Chinese semiconductor thread II

[Phead128]

Great news for Chinese HBM (critical for AI), which has closed gap to merely 3 years behind leading Korean competitors.

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The implications is US export controls has completely backfired and has actually invigorated a massive boom in key strategic areas in AI for China.

 

[Michael90]

the counterpart article on NAND that YMTC news came from

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revenue is up 445% YoY as market share rose from 8 to 13%. If whole market is $46B then 13% of that is $5.8B, which is much higher than we previously thought. That is not too far from the $7B+ reported for CXMT. Both of these guys are now so much larger than SMIC

Yes, and the gap between them will get even far larger by next year . This is actually surprising , since if you had asked anyone just 4 years ago who will be the biggest beneficiary in china of US sanctions on china's semi industry, almost everybody(me included ) would have convincingly said SMIC without a doubt . It's surprising to see how YMTC and CXMT came from way behind out of nowhere to advanced so fast to the point their revenues dwarfs SMICs by far and will only increase even more with the AI boom and memory shortages globally. Their best years are ahead of them.

 

[meedicx]

Great news for Chinese HBM (critical for AI), which has closed gap to merely 3 years behind leading Korean competitors.

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The implications is US export controls has completely backfired and has actually invigorated a massive boom in key strategic areas in AI for China.

Alibaba is one of the biggest investors in CXMT and their T-Head Zhenwu roadmap announced a few weeks ago implies HBM3 is already being mass produced and HBM3e will be mass produced next year (they did not announce throughput but you can make some assumptions from the capacity).

The Zhenwu roadmap also matches the memory improvements of the Ascend roadmap, which indicates supply-chain level breakthroughs:

• Zhenwu M890 is already running in data centers and has 144 GB HBM (HBM3 level). The Ascend 950 DT is being mass produced right now and also has 144GB HBM-like memory.
• Zhenwu V900 is announced for 2027 Q3 will have 216 GB HBM (HBM3e level). The Ascend 960 announced for next year has 288GB.

I'm not sure of the credibility, but

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also says Baidu Kunlunxin P800 (current year) uses HBM3 and their planned M300 chip next year will use HBM3e.

So there are many data points in the Chinese AI chip supply chain that all support this.

 

[PopularScience]

soon to be number 3rd in the world..

note that more than half of the new YMTC capacity will be assigned to DRAM.

 

[iewgnem]

Yes, and the gap between them will get even far larger by next year . This is actually surprising , since if you had asked anyone just 4 years ago who will be the biggest beneficiary in china of US sanctions on china's semi industry, almost everybody(me included ) would have convincingly said SMIC without a doubt . It's surprising to see how YMTC and CXMT came from way behind out of nowhere to advanced so fast to the point their revenues dwarfs SMICs by far and will only increase even more with the AI boom and memory shortages globally. Their best years are ahead of them.

The goal of all 3 is to expand volume, the fact that memory prices went vertical is not really that relevant to how each is doing, e.g. China would much prefer CXMT make more ram than make more revenue.

 

[henrik]

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probably more amazingly is CXMT on DRAM, it has hit 8% market share in the last 2 quarters.

ymct and cxmt will be 2x or 3x their capacities by early next year.

 

[tokenanalyst]

EDA vendor Shanghai Lixin completes Series C financing of over 300 million yuan.ç​

Recently, Shanghai Lixin Software Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lixin") successfully completed a Series C financing round of over 300 million yuan. This round was led by Haiwang Capital under Pudong Science and Technology Innovation Board, in conjunction with Shenzhen Capital Group, China Internet Investment Corporation, Tongchuang Venture Capital, and Fujian Electronics, with participation from well-known institutions such as the National Social Security Fund, Fujian Venture Capital, and Skyworth Capital. The funds raised will be primarily used for the R&D iteration and market promotion of Lixin's full-process digital implementation toolchain and 3DIC/Chiplet system-level design solutions.

Leveraging its proprietary technologies, Lexin has achieved a technological breakthrough and commercialized its Automated Place and Routing (APR) process, connecting key aspects of the entire digital EDA workflow, including logic synthesis, place and route, physical verification, and approval. Simultaneously, by integrating AI large-scale model technology, it is committed to creating complete 2D digital circuit-level and 3D system-level digital end-to-end solutions. Currently, the company's product portfolio covers the LeDI digital implementation platform, LePV physical verification platform, LePI power integrity platform, and Le3DIC 3D-IC design platform. It has successfully launched over ten core digital EDA tools, fully supporting advanced processes and 3D design. Their core performance and accuracy have reached international benchmark levels, with even better performance in certain specialized scenarios. The company has served over 60 large and medium-sized fabless enterprises and FAB plants, deeply involved in the development, verification, and ecosystem building of domestically developed advanced processes.

Lixin has completed the acquisition of assets and team integration of four EDA companies. Going forward, it will work with EDA/IP vendors, design companies and wafer foundries and other industry chain partners to jointly build a chip design tool ecosystem with local characteristics and independent control.

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[tokenanalyst]

JCET Group has put its new high-density 3D system integration plant into operation, focusing on high-value-added fields such as AI power modules.​

On June 1, the new plant of the high-density 3D system integration high-end manufacturing project of JCET Group located in the Chengdong production base of Jiangyin was officially put into use, and the first batch of equipment was put into operation.

The newly commissioned plant is a significant step in JCET's expansion of production capacity in the advanced packaging field and a key milestone in the company's "New Start Project." The new plant includes approximately 7,000 square meters of cleanroom space and is expected to be operational by the end of this month. It will provide advanced packaging technologies and services for fields such as AI computing center power modules, further enhancing the company's overall capabilities in high-density system integration and delivery.

JCET's 3D system-in-package, through multi-chip vertical integration and high-density interconnection, can significantly shorten the current path, improve energy efficiency and optimize thermal management, providing more efficient and stable underlying support for AI power modules.

Li Quanbing, Vice President of JCET and General Manager of JCET Jiangyin, stated, "JCET has been deeply involved in the power module packaging and testing field for many years. Through long-term cooperation with global customers, we have continuously refined our engineering capabilities around project implementation, process development, reliability verification, and mass production delivery, forming a one-stop service capability for highly complex products. With the opening of this new factory, we will further enhance the company's capacity layout to serve high value-added applications such as AI power modules, providing customers with more stable and efficient manufacturing support."

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[Michael90]

The goal of all 3 is to expand volume, the fact that memory prices went vertical is not really that relevant to how each is doing, e.g. China would much prefer CXMT make more ram than make more revenue.

Yeah but they are expanding even faster as well . So their volumes are going to be over twice what they are today in a year or two. So it’s not just revenue