Semiconductor industry to overcome challenges

Greater importance

Wei Shaojun, president of the CSIA's integrated circuit design branch, said that faced with Washington's restrictions, "not only Chinese companies but those from overseas operating in China are attaching greater importance to the security of supply chains, fueling the wider use of domestically designed chips".

A renowned microelectronics professor at Tsinghua University, Wei Shaojun also said the US crackdown on China's chip industry is disrupting global semiconductor supply chains.

Toshiya Hari, lead analyst covering the semiconductor industry at investment bank Goldman Sachs, estimated that US export controls of high-end chipmaking equipment to China could have cost the world's toolmakers $6 billion in lost revenue last year, or 9 percent of their projected sales.

Experts said such restrictions create a sense of crisis among downstream users of chips. As a result, they seek secure supply chains less reliant on US chip technologies and products, thus opening up more opportunities for Chinese chip designers.

Wei, from the CSIA, said, "Many domestic chip design companies said last year they were granted access to some markets that they found difficult to enter in the past."

Huang Qing, managing partner at Walden International, a US venture capital company focusing on cross-border investments, said that as the US tightens control of key technologies, including premium processors, China has an opportunity to build up its semiconductor capabilities.

He added that although it lags behind some developed countries in terms of basic semiconductor materials, high-end chip-making equipment and chip design tools, China is home to leading global companies that integrate software and hardware in mobile phones, 5G communications, security equipment, new energy vehicles, and other areas. These companies traditionally tend to cooperate with suppliers in Europe and the US.