Xiaomi is preparing a self-designed mobile processor for its upcoming smartphones in an effort to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers Qualcomm and MediaTek. The processor may help Xiaomi be more self-sufficient and stand out in an Android market led by Qualcomm customers. Mass production of the chip designed in-house is expected to begin in … Read more
Beijing is set to spend 33 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion) building a 12-inch wafer fabrication facility, led by state-owned enterprises and funds, marking another step in China’s efforts to boost domestic semiconductor production Leading firms involved in the new facility include Beijing Yandong Microelectronics (YDME), which is listed on Shanghai’s Star Market, and BOE Technology, … Read more
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, told its graphics-processor and AI-accelerator clients in mainland China that the company will no longer produce advanced chips for them, according to a person familiar with the matter. TSMC said in a notice sent earlier this week that it will stop accepting orders requiring the … Read more
“US long-arm sanctions on China’s semiconductor sector have proven to be porous,” said Arisa Liu, a research fellow and director at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. The discovery has caused a scramble to find explanations for what happened. TSMC has since halted shipments to an unnamed customer after discovering one of its chips supplied … Read more
A Canadian firm’s teardown report of an artificial intelligence (AI) offering by Huawei Technologies has raised fresh questions about whether the Chinese tech giant skirted US sanctions by using a chip made by the world’s most advanced fab, a development that could lead to further scrutiny. TechInsights, an Ottawa-based semiconductor industry research firm, published the … Read more
Chinese tech firm Xiaomi has been credited for designing the nation’s first 3-nanometre smartphone chip, but the company has stayed silent on the matter. Tang Jianguo, chief economist of the municipal economy and information technology bureau in charge of Beijing’s hi-tech industry, said Xiaomi successfully “taped out” China’s first 3-nm-grade mobile chip, in a news … Read more
China’s semiconductor industry is continuing to make incremental steps in advancing its domestic lithography tools, according to specifications publicised by the central government, but analysts say the country has yet to make the big leaps it would take to catch up to Dutch firm ASML. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which oversees … Read more
There is a lot of hype about artificial intelligence (AI) and technology sparking a revival of economic growth globally. As Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow said in 1987 about the productivity puzzle, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” In recent years, growth has slowed everywhere due to productivity declines, … Read more
A newly revealed patent from Chinese lithography systems maker Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) shows how domestic firms could progress in the local advanced lithography tools market despite US sanctions. The “extreme ultraviolet [EUV] radiation generators and lithography equipment” patent, filed in March 2023, was published publicly on Tuesday and is still being vetted by … Read more
