Too many people, like that guy who wrote that article, although I believe he is no dummy, somethings are just beyond his understanding.

Everyone should realize, that the chip is a means to an end. The chip is not an end in itself.

But they make it out like the chip is paramount. That is flat out wrong.

In the case of AI, what is the most important point? It is the quantity of data. We know who has more than anybody because of population size. The algorithms are more important the chip. Chip can help speed up the research, but they can just build a bigger computer with more chips.

The technological state of China now and it capacity to make chips, banning the latest and fastest chips from sale to China will not make a difference in Chinese AI pursuits. This avenue of attack, that is a dead end already.

In the case of weapons, China has hypersonic weapons and rumoured drone swarms, stuff that the US has not deployed. Yet, China does not possess the most advanced chip making abilities, as most weapons systems do not need the cutting edge chip. China landed on Mars in one of the most complex mission in space exploration. China did not phone up Sony or whoever, and place some chip order to build all that spacecraft. Those chips used in the Mars mission they probably made themselves.

So the idea that China not having a 5nm chip or 3nm chip, and that would curtail the future of Chinese tech advancement, that is simply false. It just does not work that way.

The 7nm chip is probably important, because I remember reading that one Huawei basestation for 5G uses 2 of their 7nm chip that Huawei designed itself. Apparently a big enough stockpile was purchase for Huawei to build out the standalone 5G network in China.

Currently SMIC has the know-how and equipment to fab a 7nm chip. That is pretty good.

Then, what about the future?

Seems like two pressing questions, which are,

1) are the Chinese fabs adding capacity to make chips?

2) how far advanced are the Chinese chip equipment makers?

The article did not bother to address either question. LOL.

If trade data is any indication, I remember reading somewhere that Chinese imports of foreign chips has declined to levels not seen in over 5-10 years? Forget.

Well, since the Chinese economy is still growing, it will demand chips, which they imported less. Does this mean they using their stockpiles or was it import substitution of Chinese companies using Chinese made chips?

We don't know, and the Chinese will not say anything.

What we do know, by some digging, is that Chinese IC seems like undergoing a capital expenditure boom. While cap-ex is flat in IC in America, there are layoffs, and profits are down at the chip companies.

What are the details behind that story?