I seriously wish the quality of reporting on semiconductors in China was better. It's our geopolitical rival and quality of information is atrocious.
Let's take the KX-7000 CPU mentioned in the article. That is x86 compatible CPU allegedly rivaling Ryzen 5 2500X (6 years old now). The source? Leaked Geekbench scores. Not actual test by someone reputable, just something leaked online of dubious quality.
This article is similar. It basically says: China has no public in DUVi litography (much less EUV), hence 1%. There are two companies that do DUVi: Nikon and ASML. ASML has 95%+ percent of the market and Nikon used to have Intel that ditched them, so the future is uncertain.
And that's true. China has SMEE, a completely neglected state run company that had utter garbage product. Until trade was and suddenly it gets high priority. So far, no public product, though it likely is used in testing runs in SMIC, CXMT and YMTC. SMEE allegedly build test machines in 2023 and were tested in 2024. Is it true? Who knows. They had EUV lab machine for research in 2016... any progress?
Instead of some reasonable article describing current state, we get 1% in litho in domestic share (which is the SMEE, as seen in the tweet)... Hurray? China doesn't care about DUVi machines in short term. They have bought everything they could from ASML to last them years.
Reuters: Chinese chip equipment makers grab market share as US tightens curbs
> Nearly half, or 47.25%, of all machinery equipment tenders by Chinese foundries from January to August 2023 were won by local manufacturers.
> From July to August 2023, 62% were won by Chinese suppliers compared to only 36.3% from March to April, the brokerage's analysts said.