With the gradual improvement of the industrial ecosystem, the degree of independent and controllable semiconductor production in China has also further increased.

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, China imported a total of 479.5 billion integrated circuits in 2023, a decrease of 10.8% compared to 2022; The import amount was 349.4 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 15.4%. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, China's domestic integrated circuit production reached 351.4 billion units, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%.

Against the backdrop of the global semiconductor industry's downward cycle, these data also to some extent reflect that Chinese companies are striving to increase local chip production to reduce their dependence on imported chips. A reporter from China Business Daily noticed that in the past two to three years, due to restrictions imposed by the United States on China's semiconductor industry, Chinese semiconductor manufacturers have further accelerated the construction of domestic semiconductor supply chains for their own supply chain security considerations.

Zhang Guobin, CEO of Electronic Innovation Network, told reporters that in the past two to three years, Western countries led by the United States have introduced a series of bans and measures, which has actually strengthened China's determination to build a complete independent semiconductor industry chain and stimulated the passion of thousands of local enterprises to make up for the shortcomings of the industry chain in production, equipment, materials EDA tools IP、 Breakthroughs have been made in sealing and testing processes, such as the implementation of KrF in photoresist ArF independently provides cleaning, etching Breakthroughs have been made in devices such as PVD/CVD.

It is worth noting that, AI chips, as an important driving force leading a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, have received high attention in the past two years. In a recent submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, AI chip giant NVIDIA listed Huawei as a major competitor in multiple categories for the first time.

"For domestic AI chip companies, the key is to migrate to the domestic supply chain, which will encounter many difficulties, including a lack of necessary support such as IP and tool chain, as well as production capacity and yield issues of domestic foundries." Qin Xin, a R&D personnel of a domestic AI chip company (pseudonym), told reporters.

Breakthroughs in multiple stages

In the field of EDA tools, we have made rapid progress and have initially achieved full process tools (independent production). A large number of excellent enterprises have emerged, such as Huada Jiutian, Galun Electronics, Xinhuazhang, and Sierxin. In the process of supplementing the domestic semiconductor industry chain, Zhang Guobin pointed out that the domestic EDA industry has achieved good breakthroughs.

It is understood that, EDA, also known as electronic design automation, is the software required for chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. It does not refer to one or several software, but rather a software tool cluster involving nearly a hundred different technologies and various "point tools", known as the "mother of chips". Although the threshold for EDA is not as high as that of lithography machines, it is also one of the bottleneck technologies that China's chip industry needs to overcome.

Shanghai Hejian Industrial Software Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hejian Industrial Software"), a provider of industrial software and chip solutions, previously told reporters that China's EDA company has mainly gone through three stages: from scratch to existence, then to benchmarking product performance against international products, and finally forming an ecosystem of industrial collaboration.

"In recent years, the development of China's EDA industry has begun to take shape, and the industrial ecosystem is also taking shape." Hejian Gongsoft pointed out that for example, in the field of simulation design EDA tools and manufacturing, there have been excellent domestic EDA companies deeply cultivating for many years, and in the field of digital design and verification, the tools of start-up EDA companies have also been recognized in the industry.

In June 2023, Hejian Gongsoft announced its collaboration with Beijing Huada Jiutian to jointly build a digital analog hybrid design and simulation EDA joint solution. Regarding this, an insider from a domestic EDA company, Gao Chen (pseudonym), told reporters at the time that the incident had a significant impact in the industry. "This is the first time that domestic EDA companies have teamed up, and previous cases were all bound to major foreign EDA platforms.".

Zhang Guobin pointed out that with the emergence of the Huawei Mate 60 series and the return of its new Kirin 9000 chip, advanced technology has been independently controlled. Although the actual supplier of the new Kirin 9000 chip is still unknown, China already has advanced process chip manufacturing capabilities that are not under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Famous semiconductor industry analyst Dylan Patel, after analyzing the level of technology, believes that the new Kirin 9000 is comparable to Qualcomm's best baseband chips, and its manufacturing process is also better than most people in the West realize. He bluntly stated that US semiconductor export controls to China have "failed".

In addition, Zhang Guobin also pointed out that Chinese companies have achieved breakthroughs in the IP field, and currently the most advanced computing interface IP and GPU IP can be localized; In the field of packaging and testing, a large number of excellent enterprises such as Changdian Technology and Huatian Technology have already possessed the latest chip packaging capabilities.

It is worth noting that Zhang Guobin stated that Chinese companies have also made achievements in the formulation of semiconductor standards. "Our own NearLink technology has been recognized by hundreds of companies and is being vigorously promoted.". In addition, local micro control units have become the main players in the mid to low-end field and are currently moving towards the high-end market.

Local CPU GPU、 The artificial intelligence computing power products and automotive industry have also broken the monopoly of Europe and America, continuing to develop in depth, especially the open-source instruction set RISC-V processor. China has rapidly developed into a global RISC-V application hub Zhang Guobin said.