BEIJING — China injected more than $47 billion into an investment fund to strengthen its industry of integrated circuits, with a view to increasing their autonomy in this sector, according to a database consulted by AFP on Monday.
Los chips Made with semiconductor materials, they are essential for many products in the modern economy, from televisions and cars to weapons, telephones or artificial intelligence.
These components are at the heart of a bitter rivalry between China and the United States for their miniaturization and the supply of a highly strategic sector.
In recent years, Washington has blacklisted Chinese companies to exclude them from American technology supply chains and tightened restrictions on the export of microchips to China.
Since then, the Asian giant has been trying to accelerate the development of its integrated circuits, whose performance continues to be lower than those produced by the United States, among others.
The Chinese Ministry of Finance, state banks and several companies injected 344 billion yuan ($47.48 billion) into a national fund, according to the Tianyancha database, which compiles information in China on companies.
Chip manufacturing is extremely complex and involves many countries.
Many stages depend on United States, as well as the Netherlands and Japanwhose companies practically have a monopoly on the production of lithography machines, essential for the miniaturization of chips into very thin sheets of silicon.
This gives a greater advantage to these three countries that have considerable influence over world production.
The Netherlands recently joined the United States and Japan in restricting the export of advanced chip-making equipment to China.
Source: With information from AFP
