According to Strategy Analytics, sanctions and the semiconductor shortage have accelerated investment by China’s government in semiconductors, and the country has a good chance of attaining semiconductor self-sufficiency quickly, as detailed in the report China Well Positioned to Attain Semiconductor Self-Sufficiency.
Christopher Taylor, author of the report, commented, “China has launched a serious effort across all segments of the semiconductor supply chain to attain self reliance, led by the government but with private industry and citizens all pulling for the same goal. With investments and incentives targeting critical weaknesses such as EDA (electronic design assistance) and lithography, it appears that China will be able to supply at least 30 percent of its semiconductor needs within 30 months. This level of self reliance is considered the minimum needed to buffer against import supply disruptions.”
Sravan Kundojjala, Associate Director of the Handset Component Technologies service, added, “China will succeed relatively quickly with self-reliance at the 28 nm CMOS node and above, which represents most semiconductor demand in terms of units. Leading-edge processes below 7nm will take more time for China to develop, and we anticipate that mobile phone OEMs in China that wish to use domestically-sourced cellular chipsets will have to settle for less-integrated solutions and perhaps slightly lower-performance processors. We don’t think this will present too much of a problem as OEMs prefer these solutions for high volume phones below the premium smartphone tier.”