$1.4 trillion dollars. That’s the investment price tag the Chinese government has committed to paying to develop its domestic semiconductor industry in the next five years. This attempt to achieve self-reliance in semiconductors, which power much of the global economy, is not just a strategic objective but an existential imperative. Multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions are threatening to crippled China’s tech sector, forcing national champions like Huawei to charter planes to bring back as many chips as possible from its main supplier, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), before access officially closes off.
But what can money actually buy in the world of semiconductors? Not much, if spent on the wrong people, doing the wrong thing, with the wrong timeline.
The full lifecycle of a chip is complex, but it can be roughly broken down into four stages: acquire raw material, design chips, marry the design to manufacturing capabilities and produce at scal
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