Huawei Technologies Co. alarmed politicians from Washington to Tokyo when it took the wraps off a $900 smartphone that signaled China’s rapid advance in semiconductor technology. The episode also thrust the little-known company that made the chip for Huawei into the middle of the US-Chinese battle for geopolitical supremacy.
China is still a few years behind
Yes, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. Analysts say these sanctions will backfire because now China has no choice but to become more advanced in chip production.
Definitely true but they’re also still heavily reliant on external countries for advanced machinery and it will undoubtedly take them a long time if they truly want to be able to have a homegrown chip industry. In particular I’m thinking of the lithography machines that a single company on the world makes. China is only allowed to purchase the older tech of these and they pushed it to its known limits to make these chips.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out that’s for sure. I can definitely see them going quite far especially with all the IP theft they do.