Several updates concerning U.S.-China tensions have been in the news over the last few days. Risc-V is another major theme of this news roundup, with product announcements from the recent Risc-V Summit. And one more AI startup is raising the bar for energy efficiency.
Will the ‘chip war’ escalate hitting older nodes?
While export controls on Western technologies have so far focused on the most advanced process nodes, the ‘chip war’ between the U.S. and China could potentially escalate and hit older nodes, according to a TechInsights analyst quoted by Reuters. The premises for this analysis can be found in two press reports: on the one hand, China is reportedly working on a $143 billion support package for its semiconductor industry, to counter U.S. moves aimed at slowing its technological advances; on the other hand, Chinese foundry SMIC is reportedly ramping up production of 28-nanometer chips, an old node still widely used in automotive, weapons and IoT applications. While subsidies would likely benefit Chinese equipment manufacturers – such as Naura, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment and Kingsemi – the concern of TechInsights is that SMIC and other chipmakers in China could use government subsidies to sell 28-nanometer chips at a low price, flooding this market segment and wiping out global competition.
