The United States has long dominated the semiconductor market, putting China under pressure with trade restrictions on companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi. But in just a few years, Beijing has made a spectacular comeback.
The embargo that triggered the offensive
Since 2019, sanctions imposed by Washington on Chinese tech giants have prohibited Huawei, among other things, from accessing advanced components from US companies such as Qualcomm or Intel. The aim: to curb China’s technological expansion and preserve its strategic lead in the semiconductor sector.
But far from paralysing the sector, these restrictions have accelerated China’s investment in its electronics industry. The government has injected billions of yuan into research, training and, above all, the local manufacture of chips, even if they are technically less advanced than the 3 or 5 nanometre chips produced in Taiwan or Korea.
Huawei and Xiaomi: the bridgeheads
Huawei’s return with its in-house Kirin 9000S processor – integrated into the Mate 60 Pro – has caused surprise, if not concern, in Washington. This system-on-a-chip, produced in SMIC factories, is tangible proof that China can produce advanced chips locally, despite embargoes. Xiaomi followed suit with the development of its own semiconductors, notably for cameras and energy management.
Even if these chips do not yet fully rival the latest generations from Qualcomm or Apple, they mark a strategic turning point: the end of China’s total dependence on foreign technologies. The industry is also reorganising around national standards and alternative architectures such as RISC-V, which are open and less subject to Western control than ARM or x86 architecture
No comments:
Post a Comment