Semiconductors
Semiconductors are crucial to many of China’s strategic goals: digitalizing the economy, boosting high-tech exports such as electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels, and developing modern weapons. With its state-led “Big Fund,” China has invested more than CNY 686 billion (EUR 87.5 billion) into the industry since 2014, in addition to local government support and private investment.
Indigenizing the semiconductor industry has gained urgency, as US sanctions and export controls have cut off access to advanced semiconductors critical for development in AI, military and other fields.
Since the US sanctioned the telecoms giant Huawei in 2019, Huawei has quietly become the central force in the state’s effort to develop homegrown chips, alongside other companies. China is a major producer of semiconductors using older manufacturing technology and is a leader in backend processes – chip assembling, testing, and packaging. But it lags in making advanced semiconductors and lacks the tools to manufacture them. US export controls have cut off access to critical foreign-made equipment.
Nevertheless, leading manufacturer SMIC has produced an advanced 7nm smartphone chip and a line of AI chips, both for Huawei. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s leading semiconductor contract manufacturer, first pioneered a 7nm process in 2018 (has since produced several rounds of further innovations), suggesting SMIC lags by roughly five years. However, China’s lack of access to Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) machines, essential for making advanced semiconductors and exclusively produced by the Netherlands’ ASML, may hamper further progress.
Graphics dashboard
The anatomy of a modern AI chip
Modern AI chips contain GPUs, powerful processing units capable of parallel processing computing tasks, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) units storing computation results. The chips are then connected with specially designed communications links in massive clusters. The engineering architecture of a data center, as well as the chips themselves, can affect its overall computational performance.
China could dominate legacy chip manufacturing in 2030
Currently China has the largest production capacity for legacy chips, which are older, established semiconductor designs. Chinese companies have already committed to a doubling in capacity by 2030 (compared to 2023 levels). European semiconductor companies will see increasing competition from China, where profits often take a backseat.
Big Fund investment directs most resources to IC manufacturing
The first two rounds of China’s Big Fund semiconductor investment fund were focused on costly IC manufacturing. The latest and largest round of 344 billion CNY (44 billion EUR), announced in May 2024, is expected to focus on AI chips and high-end equipment, where China urgently needs self-sufficiency in the face of US export controls.
Semiconductors in China: Timeline of crucial events
Development
Policy/regulation
The US adds Huawei and its subsidiaries to the Entity List, restricting exports to them. This impacts Huawei's supply chain, with 33 of its 92 core suppliers based in the US.
Jan 2019
US applies Foreign Direct Product Rule to Huawei, blocking its technology access globally. Companies are barred from using US technology (mainly semiconductors) to supply Huawei.
May 2020
Top Chinese scientist suggests China use open-source RISC-V chip design architecture to overcome Western sanctions, and create an ecosystem around “RISC-X” in Belt and Road countries.
Nov 2020
US expands export controls on advanced semiconductors and manufacturing equipment, restricting tech specs of chips and including arms-embargoed countries.
Sep 2023
Huawei and SMIC release Kirin 9000S, a 7nm 5G chip for Huawei's latest high-end smart phone – even after US export controls blocked equipment considered necessary to make such chips.
Sep 2024
Ant Group says it has used domestic semiconductors, including from Alibaba and Huawei, to develop ways to train AI models that would cut costs by 20% compared to Nvidia’s.
Mar 2025
SMIC intends to acquire the outstanding shares of Semiconductor Manufacturing North China (Beijing) Corporation (SMNC), currently 51% owned by SMIC.
Sep 2025
SMIC tests a domestically produced immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) photolithography machine that uses multiple patterning to produce 7nm chips without extreme ultraviolet (EUV) tools.
Sep 2025
A Dutch court rules there are "well-founded reasons to doubt" that the Chinese semiconductor company Wingtech is being managed correctly and, suspends Zhang Xuezheng as its CEO.
Oct 2025
Chinese AI startup Zhonghao Xinying launches Chana, a tensor processing unit (TPU), as a domestic alternative to Google’s TPU chips.
Dec 2025
Second tranche of Big Fund raises CNY 2 trillion (EUR 25.6 billion) to support Chinese semiconductor industry – beyond just fabs – to create an ecosystem for making semiconductors in China.
Oct 2019
COVID-19 severely disrupts supply chains for automotive chips. Car companies must cut output due to the shortage. Chinese chip companies evolve to meet the demand of its auto industry.
Jun 2020
US institutes country-wide semiconductor export controls, a major policy shift that restricts all of China’s access to "chokepoint" technologies, not just certain entities.
Oct 2022
Third phase of China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund III) raises CNY 3.4 trillion (EUR 44.3 billion) from state-owned investors for semiconductor industry, the largest to date.
May 2024
China’s chip exports exceed CNY 1trn for the first time in 2024, reflecting growing production prowess. But imports are still twice as high as exports and are rising again after a dip in 2023.
Jan 2025
A subsidiary of Ant Group acquires a stake in memory chip developer InnoStar Semiconductor, as part of China’s efforts to support domestic suppliers. InnoStar raises its capital to CNY 50 m.
Sep 2025
The Dutch government seizes control of Dutch semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, a subsidiary of China’s Wingtech, following concerns that it was transferring operations and IP to China.
Sep 2025
Shenzhen launches a CNY 5-bn fund to support semiconductor startups and strengthen local chip supply chains. The fund is part of Shenzhen's "20+8" industrial policy and has a 10-year duration.
Oct 2025
As China announces a one-year suspension of export controls on critical minerals, the US cuts tariffs on Chinese imports by 10% and delay certain restrictions on Chinese subsidiaries.
Nov 2025
The US approves exports of Nvidia’s H200 chip series to China under strict conditions. The chips could relieve China’s short-term compute shortages and accelerate domestic chip innovation.
Jan 2026
Recent developments
- Huawei announced a new „breakthrough” in vertically stacking semiconductors to increase transistor density without the most advanced machinery. The so-called Tau Scaling law is supposed to allow Huawei to produce 1.4nm-class chips by 2031, although experts point to many problems that need to be conquered and the low yield of Huawei’s current AI chips as hurdles. For reference, TSMC is planning to mass-produce 1.4nm-class chips in 2028 (Source (CN): Huawei, May 25, 2026)
- China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Group, is preparing to produce 7nm chips to strengthen the self-sufficiency of China’s AI stack. The company hopes to join China’s number one chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), currently the only domestic company able to produce AI accelerator chips. (Source (EN): Reuters, March 16, 2026)
- The US has ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipment of tools to Hua Hong, China's second-largest chipmaker, after the company announced it had produced 7nm AI chips. (Source (EN): Reuters, April 28, 2026)
- China's largest LED chipmaker, Sanan Optoelectronics, has abandoned its USD 239-million bid to acquire Dutch lighting firm Lumileds after the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) ruled that the deal posed a major national security risk. This is the second time the US has blocked an acquisition of the company by a Chinese player. (Source (EN): SCMP, April 17, 2026)
- Nexperia China announced domestic small-batch production of 12-inch wafers for bipolar discretes, key semiconductors for autonomous driving based on a self-developed platform, after supply disruptions in October last year due to the Dutch court case on Nexperia. (Source (CN): EET, March 16, 2026)
- Wingtech Technology, Chinese owner of chipmaker Nexperia, is at risk of being delisted from the Shanghai Stock Exchange after failing an audit because it could no longer access Nexperia's overseas business and financial data. The company's shares and bonds were already suspended for one day on April 30 following a sell-off and are set to be terminated if the dispute isn't solved this year. (Source (EN/CN): SCMP, EET, April 30, 2026)
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