China’s Plan to Leapfrog Foreign Chipmakers: Wave Goodbye to Silicon

The idea that dominant chip makers — who are overwhelmingly foreign — face a near-certain obstacle has become a beacon of hope for Chinese firms, which analysts say lag at least one to two wafer generations behind their competitors. For example, research conducted by the U.S.-based think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) suggests that, in logic chips, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China's largest chipmaker, manages scale production at the 14nm level, whereas South Korean Samsung and Taiwan-based TSMC are able to accomplish 5nm. On the memory chip side, U.S.-based Micron and Samsung lead with 10nm wafers, while China's best, Changxin Memory Technologies, only manages 19nm.