chip industry. Prepare a plan of 325,000 million dollars

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