| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Semiconductor foundry |
| Founded | 2000 |
| HQ | Shanghai, China |
| Ticker | HKEX: 0981; SSE: 688981 |
| Status | BIS Entity List (2020) |
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is the People's Republic of China's largest pure-play foundry and the primary fabricator for the country's frontier AI accelerators. After TSMC was cut off from supplying Huawei in 2020, SMIC became the default foundry for China's domestic AI compute, manufacturing Huawei's Ascend chips on a 7nm-class process built with deep-ultraviolet (DUV) multipatterning rather than EUV lithography, to which it has no access. It is central to China's effort to build an AI compute supply chain insulated from US export controls (Source: CSIS — DeepSeek, Huawei, Export Controls, and the Future of the U.S.-China AI Race (Allen, March 2025)).
History
SMIC was founded in 2000 by Richard Chang, a TSMC veteran, with Shanghai municipal backing, and dual-listed in Hong Kong and New York in 2004. In 2020 it was added to the US BIS Entity List, restricting its access to US-origin equipment for advanced nodes. In 2023 Huawei's Mate 60 Pro was found to contain an SMIC-fabricated 7nm-class chip, the Kirin 9000S, a result observers had not expected given a widely held belief that the Entity List had capped SMIC at 14nm. From 2024 through 2026, SMIC became the primary foundry for Huawei's Ascend AI accelerator line, including the 910B and 910C.
Role in China's AI compute supply chain
SMIC fabricates the Ascend 910B and 910C at its N+2 7nm-class node. Lacking access to EUV lithography (see ASML), it reaches 7nm-class densities using quadruple-patterning on DUV tools. The approach is feasible but low-yield and expensive, which constrains volumes. According to SemiAnalysis, SMIC is projected to reach roughly 50,000 wafers per month of 7nm-class capacity by 2026, a ramp from prior years but still about an order of magnitude below TSMC's leading-edge volume (Source: Raw Sources/SemiAnalysis - Huawei Ascend Production Ramp.md). Yields on 7nm DUV multipatterning remain substantially below TSMC's EUV-based 7nm, inflating per-chip cost and limiting how many Ascends can be built from each wafer start.
SMIC is described as both the main bottleneck and the main hope for China's ability to produce frontier AI accelerators domestically (Source: CSIS — DeepSeek, Huawei, Export Controls, and the Future of the U.S.-China AI Race (Allen, March 2025)).
Export controls and geopolitical position
SMIC has been on the BIS Entity List since 2020, meaning it cannot purchase US-origin advanced fabrication equipment, such as Applied Materials and Lam Research tools above specified thresholds, without a license; such licenses are typically denied for sub-14nm applications. Successive BIS rules in October 2022, October 2023, and subsequent updates have progressively tightened what SMIC can access.
ASML has been prohibited from shipping EUV lithography systems to China since 2019, with restrictions on the most advanced immersion DUV tools added in 2023–2024. SMIC's inability to acquire EUV is the primary reason it relies on multipatterning. SMIC's position has made it a focus of US-China AI competition and of Chinese AI sovereignty strategy.
Market position, products, and processes
SMIC is the largest mainland Chinese foundry and ranks fourth or fifth globally by revenue. It is dominant at mature nodes (28nm and above) for Chinese domestic customers and is the only foundry executing 7nm-class production without EUV at scale. It competes with Taiwan's TSMC and UMC, South Korea's Samsung, and US-based GlobalFoundries at various nodes.
Its processes include:
- N+1, N+2 (7nm-class) — used for Huawei Ascend and Kirin SoCs.
- 14nm FinFET — in volume production since 2019.
- 28nm and mature nodes — the bulk of revenue, serving domestic Chinese fabless customers.
Relationships
- depends-on: Semiconductor Supply Chain — SMIC is a constrained node in the broader chain, highly dependent on upstream equipment supply.
- instance-of: AI Sovereignty — exemplifies China's push for indigenous compute.
- related: Huawei — Ascend AI Accelerators, Nvidia & TSMC — AI Compute Infrastructure, ASML — EUV Lithography Monopoly, Export Controls (AI), Compute Governance, AI Race Dynamics.