Chinese races to defeat US chip -board. As her supply chain consists

When the United States limits China from the purchase of advanced semiconductors used in the development of artificial intelligence, Beijing places hopes for internal alternatives such as Huawei.

The task is more difficult in that the United States is holding not only China’s access to the most advanced circuits in the world, but also limit the use of technology vital for the creation of the AI ​​chip ecosystem.

These restrictions cover the entire semiconductor leash of the values, ranging from design and production equipment used to obtain AI chips to support items such as memory chips.

Beijing was mobilized tens of billions Dollars to try to fill in these gaps, but although he was able to “rudely” into some breakthroughs, experts believe, it still has a long way.

“US export control on advanced Nvidia AI chips has stimulated China’s industry to develop alternatives, as well as it burns it for domestic firms,” ​​said Paul Trioli, a partner and senior vice president of China at the DGA-ALBRIDGE Group Advisory firm.

Here’s how China consists of the rest of the world in four key segments needed to create AI chips.

But Nvidia fights Washington’s tightening restrictions. The company revealed in April what Additional curbs It prevented him from selling the H20 CPU to Chinese customers.

The H20 NVIDIA was a less complex version of its H100 processor, designed specifically for pre -export skirt. However, they say that experts are still more advanced than everything available domestically. But China hopes to change that.

In response to the restrictions of more Chinese semiconductor players, AI is a processor. They included a wide range from above, such as Enflame technology and Biren Technology seeking to strengthen Billions of dollars demand for the graphic processor left Nvidia.

But no Chinese firm is closer to providing a valid Nvidia alternative than the chips huawei, hisilicon design.

The most advanced graphic processor Huawei is its climb 910b. The next generation of Ascend 910c was justify Mass deliveries are expected to begin in May, although no updates have appeared.

Dylan Patel, founder, CEO and chief analyst Semianalysis, said CNBC that while the ascending chips remain for Nvidia, they show that Huawei has achieved significant success.

“Compared to Nvidia’s export chip, the gap between Huawei and H20 is less than a full-fledged generation. Huawei is not far behind the products that Nvidia can sell to China,” said the pan.

He added that 910B lagged behind Nvidia for the past year, and the Ascend 910C lagged for only a year.

But although this suggests that the design of the graphic processor in China has achieved great success, design is just one aspect that stands in the way of creating a competitive AI chip ecosystem.

Smic is far behind TSMC – officially known that will be able to produce 7-nanometer Chips that require less technology in advance than 3-nanometer TSMC production. The smaller nanometer sizes lead to greater capacity and efficiency of chips.

There are signs that the media has made progress. Suspected that the company was standing for a 5-Nanometer chip 5G for Mate 60 Pro Huawei, which had rocked confidence In US control in 2023. The company, however, has a long way before it can manually graphic processors in cost -effective order.

According to an independent CHIP analyst and Ray Wang technology, a well -known Smic surgery is a TSMC.

“Huawei is a very good chips design company, but they are still without good household chips,” Van said, noting that Huawei is justify Work on your own manufacturing capabilities.

But the lack of key production equipment is on the way of both companies.

While the Netherlands may have no famous semiconductor designers and manufacturers, it’s home AsmlThe world’s presenter provider advanced equipment for making chips – machines that use light or electronic rays to transfer complex samples to silicon plates, creating the basis of microchiks.

According to US export control, the country has agreed to block the sale of the most advanced ASML lithographic machines (EUV). Tools are crucial for the production of advanced graphic processors and economically.

According to Jeff Koch, EUV is the most significant barrier to the production of Chinese advanced chips, Semianalysis analyst. “They have most other available tools, but the lithograph limits their ability to scale up to 3nm and below the processes,” he said CNBC.

Smik found Methods for work Restrictions on lithography using less advanced deep ultraviolet lithographic systems that have seen relatively fewer restrictions.

Thanks to this “gross coercion”, the production of chips at 7 nm is made, but the yield is not good, and the strategy probably reaches its limit, said Koch, adding that “with the current profitability, Smic cannot produce enough domestic accelerators to meet the demand.”

The Chinese company Sicarrier Technologies, working on lithography technology, has justify was associated with Huawei.

But the imitation of the existing lithography tools can take years, if not decades to reach, Koch said. Instead, China will probably be engaged in other technologies and various methods of lithography to push innovations rather than imitation, he added.

In AI applications, a certain type of memory, known as HBM, has become an industry standard. South Korea SK HYNIX took an advantage in the field in HBM. Other companies in this field include Samsung and US Micron.

“The memory of high bandwidth at this stage of progression of the II became important for training and management of AI models,” said Van analyst.

As in the Netherlands, South Korea cooperates with US CHIP restrictions and began complying with requirements Fresh curbs When selling certain HBM memory chips in China in December.

In response, a Chinese memory chingles maker Changxin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, in partnership with the company’s chips and tongfu microelectronics, is in the early stages of HBM production, A a Report Reuters.

According to Wang, CXMT is expected to be behind the world’s HBM development for three -four years, although it is facing major blocks, including export equipment control.

Half -analysis According to estimates in April This CXMT remained in the year, releasing any reasonable volume.

Chinese false false manufacturer semiconductor Wuhan justify Create a factory to obtain HBM plates. A report SCMP said the Huawei Technologies cooperated with the firm in the production of HBM chips, although the companies did not confirm the partnership.

Huawei leaned toward HBM Stockpiles from suppliers such as Samsung for use in AI ASCEnd 910C processor, said semianalysis in April reportNoting that while the chip was developed domestically, it still relies on foreign products obtained before or, despite restrictions.

“Let it be HBM from Samsung, TSMC plates, or equipment from America, the Netherlands and Japan, there is a great deal of dependence on the foreign industry,” Semianalysis said.