Chinese semiconductor industry

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BoraTas

BoraTas

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tokenanalyst said:
The biggest irony in all of this is that the gasoline that is currently driving the Chinese semiconductor industry forward is fear of US sanctions. As I said before in my previous posts, the Americans did what the Chinese government couldn't do in decades, strike enough fear into the Chinese semiconductor and electronics industry for companies to reconsider localizing their supply chain, something that was unthinkable before the sanctions on Huawei and ZTE no matter how much money the Chinese invested in the industry.
Before the current events, the Chinese semiconductor industry was an even larger disjointed monstrosity, with each of its sectors not trusting the others.
Electronics manufacturers did not even consider buying from local design houses, even for their low-end products and even if their products had similar performance to foreign ones.
Semiconductor design houses have not even remotely entertained the idea of using local EDA and IP or partnering with local EDA-IP companies, even with alternatives. Empyrean EDA's largest licensors were foreign companies. They also avoided manufacturing even their low-end ICs with local companies.
Chinese semiconductor foundries avoided buying or collaborating with local equipment manufacturers, software vendors, and materials suppliers, preferring to establish long-term relationships with foreign (especially American) suppliers even if the threat of export controls was ever present.
Chinese equipment manufacturer preferred to buy parts from foreign suppliers even if the same parts were available locally.
All of this created a disjointed industry that was "growing" because of government money but going nowhere, factories sitting idle with hardly any customers, design houses not growing, equipment manufacturers (such as NAURA and SMEE) trying to survive in niche markets such as solar energy and packaging, it was said that working for an SME was a dead end job with little growth, now they are receiving raises.
Don't get me wrong, US sanctions of course hurt Chinese companies, especially companies that developed an addiction to US products, BUT like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and gave rise to mammals, this is an once in a lifetime opportunity for Chinese companies to gain confidence in their products, to improve their products, to win customers and gain experience. If all goes well, China could finally have a jointed semiconductor industry moving forward. Something that will never happen under normal conditions, no matter how much money the Chinese government invests in the industry.​
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This effect isn't limited to the Chinese semiconductor industry or even to China. American industrial tools come with a massive risk factor nowadays. American sanctions are arbitrary. Just having a domestic/non-American alternative isn't enough either. Industrial machinery is very expensive and hard to replace on short notice. So if you get cut off you lose a lot of money regardless of whether you have alternatives or not. In this environment, you simply don't buy the American machine in the first place.
American campaign against China's semiconductors is not a unique campaign. The US has a very long history of economic sabotage. They thought they found a weak point and they are exploiting it. If China was weak at something else they would weaponize that.
 
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huemens

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Semiconductor Equipment Exports from South Korea to China Drop in H1

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The Korea Customs Service announced on Aug. 9 that South Korea’s semiconductor equipment exports to China totaled US$694.8 million in the first half of this year, down 51.89 percent from a year ago.

China is the most important market for South Korean semiconductor equipment exporters, which has accounted for 60 percent of their exports. The equipment goes to the memory chip plants of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in China. In addition, it is said that Chinese companies such as YMTC, CXMT and SMIC are considering purchasing their equipment against restrictions from the United States.

The drop in exports is because semiconductor investment in China decreased due to the ongoing U.S.-China rivalry. “The exports may be affected a lot after South Korea joins the U.S.-led Chip 4 semiconductor alliance,” an industry source said, adding that the Chinese government may block the export to the memory chip plants and reduce the use of equipment from South Korea by accelerating domestic development and production.
 
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huemens

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Black Sesame Technologies Breaks $500M in Round-C Funding​

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On August 8, Black Sesame Technologies, an autonomous driving computer chip company, announced its completion of round-C+ financing led by SummitView Capital and followed by Industrial Bank Group, GF Xinde Investment Management, Hina Group Fund, Northbeta Yinuo Capital, Xingding Capital, Ei Camino Capital and Yangzijiang Fund.

Black Sesame Technologies has now completed C and C+ rounds of financing, raising a total of over $500 million. After the funding round, the company will further enhance its core technology, chip product development and commercialization capabilities, and speed up the mass production application of its self-driving chips.

Black Sesame Technologies focuses on high computing power autonomous driving computing chips and platform technology. It has advantages such as composite team in automotive and chip industry, an open ecology and business model, and self-developed core technology.

Black Sesame Technologies’ solutions include: self-developed auto-grade Image Signal Processing (ISP) and auto-grade deep neural processing unit (NPU), Huashan series automated driving calculation chip, Shanhai AI development platform, Hanhai automated driving middleware, algorithm and Data Best data closed-loop solution.

It has full-stack sensing algorithm mass production capabilities, and can provide customer algorithm customization service. The company supports third party algorithm transplantation, multiple algorithm delivery methods and other business models. Its Huashan II A1000 series chip is the first mass-produced domestic chip platform that complies with vehicle regulations. Compared with other chips, Huashan II has the largest arithmetic power, the strongest performance, and single-chip support for the integrated domain controller of travel and parking.

Dr. Wu Ping, the founding partner of SummitView Capital, said: “SummitView Capital has been focusing on professional investment in key and core technology and semiconductors. We believe that professionalism makes an industry. Nowadays, chip arithmetic power has become an important part of the competition in the automotive industry. We are very pleased to see that Black Sesame’s self-researched Huashan II A1000 series large arithmetic chip is already in mass production and used in cars. This is of great significance to consolidate the local industry chain and supply chain of autonomous driving.”
 
FairAndUnbiased

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
huemens said:
Semiconductor Equipment Exports from South Korea to China Drop in H1

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The Korea Customs Service announced on Aug. 9 that South Korea’s semiconductor equipment exports to China totaled US$694.8 million in the first half of this year, down 51.89 percent from a year ago.

China is the most important market for South Korean semiconductor equipment exporters, which has accounted for 60 percent of their exports. The equipment goes to the memory chip plants of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in China. In addition, it is said that Chinese companies such as YMTC, CXMT and SMIC are considering purchasing their equipment against restrictions from the United States.

The drop in exports is because semiconductor investment in China decreased due to the ongoing U.S.-China rivalry. “The exports may be affected a lot after South Korea joins the U.S.-led Chip 4 semiconductor alliance,” an industry source said, adding that the Chinese government may block the export to the memory chip plants and reduce the use of equipment from South Korea by accelerating domestic development and production.
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I don't see any equipment from South Korea that isn't replaceable by something from China. Neither China nor South Korea have advanced photolithography tools, both have dry etch, vapor deposition, wafer cleaning and CMP tools.

But China at least has SMEE for higher process node lithography, packaging lithography, etc. and some smaller maskless companies. I can't find a single domestic South Korean lithography system in anything.

So these are, as the article states, for Samsung and SK Hynix in China. Fair enough, Korean enterprises use Korean equipment.
 
L

latenlazy

Brigadier
Appix said:
Nah, I'm very pro-China but not afraid to share anti-China propaganda or news. I have no idea how correct that article is. I share it in both topics to reach a more wider audience.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1557076360765603840
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Dude is just a grad student with no technical background trying to show beltway audiences he can aggregate information a tad better than they could.
 
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