Foreign media: US chip hegemony is beginning to crumble

Because semiconductors originated in the United States, the US has a great advantage in the field of chips, possessing many semiconductor basic technologies and patents. Basically, global chip companies cannot do without American technology, which is why chip sanctions can be implemented.

The United States not only imposes chip restrictions on us, but also imposes chip sanctions on Russia after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which is called the hegemony of American Core. However, news from Russia, SMIC, and Nvidia suggests that the dominance of American chip manufacturers is beginning to crumble!

Under the call of the United States, Russia has been completely blocked, and many technology giants have announced supply cuts. American giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle have stopped providing services, while chip giants such as Qualcomm and Intel have stopped supplying chips.

Semiconductor manufacturing giants such as TSMC and Samsung have also stopped chip manufacturing in order to make chips unusable in Russia.

Photolithography giant ASML is no exception, despite the backwardness of domestic wafer foundry in Russia, which reportedly only has two chip manufacturing companies - one with a maximum production capacity of 65nm and the other with only 90-250nm - they cannot do without lithography machines.

Photolithography machines are crucial for chip manufacturing, but currently only four companies from three countries in the world can produce lithography machines for chip manufacturing, namely ASML from the Netherlands, Nikon and Canon from Japan, and Shanghai Microelectronics from China.

But the highest process of Shanghai Microelectronics in our country is only 90nm, so lithography machines are purchased from ASML, Nikon, and Canon.

However, after the US imposed sanctions on Russia, both Dutch and Japanese companies are unable to export advanced lithography machines to Russia, and even cannot provide after-sales maintenance. In this situation, Russia can only solve the chip problem by developing its own lithography machine.

Russia naturally understands this very well, as there have been reports indicating that they have started developing lithography machines. Recently, Russian media reported that the situation is indeed the case. Russia has not only made up its mind to develop its own lithography machine, but also completed its first lithography machine.

Russian officials have stated that the first domestically produced lithography machine has been manufactured and is currently undergoing testing to ensure the production of 350nm chips. Although it is only a very mature process, it can still meet the needs of some automotive, energy, and communication industries.

Not only that, Russia also plans to achieve 130nm lithography machines by 2026, followed by 65nm lithography machines.

The reason why Russia is developing lithography machines from 350nm to 65nm is because the demand for chips in this range is still high, accounting for about 60% of the entire market, and the demand for such lithography machines in the global market will be high for at least 10 years.

Besides us, Russia has also joined the competition for lithography machines, causing the situation of lithography machines controlled by the United States to begin to crumble.

Speaking of the second piece of news, recently authoritative market institutions released a global wafer market research report, in which the ranking of wafer foundry giants has changed. TSMC still ranks first in the world, Samsung ranks second, and SMIC ranks third.

For many years, SMIC ranked fifth globally, with occasional changes in third and fourth place for UMC and Gexin. However, in the first quarter of this year, there was a significant change as SMIC's market share suddenly increased, entering the top three globally for the first time.

In terms of revenue, TSMC increased by 12.9% year-on-year in the first quarter, Samsung increased by 2% year-on-year, and SMIC increased by 19.7% year-on-year. SMIC's growth is due to the recovery of the domestic market, and Chinese enterprises are more inclined towards domestic manufacturing.

It is worth mentioning that SMIC has surpassed American company Gexin, indicating that US restrictions cannot stop our chip development.

The third news is that Nvidia has encountered a downturn in the mainland market due to poor sales of the H20 series AI chip specially designed for the mainland market, forcing Nvidia to lower its prices. This is because the US continues to increase restrictions, and Nvidia has modified its AI chip for the second time.

The first modified A800 and H800 had good sales due to their decent functionality, but were soon restricted from shipment by the US. The H20 series, which has been modified again, is not being accepted by mainland manufacturers due to excessive feature castration.

On the one hand, mainland manufacturers are increasing their self-developed AI chips, and on the other hand, they are beginning to purchase domestically produced chips, especially the Huawei Ascend series.

The key point is that the price of the Ascend 910B is similar to that of the Nvidia H20, but its performance is actually better. Therefore, there are not many people interested in buying the H20, and instead they rush to buy the 910B. As a result, the global AI giant Nvidia has had to lower its prices.

From the above three messages, it can be seen that the US chip restrictions have not only failed to achieve their goal of obstruction, but have also aroused the determination of many regions to independently develop breakthroughs. Russia's lithography machines have broken through, and our chips have rapidly risen, while American companies have suffered more losses.

Regarding this, some foreign media directly commented that the dominance of American chips is beginning to crumble, and the restrictions on American chips will ultimately end in failure!