According to this tweet and the author of the tweet, the U.S. is giving South Korean companies exemptions from the China chip ban.
Chinese semiconductor industry
- Thread starter Hendrik_2000
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I think he is pretty legit but I wish he provided a source. Also, he stated U.S. to exempt Korean companies from China chipmaking gear ban, does China even use chipmaking gear (machines, ingredients) from SK and TW? Does this exemption apply to finished chips?
I was under the impression that China only uses chipmaking gear from US, Japan, Netherlands, while China imports chips/semi-finished chips from SK and TW directly.
IMO I think Japanese semiconductor companies will and must find a way to sell to Chinese customers, cause I don't see any other way for those companies to survive in this competitive oversaturated market.
This is a few months old but don't remember if it was posted. Loongson 3A5000 can be run in dual chip configuration for some server application and a 3A6000 with performance targeting Amd Zen 3 next year.
Then the CHIP ACT is much Ado about Nothing...lol Bro the US got what it wanted, a semiconductor reshoring BUT it was different from country to country, for SK they have an independent IDM company and know how to bargain and lets face it they're not at the TOP cause for Taiwan its different, they're Chinese and they're NUMBER 1, that know how can be easily replicate in the Mainland due to migration of talent. So they want to delay the inevitable and harvest it. With Japan it's very very different they don't trust them PERIOD!!!! and wanted to destroy it completely, It may seem harsh BUT maybe it's the result of nuking Japan, the fear of revenge.
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So the US will loudly announce the success of the Chip 4 alliance -- see, even the South Koreans are on board -- and not say that most of the key provisions have been gutted. Yoon would probably love to kiss Uncle Sam's smelly feet, but his country's semiconductor companies are gagging on the odor. I see the exemptions as a face-saving way for Yoon to join Chip 4 without suffering much.
I agree that the sell of Korean semi equipment to China is at best a secondary and minor issue for US.
As I see it, US goals for Chip 4 Alliance are:
1. Forcing on-shoring of advanced fabs: US wants Taiwan and Korean firms to build, setup and run fabs in US. To run the fab is very important for US because now they have lost that skill.
2. Banning foundry services on advanced nodes to Chinese customers. US will force TSMC and Samsung to not serve Chinese fabless customers on 5nm or better nodes.
This, together with the permanent banning on ASML EUV machines will force China to stop at 7nm, and not only for chip production capacity, but also for fabless firms.
By now I guess US has accepted that China will develop until 7nm included, but with the simultaneous banning of EUV machines and foundry services below 7nm, US hopes to stop China at that wall for many years to come.
This will have a huge impact especially on AI and autonomous driving where there are currently many Chinese firms with world-level technology that use TSMC and where the race with US is in full swing because is one of the very few technologies where US and China started more or less at the same time and are more or less peers.
Of course is a big question mark if the plan will succeed or not.
I think that after Chip 4 alliance, China has to put localized EUV machine development on super high priority lane, eventually fully in parallel with DUV. It is quite fascinating that a single machine has so much power!
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Good analysis... fyi in the 700 page AI report chaired by former Google CEO Eric Scmihdt last year the recommended goal was to stop China at 14nm. If they cannot stop at 7nm then I suppose next support is at 3nm
For good or bad, self driving AI is advancing much slower than most initially anticipated back in the hype era of 2017... 3nm vs 7nm is not going to be the difference that makes a difference for cars.
EUV sets a technological barrier cast in reality, not only in pdf reports. To stop at 7nm it means to stop at a point where the current consensus is that further advance requires EUV.
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