Why you should pay attention to China's semiconductor industry

DRIVEN by mounting pressure from the US, we believe that China's semiconductor industry is about to enter a period of extraordinary growth as the country races towards achieving self-sufficiency in chip production.

Since the very beginning, China has not had a significant presence in the global semiconductor industry. In 2019, the country accounted for only 5 per cent of the global industry market share, far behind the US and South Korea, which controlled 47 and 19 per cent of the market respectively.

The main reason for this is technology. In terms of chip design, China has made significant progress over the years, with leading fabless companies such as HiSilicon designing advanced chips, such as 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), which are used in applications. For instance, HiSilicon's newest smartphone processor, the Kirin 9000, is considered to be on par with those designed by Apple.