Photonics Control Tightens: China Invests $25B to Break Through!

Here is the translation of the provided text into English: Lithography machines, to put it simply, are machines that "engrave" the design of a chip onto a silicon wafer.

The principle is not complicated, but the technological content is extremely high, involving optics, precision machinery, materials science, and more.

It requires top engineers from around the world and a huge investment of funds to develop.

There are only a handful of companies in the world that can manufacture the most advanced lithography machines, and the most formidable among them is ASML from the Netherlands.

This company almost monopolizes the global market share of high-end lithography machines, and it is not an exaggeration to say it is the "overlord of chip manufacturing."

China has also realized the importance of lithography machines and started research and development decades ago.

However, due to a late start and weak foundation, coupled with technological blockades from Western countries, there has been no breakthrough progress.

The Chinese chip industry has been "choked" for decades.

In 2023, ASML earned 27.6 billion euros, with the Chinese market contributing nearly a third of its revenue.

Do you think the Netherlands would easily give up this piece of the cake?

To solve the "chokehold" problem of lithography machines, China and the Netherlands have conducted multiple rounds of negotiations, hoping to reach an agreement to ensure the stable development of China's semiconductor industry.

But what was the result?

The negotiations broke down.

In 2018, the United States began to restrict the export of some high-tech products to China, especially semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Under the principle of "America First," in order to curb the development of Chinese technology, the United States spared no effort, even at the expense of sacrificing the interests of its allies.

The Netherlands thus became a "sacrificial lamb" in America's technology war.

For the Netherlands, the breakdown of the negotiations was also a helpless move.

Facing pressure from the United States, what else could they do?

Some say that the Netherlands is "betting on both sides," trying to straddle two boats.

But the reality is that the Netherlands has no choice.

Under the strong intervention of the United States, the Netherlands can only be forced to take sides, even if it means sacrificing cooperation with China.

The breakdown of negotiations between China and the Netherlands not only brought a huge impact to the development of China's semiconductor industry but also plunged the Netherlands into a predicament.

For China, this means that the "chokehold" problem is even more severe, and the development of the chip industry is facing unprecedented challenges.

For the Netherlands, this is a big trouble.

The Chinese market is very important.

If it is lost, what will happen to ASML in the future, no one knows.

Faced with Western technological chokeholds, China did not give up but actively sought solutions and tried to break through.

In the past, when China's chip industry just started, many people thought that "it's better to buy than to make, and it's better to rent than to buy."

This idea was quite common.

To truly control one's own destiny, it's not enough to just buy someone else's technology.

It's necessary to research and innovate on one's own to truly master core technology and not be choked by others.

Now, we are taking the development of lithography machines as a top priority and have introduced many policies to encourage enterprises to engage in scientific research together, making our lithography machine technology more and more powerful!

Funds, talents, policies... Now, China is concentrating the strength of the whole country to break through lithography machine technology.

Chinese enterprises are also actively taking action.

SMIC and Yangtze Memory are both desperately investing in research and development, trying to break through technical bottlenecks.

"Even if it means selling pots and pans, we must develop chips!"

Now everyone agrees that this sentence is the goal of the chip industry.

In the first half of this year, China really put a lot of money into chip manufacturing, investing 25 billion US dollars, which is more than the total investment of the United States, South Korea, and other countries.

This huge amount of money will be used to support domestic enterprises in technological research and development, with the goal of achieving independent research and development of key technologies in the next few years.

Northern HuaChuang Technology Group is developing China's own lithography system, hoping to produce 5-nanometer chips without foreign lithography machines.

Yangtze Memory is becoming more and more powerful in the field of storage chips.

Their 3D NAND technology has taken a leading position in the world.

Huawei has also reached a cooperation with SMIC to jointly promote the research and development and production of high-end chips.

It can be said that China's chip industry is undergoing a "self-help" action.

This action is destined to be full of thorns, but we have no choice.

And to win in the future technology competition, mastering core technology is the key.

Chip technology is not something that can be easily achieved.

It takes a lot of time and effort.

ASML's lithography machines are the result of the assembly of the world's top technology and talents, and it took decades of research and development to develop.

It's really not easy for China to catch up in a short time.

Technical barriers, capital investment, talent gap...

The challenges faced by China's chip industry are still very severe.

However, we should also believe in ourselves.

Chinese people have always had the spirit of facing difficulties and will never give up easily.

Wasn't the great feat of "Two Bombs, One Satellite" also created under heavy blockades?

Wasn't the slogan "To get rich, first build roads" also built by generations of Chinese people with sweat and wisdom?

China's chip industry needs a "nail spirit," step by step, steadily moving forward.

"Ten years to sharpen a sword," as long as we persevere and continue to invest, we will definitely be able to break through technical blockades and achieve independent control of the chip industry.

Innovation needs to communicate with the world, and we cannot close the door to think by ourselves.

In the era of globalization, cooperation and win-win is the way.

China's chip industry wants to go a step further and needs to work hard with partners from all over the world.

On the one hand, we should actively introduce advanced technology and learn from others' excellent experience; on the other hand, we should also attract more talents to build a stronger chip industry together, making the global semiconductor industry more prosperous and developed.

The era of "going it alone" is over, and "grouping together for warmth" is the future development direction.

China is ready to work with countries around the world to build a more open, inclusive, cooperative, and win-win semiconductor industry ecosystem.

The Netherlands' restrictions on the export of lithography machines to China are just a microcosm.

In today's increasingly fierce global technology competition, similar events will continue to occur.

China's determination to develop the chip industry is unshakable, and no matter how the environment changes, we will continue to work hard.

The rise of "China's core" is an unstoppable historical trend.

Of course, the development of China's chip industry cannot be separated from the help of friends around the world.

Only by working together can we make the global chip industry develop better.

In the future, China will continue to increase investment in the chip industry, strengthen cooperation with countries around the world, and jointly respond to the global chip shortage challenge, contributing to the construction of a more prosperous digital economy.

The road is long, but we are full of confidence.

Because we always believe that "China's core" will eventually shine in the world!