Exclusive | Tech war: China’s top memory chip maker YMTC making progress in producing advanced 3D NAND products with locally sourced equipment: sources
- YMTC’s top secret project, which aims to use Chinese-only equipment, has placed big orders with domestic tool suppliers, including Beijing-based Naura Technology
- The ramped up sourcing of local equipment comes after YMTC received fresh funding to the tune of US$7 billion from its state-backed investors, including the ‘Big Fund’
Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is planning to use domestically sourced equipment to make advanced flash memory products after it was put on a US trade blacklist last year, according to industry sources.
If successful, the strategy would represent a breakthrough in China’s efforts to become self-sufficient in semiconductor production after the country was denied access to advanced chip making tools over Washington’s concerns that the technology would end up in the hands of the Chinese military.
Last year, Wuhan-based YMTC had been on track to challenge memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology with its flagship 232-layer X3-9070 3D NAND flash chip, but its prospects for mass production were thrown into doubt after US equipment suppliers KLA and Lam Research had to halt sales and service to YMTC in compliance with Washington’s updated export controls.
Industry sources in China’s chip equipment industry, who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter, told the South China Morning Post that YMTC has doubled down on efforts to work with Chinese suppliers to help manufacture its Xtacking 3.0 architecture-based chips, and that progress has been made in a top secret project code-named Wudangshan, after a sacred Taoist mountain in the company’s home province of Hubei. YMTC has a tradition of naming its chips after famous Chinese mountains.
One source said the project intended to use Chinese equipment only and that YMTC has placed big orders with domestic equipment suppliers, including Beijing-based Naura Technology Group, a leading Chinese maker of etching tools, which are also the primary product line of US-based Lam Research.
The source added that YMTC has even asked its domestic suppliers to remove logos and other identifying marks from equipment, to mitigate risks of sanctions by the US on its suppliers. Washington has also accused YMTC of providing electronics components to Huawei Technologies Co, the Chinese telecoms giant that is also under US sanctions.
YMTC and Naura did not respond to a request for comment. State-backed YMTC, which is not listed publicly, is not obliged to disclose its financial results or business performance.
