The mainland is the world's largest chip market, and the amount of chips imported every year is astronomical. Taking 2022 as an example, the amount of chips imported by the mainland from overseas is as high as 415.6 billion US dollars. Also in 2022, the amount of oil imported by the mainland from overseas will be 365.5 billion US dollars, which is more than 50 billion US dollars less than the amount of chip imports.
In the face of such a scale of chip imports, the mainland should have enough weight to speak in the field of chips. However, the development of the mainland chip industry is late, the technology accumulation is weak, and the equipment is heavily dependent on overseas, and the concept that it is better to buy than to make is deep-rooted, which leads to the mainland chip industry being subject to the United States.
Fortunately, Huawei, SMIC, Loongson Zhongke and other "competitive" chip companies have emerged in the mainland, and have achieved a number of breakthroughs in the field of chips.
For example, Huawei's self-developed Kirin 9000 chip has reached the world-class level and has become a high-end chip comparable to Qualcomm Snapdragon 888;
For example, SMIC has mass-produced 28nm process chips, can mass-produce 14nm chips on a large scale, and achieved technological breakthroughs in 7nm chip processes;
For example, Loongson Zhongke has developed the Loongson 3A6000 chip, the performance of this chip has reached the level of Intel chips, filling the gap in the mainland's high-end PC chips.
In the face of the breakthrough in mainland chip technology, the United States has waved the "sanction stick" to suppress the mainland chip industry and restrict the development of the mainland chip industry. In the words of Lao Mei: all chip companies that use US technology and equipment must be controlled by the United States, and without obtaining a license from the United States, these chip companies cannot supply to Chinese enterprises.
Under the pressure of the United States, chip manufacturers including Nvidia, Samsung, ASML, Nikon, Intel and other chip manufacturers began to restrict the supply of products to Chinese enterprises, which made mainland chip companies suffer heavy losses and their business conditions were worrying.
Recently, that situation has been reversed. In this regard, foreign media said: Nvidia, Samsung and other chip giants began to "reverse the water".
Starting in 2023, the global demand for chips will be weak, and the revenue and profits of major chip companies will both decline. On the other hand, the demand for chips in the mainland is strong, and the related industrial chain is developing rapidly, which also makes chip giants such as Nvidia, Samsung, and ASML pay special attention to the mainland market.
First of all, ASML, the world's largest and most advanced lithography machine manufacturer, supplied a large number of lithography machines to the mainland in the third quarter of 2023, and these lithography machine revenues accounted for more than 40% of ASML's total revenue in the third quarter.
40% of the revenue is not a small amount, you must know that before September 2023, ASML is still subject to the US chip rules and cannot sell mid-to-high-end lithography machines to Chinese companies. It can be seen that ASML is not of the same mind as Lao Mei, and still does not want to lose the big customer of Chinese enterprises.
The second is NVIDIA, the world's most advanced AI chip manufacturer, due to the rise of artificial intelligence in the past two years, major artificial intelligence manufacturers around the world have purchased a large number of NVIDIA's AI chips. Under this trend, Nvidia's market value has increased significantly, becoming the world's first chip company with a market value of more than $1 trillion.
As the world's fastest-growing market for artificial intelligence, Nvidia also attaches great importance to it. To this end, Nvidia sells a large number of A100 and H100 chips to mainland artificial intelligence companies.
However, Lao Mei believes that this chip is too advanced and violates the chip rules, so it restricts Nvidia from selling A100 and H800 chips to mainland artificial intelligence companies. To this end, NVIDIA has launched a special version of the A800 and H800 chips for the mainland market.
I thought the matter was over, but I didn't want U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo to investigate Nvidia and review whether the A800 and H800 chips comply with the chip rules. It's just that Huang Jenxun, the head of Nvidia, said that he would cooperate with the investigation, but he would still sell AI chips that meet the rules to Chinese companies.
Under the repeated restrictions of the United States, Nvidia still does not give up selling AI chips to Chinese companies, which shows that Nvidia does not want to follow the arrangement of the United States and stop supplying AI chips to Chinese companies.
Finally, Samsung is the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, and its chip foundry strength is second only to TSMC. In the field of memory chips, Samsung memory chips occupy a large share of the world and are the world's leading memory chip manufacturers.
It's just that Samsung has been affected by the US chip rules in recent years, and the export of chips to the mainland has been restricted, which has led to the decline of Samsung's chip profits for three consecutive quarters, and the profit decline is as high as more than 90%.
In this context, Samsung applied for a term waiver from the United States and obtained an indefinite waiver period, which made Samsung's chip exports to China better.
It is reported that in November 2023, South Korea's chip exports to the mainland increased by more than 12% year-on-year, and Samsung also recently announced that it would invest more than 20 billion yuan in Xi'an, the mainland, to expand the factory, which shows that Samsung is still optimistic about the development of the mainland chip industry.
Write at the end
Under the suppression of the old American chip rules, the development of the mainland chip industry has been hindered. However, in order to make revenue, ASML still sells a large number of lithography machines to the mainland in disregard of the US chip rules; Nvidia disregards the US chip rules and sells special versions of A800 and H800 chips to the mainland; and Samsung ignores the US chip rules and increases investment in the mainland and expands chip factories. Because of this, foreign media said: Nvidia, Samsung and other chip giants began to "reverse".
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