The top 10 domestic equipment manufacturers in China logged revenue of around 16.2 billion Chinese yuan ($2.2 billion) in the first half of the year, up 39% year on year, according to Shanghai-based CINNO Research.
Since 2019, U.S. sanctions on Chinese technology firms, such as Huawei and China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC, has forced Beijing to be more self-reliant and wean itself off foreign technology.
That has underpinned the boost in revenues for China’s domestic chip equipment manufacturing firms.
Top three firms
CINNO names Naura Technology Group Co. as the top Chinese semiconductor equipment maker by revenue. The company produces tools required in the chip manufacturing process.
The second-largest Chinese domestic player is Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (AMEC), which makes machines required for the semiconductor manufacturing process.
ACM Research, makes cleaning and packaging equipment for semiconductors, is the third-biggest Chinese player.
Restrictions still abound
Still, China lacks access to some of the most advanced chipmaking tools around.
For example, Dutch firm ASML makes a chipmaking tool called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine — one of the costly instruments required to make the most advanced chips around. But ASML has been restricted by the Dutch government from exporting these machines to China.
However, it appears China’s semiconductor industry is making some progress toward more advanced chips, even in the face of U.S. sanctions.
Huawei quietly launched a new smartphone this month, which can connect to next-generation 5G mobile networks, despite U.S. sanctions that aimed to cut the Chinese tech giant off from this technology.
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