Wafer Fabrication

SMIC — Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation — was founded in 2000 in Shanghai by Richard Chang, a veteran of Taiwan's TSMC, with a mission: to build a world-class chip foundry on the Chinese mainland. Two decades later, it is China's largest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturer, the country's best hope for chip self-sufficiency — and the most sanctioned company in the US-China tech war. The company makes chips for fabless customers across China and the world: logic chips for phones and IoT devices, power management chips, display drivers, image sensors, and increasingly advanced processors using its own 14nm and 7nm-class technologies. Its factories in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shenzhen run tens of thousands of wafer starts per month, and its expansion plans — four new fabs announced with state backing — represent China's largest semiconductor investment program. With about 18,000 employees and annual revenue near US$6 billion, SMIC has been blocked by US export controls from buying the most advanced equipment, forcing it to develop alternative processes and extend the life of older technology nodes. For the global chip industry, SMIC is the strategic question: can China's flagship foundry keep advancing without the tools its competitors use — or will sanctions permanently cap its technology ceiling?