A chip teardown shows that China's SMIC is quietly shipping 7nm chips; SMIC is rapidly becoming the world's third largest foundry, behind TSMC and Samsung
SemiAnalysis's teardown confirms what experts had flagged after SMIC's first 7nm breakthrough: China's largest foundry is shipping 7nm silicon despite lacking EUV lithography, using DUV-based workarounds instead. The commercial arc behind it runs from SMIC's $6.6B Shanghai share sale through Beijing's plan to lean on mature nodes while advanced capability catches up.
The scale gap remains wide — by mid-2025 TrendForce put TSMC at 70% of foundry revenue against SMIC's 5.1%, and SMIC's own recent results show profit concentrated in strong mature-node orders rather than leading-edge volume — but the teardown establishes that the process node itself is no longer the barrier.
First-order effects
SMIC becomes the world's clear third foundry behind TSMC and Samsung, giving Chinese chip designers a domestic source for 7nm-class parts that previously required TSMC or Samsung.
Second-order effects
Export-control policy faces a harder test: if DUV machines can be stretched to 7nm, restricting EUV alone does not cap China's leading-edge progress, pressuring Washington to tighten tool and maintenance restrictions further.
Third-order effects
If low-yield DUV 7nm proves commercially viable at scale, the foundry industry bifurcates into two partially decoupled supply chains — one around TSMC's EUV roadmap, one around China's DUV workarounds — with mature-node pricing as the shared battleground where SMIC already earns its margins.
The trend: China's foundry strategy is converting state capital and DUV improvisation into a parallel leading-edge track, narrowing the node gap even as revenue share stays concentrated at TSMC.
Commerce supposed 2b restricting export licenses 4 equipment which can be used on technologies more advanced than 14nm. Of course...commerce handed out export licenses like candy... Furthermore, almost all equipment used on SMIC's 14nm FinFET can be used on their 7nm process http…
@niubi
Bill Bishop on x
China's SMIC Is Shipping 7nm Foundry ASICs, by @dylan522p https://semianalysis.substack.com/ ... A sign of what a joke the resstrictions on SMIC have ben, first under Trump and now under Biden. Why even pretend
@godfreetrh
Godfree Roberts on x
SMIC, China's largest IC foundry, is mass shipping 7nm chips. The most advanced American and EU chips are 12nm. The US was supposedly restricting export licenses for any equipment usable on technologies more advanced than 14nm. https://semianalysis.substack.com/ ... https://twitt…
@stshank
Stephen Shankland on x
China's SMIC processor foundry is successfully building chips with 7nm process technology, @dylan522p concludes. This after years of difficulty in China with miniaturization progress. Wonder if we'll hear about this in lobbying for CHIPS Act US subsidies. https://semianalysis.sub…
@pstasiatech
Paul Triolo on x
Using techniques like multipatterning allows for the use of DUV systems for some layers at 7 nm, but getting to commercial yields is the challenge. If SMIC has been able to do this at commercial yields, as TSMC has done, that would be a big deal.... https://twitter.com/...
@jacob_feldgoise
Jacob Feldgoise on x
Very interesting analysis. How quickly SMIC is able to ramp up 7nm sales will likely depend on the following: 1. How high is SMIC's 7nm yield rate? 2. Considering subsidies, will SMIC be satisfied with a lower yield than TSMC/Samsung/Intel? https://twitter.com/...
@steakandchickn
SteakisGood on x
This is *big*. Imperative at this point that CHIPS passes and Ohio & TSMC AZ are scaled up, we need more leading edge silicon on US soil. https://twitter.com/...
@matthewstoller
Matt Stoller on x
“To be abundantly clear, China's SMIC is shipping a foundry process with commercially available chips in the open market which are more advanced than any American or European company.” China just surpassed the U.S. in chipmaking. https://t.co/30eLaTXpua