Since last year, the United States has been manipulating Europe, Japan and South Korea to launch a full range of chip sanctions and restrictions on the mainland. Whether it is a finished chip or a chip lithography machine manufacturing equipment, the United States is constantly improving the ban policy, trying to "nipple" the mainland semiconductor manufacturing industry in the bud.
For example, from the beginning of Qualcomm and TSMC to cut off the supply to Huawei, Huawei's 5G chips have become a swan song in history, and its business volume has been shrinking, and even the subsidiary Glory has been sold in order to survive. Later, policy pressure was adopted to cause many chip lithography machine manufacturers such as ASML in the Netherlands and Canon and Nikon in Japan to ban the export of manufacturing equipment to China.
In this context, it has attracted the concern of relevant media in the United States, "If this continues, not only will it not be able to curb the development of China's semiconductor industry, but it will also make China's chip industry develop into a mature and advanced process system, and it will have the right to speak in the global semiconductor industry system." ”
Now, as the American media feared, things have come true.
According to two Japanese semiconductor companies, "although they are currently subject to government chip bans from the United States and Japan, companies are still inseparable from the Chinese market." Not only that, but these two Japanese semiconductor companies are also constantly increasing their layout in the Chinese market.
The reason for this is mainly because China is continuing to expand the construction of chip factories with 28nm process technology. China's approach has given Japanese companies a great opportunity to ship their products. Why is there a good opportunity for Japanese semiconductor companies?
First of all, since the mature process technology is not currently within the scope of the relevant ban, Japan can still reasonably and legally export some semiconductor equipment. On the other hand, the demand for semiconductor equipment in China's huge market continues to increase, which also brings "vitality" to Japan's global semiconductor market, which is now declining.
However, this seemingly mutually beneficial semiconductor market is a metaphor for a deeper purpose. China's 28nm process chip factories are constantly fighting against chip bans from the United States and Japan.
It is worth noting that the chip bans issued by the United States and Japan have very similar characteristics, that is, they are setting restrictions on high-end and sophisticated chips. Although the United States and Japan have always said that they are only to protect the security of related technologies, they are not only aimed at a certain market.
However, under such a ban environment, most Chinese companies still suffered from a severe chip shortage. For example, many large domestic high-end chip foundry giants, due to the impact of the ban between the United States and Japan, are unable to obtain high-end chip production equipment EUV lithography machines, which means that they cannot continue to produce high-end chips.
However, under such circumstances, mainland semiconductor companies are forced to choose the method of carrying out two directions at the same time to ease the pressure on enterprise operations. On the one hand, we will continue to increase the design and research and development of high-end chips, and on the other hand, we are actively increasing the production capacity of 28nm technology to expand the layout. At present, the methods of mainland semiconductor companies have achieved remarkable results.
For example, Japanese semiconductor companies are constantly increasing the chip production capacity layout in the Chinese mainland market and actively exporting products to Chinese customers. This shows that despite the pressure of the chip ban from the United States and Japan, in order to achieve the goal of some semiconductor companies to withdraw from the Chinese market. However, in return, companies have responded by refusing to launch into the Chinese market.
Therefore, it is obviously unfeasible and unrealistic for the United States and its allies to limit the development of Chinese semiconductors through chip blockade.
However, this is only the beginning of the problems that have worried the American media. The shipment of China's mature chip process technology will further occupy the discourse of more semiconductor manufacturing in the world, which is what the American media is more worried about.
Nowadays, most of the chip foundry giants have set their sights on high-end advanced chips. For example, Samsung in South Korea, TSMC in Taiwan, and Intel in the United States, among others. Although there are relatively mature process production conditions, the effect of expanding production capacity is not very ideal.
In this context, China's domestic chip foundry giants continue to expand their production capacity, coupled with the advantages of ultra-high cost performance of chips, they have gained the "heart" of most enterprises. In the future, with the continuous development of China's science and technology, China's semiconductor industry will surely develop towards more cutting-edge technology and become the leader of the international semiconductor industry.