CHINA Semiconductors: Industry Briefing September 2021
Hidden and Dangerous: China and Semiconductors
China's vision of the past 20 years of creating a technology-based repressive force is almost complete.
By constructing elaborate diversions, China has made an almost perfect u-turn from a big exporting country of simple goods in the 1990s, to a world-class hi-tech producer.
The first step in starting this plan was made by infiltrating high-tech companies, universities, and research facilities in 2000.
We estimate that the grab and copy tactics have taken place on a massive scale, involving around 100 million Chinese for nearly 20 years worldwide.
The last stage of this long and massive operation was aimed at stationing International scientists and experts in China.
For example, research and teaching seats were paid for by Western countries or were paid by entering into employment with one of the select Hi-Tech MNCs. Only a few International scientists and experts invited by China received standard payments from CCP funds.
It is a perfect example of how tight and well-coordinated the CCP operates, often with great success.
With various distractions in place such as the,
- Xinjiang rehabilitation plan, which started in the 1990s.
- Extreme rapid breakdown of hard-earned freedoms in Hong Kong after 1997.
- Introduction of a panic-inducing pandemic, the Covid virus of 2019.
Many countries missed the clues of China's ambition to become a Hi-Tech power at the expense of the West.
Today, China has set up three large national centers to cater to the semiconductor industry, namely in Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Shanghai.
Unfortunately, there remains for the CCP only one obstacle to receive complete dominance. That is by taking control of the litho technologies of the Dutch ASML company.
Core Data
The semiconductor industry distinguishes three parts:
- Foundries or 'Fabs’.
- Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) who are both Foundries and Chip Logic designers.
- Chip Logic designers or 'Fabless designers’.
The total revenue for the 1st quarter in 2021 was 22.59 billion U.S. dollars, with a market share per foundry of, TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (Taiwan) with 56% of the market share, Samsung Electronics (S-KOR) with 18%, Global Foundations (US) with 7%, UMC, United Microelectronics Corporation (Taiwan) with 7%, and SMIC, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (China) with 5%.
In 2020, the total revenue of the semiconductor industry was $466.24 billion U.S. dollars. This excludes the turnover of the foundry industry.
The top chip sellers were, Intel with $72.76 billion in U.S. revenue dollars, and Samsung, with $57.73 billion in U.S. revenue dollars.
It is expected that within the next 10 years a “China Only” semiconductor industry will be present, by eliminating ASML with far-reaching implications for Western economies.
(*) Sources: Statista, ASML, Intel, TSMC, SMIC.
