How China's chip expansion puts pressure on global rivals

China's focus on mature 'good-enough' semiconductors, driven by US restrictions, is reshaping global supply chains and challenging international competitors. | Contesto: cronaca

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• How China's chip expansion puts pressure on global rivals

Contesto

Driven by stringent US export controls on advanced technology, China is rapidly expanding its domestic semiconductor industry, focusing on mature, 'good-enough' chips that are now powering a vast swath of the global economy. While the country still lags behind the United States, Taiwan, and South Korea in producing the world's most cutting-edge processors, its strategic pivot to dominate the legacy chip market is applying intense pressure on international rivals and altering the landscape of global electronics manufacturing. The catalyst for this shift was a series of escalating US restrictions, culminating in sweeping October 2022 rules that cut off China's access to advanced chipmaking equipment and the most powerful semiconductors. Intended to curb China's military modernization and technological ascendancy, these measures had an unintended consequence: they forced Beijing and Chinese tech giants to double down on self-sufficiency. The national response has been a flood of state investment and policy support into building a comprehensive, homegrown semiconductor ecosystem, from design and materials to manufacturing and packaging. This concerted push is yielding significant results not at the frontier of computing, but in the foundational layers of the digital world. Chinese foundries are now major producers of mature-node chips—the less advanced, but utterly essential, semiconductors used in everything from automobiles, household appliances, and industrial machinery to basic consumer electronics. These components are the workhorses of modern manufacturing, and China's growing dominance in this sector means an increasing portion of the global supply chain is becoming reliant on Chinese output. The rise of China's 'good-enough' technology presents a complex challenge for Western chipmakers and policymakers. For companies in the US, Europe, Japan, and South Korea that also specialize in these legacy chips, the surge of Chinese capacity is driving down prices and squeezing profit margins, leading to concerns about market distortion due to state subsidies. Furthermore, as Chinese firms achieve scale and iterative improvements in these mature processes, they are...

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Categoria: cronaca