When Huawei released its latest chip set in Shenzhen this month, the state-run Global Times newspaper hailed the “groundbreaking” development as a “boost” for China’s domestic chipmaking industry, “often portrayed as overly reliant on foreign suppliers”.
But the new server chip set, just like the telecoms company’s similarly feted advanced processor for smartphones, was only designed in China. It is manufactured in Taiwan, in the latest example of a persistent technology gap that hampers China’s efforts to become self-sufficient at manufacturing chips.
Semiconductor sector analysts believe that China’s best chipmakers are as much as a decade behind their international rivals. That is despite long running financial support from Beijing, rising market dominance of Chinese electronics hardware groups and the vastly improved capabilities of China’s chip design companies.