Tech war: SMIC, Huawei projects among top government-supported endeavours in 2024

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and Huawei Technologies, two key players in Beijing’s efforts to defeat US sanctions on advanced chips, are among the country’s top recipients of local government funding this year, according to published government documents.

In Shanghai, 16 out of 191 major projects that have local government subsidies are related to the semiconductor industry, according to data released by the city authorities. China’s top chip maker SMIC had two 300mm production lines, both currently under construction, on the list, while a Huawei research centre in Shanghai’s Qingpu district is also among the 16 projects.

The Huawei facility in Qingpu is focused on research and development in semiconductors, wireless networks and Internet of Things, with plans to hire 35,000 researchers after it opens in June 2024. Other projects that have received Shanghai funding include a production facility by China’s etching equipment firm Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment.

Huawei and SMIC have been blacklisted by Washington for national security reasons, denying them access to foreign semiconductor technologies without US approval. However, last year Huawei surprised the global chip industry with a 7-nanometre smartphone chip that was made by SMIC using an older generation of lithography system from Dutch firm ASML.

Separately, the provincial government of Anhui said in an investment directive published on Sunday that it will give more support to achieving technology breakthroughs in the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) field this year, an area where China is playing catch-up with global leaders such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology.

Hefei, capital of China’s eastern Anhui province, is home to top DRAM maker ChangXin Memory Technologies, which produced the country’s first lower power double data rate 5 (LPDDR5) DRAM chip, narrowing the gap with leading foreign players.