China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, built a 7nm chip in July of this year. This was a big improvement on their previous best of 14nm and apparently surpassed expectations, though is still well behind IBM’s 2nm chip and other similarly small ones. This was particularly surprising given that the Trump administration blacklisted SMIC two years ago, meaning for years they’ve been subject to similar restrictions as Biden recently imposed on all of China. Tough to put this in the right context, but we should follow progress of China’s chipmakers going forwards.
China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, built a 7nm chip in July of this year. This was a big improvement on their previous best of 14nm and apparently surpassed expectations, though is still well behind IBM’s 2nm chip and other similarly small ones. This was particularly surprising given that the Trump administration blacklisted SMIC two years ago, meaning for years they’ve been subject to similar restrictions as Biden recently imposed on all of China. Tough to put this in the right context, but we should follow progress of China’s chipmakers going forwards.