As soon as the US-Japan-Netherlands semiconductor agreement was signed, the United States actually "betrayed" China!
As we all know, the United States actually banned the shipment of the most high-end EUV lithography machine to China very early, and the reason is actually justified, because 55% of EUV components come from the United States, and the United States wants to ban it.
But after the tripartite agreement, the United States blatantly broke the "unspoken rules" on international channels! In one breath, the DUV lithography machine, which has not much to do with American technology, is banned, and the rise of China is suppressed, and the Biden team is really fighting!
But Biden has desperately tried to contain China, and now he has also encountered a huge backlash.
Now ASML in the Netherlands has issued a statement that it will continue to supply to China within four months.
Japanese semiconductor equipment giant Nikon also followed suit, announcing that it would significantly increase shipments of lithography machine equipment in the Chinese market.
These measures have attracted the attention and reflection of SMIC and other related enterprises, and also indicate the reconstruction of the semiconductor industry chain and the opportunity for the rise of China's semiconductor industry.
SMIC still needs lithography machines
SMIC, our first chip manufacturer in China, in the absence of enough lithography machines, with the blessing of Liang Mengsong's technical power, still advanced the advanced process to 12nm, and even with some processes can also make 7nm effect chips.
But Liang Mengsong said that we are missing EUV lithography machine after all!
After the tripartite agreement was implemented, SMIC was forced to temporarily terminate the expansion of 28nm mature chips because it was worried about the wear of the lithography machine, the short depreciation period, and the inability to come up with alternatives.
SMIC ordered an EUV lithography machine from ASML early on, and even paid a deposit, which was refused by the Netherlands on the grounds of the Wassenaar Agreement.
Biden also ordered ASML to stop providing relevant after-sales services for China's purchased lithography machines, which means that more than a thousand lithography machines purchased by Chinese manufacturers such as SMIC have become a pile of "scrap iron".
But now the situation has changed, and when Huawei's Kirin chip returns, ASML and Nikon have expressed their positions; Before the official breakthrough of domestic lithography machines, SMIC got a respite.
Dutch ASML's attitude and mastery of export licenses
ASML, the world's number one lithography machine giant, has been making a lot of money in the Chinese market, shipping thousands of lithography machines in decades and earning more than 200 billion in revenue.
Under the pressure of the United States, ASML took the initiative to smash the pot of its own meals, and the Dutch government followed the sanctions of Meixin, and announced a ban on September 1, completely cutting off the supply of high-end DUV lithography machine equipment.
However, ASML's attitude was repeated again, while worrying about its loss of share in the mainland market, repeatedly emphasizing that China could not develop its own lithography machine products; On the other hand, it applied for a shipping license, indicating that it will continue to sell high-end DUV lithography machines to Chinese mainland customers until 2024.
ASML executives made it clear that without the authorization of the Biden team, the Netherlands will take its own initiative this time, taking a completely different position from Japan, and DUV lithography machines can still be delivered to Chinese companies.
Nikon's reaction to Japanese companies and expansion plans in the Chinese market
Following ASML, Japan's Nikon also spoke publicly.
Japan's semiconductor equipment control ban officially took effect two months ago, and 23 high-performance semiconductor equipment in 6 categories, such as micro-image exposure, deposition tempering and cleaning, were completely banned from sale; But it was only two months, and Japanese semiconductor companies exploded.
It is reported that after the implementation of the ban on Japanese lithography machines, Nikon's net profit plummeted by nearly 80% in the second quarter, and only 6 lithography machines were sold, for which Nikon made an important decision.
Nikon believes that the "tripartite agreement" will cost it the Chinese market, and the company cannot sit still, and plans to triple its lithography machine shipments to the Chinese market by 2026.
Japanese companies have joined forces to build nanoimprint lithography machines, which are expected to bypass the restrictions of Meixin rules and match ASML's new generation of DUV lithography machines that can manufacture 7nm chips.
The regret of Chinese chip manufacturing
20 years ago, the Meixin giant monopolized the international market, and the domestic chip made a joke because of the Hanxin incident, so people are not optimistic about the independent and controllable research and development path, or believe that "it is better to build than to buy".
However, the rise of Huawei and Loongson has made the Chinese people see new hope, and the excellence of Kirin chip design is not much better than Qualcomm, and Loongson's 100% domestic chip is even more shocking to the industry. However, there is only one SMIC excellent chip manufacturing company in China, and it is even more amazing "0" in the field of lithography machine equipment.
According to statistics, Micron has provided the United States with 170 lobbying content to ban China in 4 years, in addition to memory chips, the focus is on lithography machines.
There are many high-end chip designers such as Huawei's Qilin, Cambrian, and Loongson in China, but they cannot be manufactured after all.
The mainland's lithography machine industry has fallen into a serious crisis, because of the lack of technology accumulation in related fields, resulting in advanced lithography machines are difficult to break through, chip manufacturing is difficult to break through quickly. The tripartite agreement between the United States, Japan and the Netherlands on chip equipment has surrounded us!
Since 2019, when the United States launched a semiconductor war against China, the country realized the seriousness of this problem and finally began to invest in a large number of ways, striving to achieve leapfrog development of technologies such as lithography machines in the shortest possible time.
Japan banned 23 types of equipment? In the past four years, we have gradually achieved the domestic substitution of 23 types of equipment, thin film deposition equipment, cleaning equipment and other fields in China are officially making breakthroughs.
The Netherlands and Japan have woken up to the fact that China cannot be blocked.