The current situation and challenges of China's chip industry
Lack of core technology and low market share
China's chip industry started late, and there is a certain gap between it and the world's advanced level in terms of core technology, design and manufacturing process. High-end and mainstream chip products are still heavily dependent on imports, and the share of domestic chips in the global market is only about 10%. This not only affects the development of China's chip industry, but also threatens the country's economic security.
Taking smartphones as an example, 77% of the world's mobile phones are made in China, but less than 3% of them use domestic chips. China spends more than $200 billion a year on importing chips, more than oil and commodities imports. This highlights China's weakness in chip self-sufficiency.
Although China has also made some breakthroughs in chip technology in recent years, such as the successful development of the "Loongson" CPU, which marks the breaking of foreign monopolies. However, on the whole, China's chip manufacturing technology is still dominated by low-end, and most of the companies engaged in the chip business are foundry models with insufficient innovation capabilities. The same is true for chip design companies, which are difficult to compete effectively with international giants.
The competitiveness of chip companies is insufficient
After years of development, a number of chip manufacturing and design companies represented by SMIC have emerged in China. However, in terms of overall strength, the competitiveness of these enterprises is still weak. Taking chip design companies as an example, the total output value of China's top 10 design companies in 2012 was less than 1/3 of Qualcomm's in the United States.
The reasons for this state of affairs are manifold. On the one hand, multinational chip giants have long implemented a "siege" strategy against Chinese companies, making it difficult for them to occupy a place in the international market. On the other hand, downstream manufacturers have insufficient confidence in domestic chips and equipment, resulting in the dilemma of "doing it but not selling it".
The chip industry is a capital-intensive industry that requires huge investment. However, due to the limited profitability of domestic enterprises, it is difficult to provide sufficient financial support for chip R&D and manufacturing. Taking Founder Microelectronics as an example, a production line with an investment of more than 6 billion yuan is already a heavy burden in depreciation and financial expenses alone. When a company starts to make a profit, there are often new technological upgrades in the world, and the company has to continue to invest heavily to maintain competitiveness, and it is difficult to recover the initial investment.
Insufficient input force
Over the past decade, the Chinese government has introduced a series of policies and measures to support the development of the chip industry. However, due to the relatively scattered input of "pepper noodles", it is difficult to form a "fist effect". In addition, the chip industry has the characteristics of huge investment, long cycle, and high risk, which discourages many companies and fails to provide sufficient impetus for the development of the chip industry.
This lack of investment is not only reflected in financial support, but also in personnel training. Chip R&D and design technology content is high, product types are varied, and there is a large demand for talents. However, due to the shortcomings of the training model of domestic universities, such as paying too much attention to academic research and ignoring industrial needs, the mismatch between professional settings and enterprise needs, and the lack of interdisciplinary compound talent training, etc., resulting in a shortage of chip talents and serious brain drain.
The development trend of the global chip industry
At present, the global semiconductor chip industry is showing three major development trends: first, the industrial pattern is being reshaped at an accelerated pace, and the status of traditional chip power is being challenged; Second, emerging technologies continue to emerge, promoting the continuous expansion of chip products and application fields; Third, trade protectionism is on the rise, and the impact of geopolitical factors on industrial development has increased.
In this context, China's chip industry is facing severe challenges. On the one hand, in order to maintain its leading position in the field of chips, the United States has continuously increased the technological blockade of Chinese companies and restricted the export of key equipment and technologies to China. On the other hand, the development of China's chip industry lags behind, and it is still heavily dependent on imports in the field of high-end chips, and the level of independence and controllability is not high.
To reverse the passive situation, China's chip industry urgently needs to increase independent innovation, break through key core technologies, and improve the level of self-sufficiency. The government also needs to increase financial support and talent training to provide strong support for the development of the chip industry. Only in this way can China's chip industry occupy a place in the future global competition and help improve the country's economic and technological strength.