The current situation of China‘s chip industry: not so optimistic or pessimistic, talent shortage is the key

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Due to the Huawei chip breakage incident, the issue of short boards in Chinese chips has received attention. Although China consumes one of the world's largest number of chips annually, it has been using the method of purchasing chips externally in the past few years. So, in terms of chip consumption, China ranks first in the world, but in terms of chip manufacturing, China's presence is very low.

From a set of data, the problem can be identified. In 2016, the sales of chips made in China were 13 billion yuan, accounting for 3.8% of global chip sales. But China consumes 60.5% of the world's chips, while the second ranked United States only consumes 11.4% of the chips. It is worth mentioning that the United States has one of the world's leading chip manufacturing capabilities, with over 60% of the world's chips coming from the United States and South Korea.

In fact, the shortage of chips in China is very obvious, with high consumption but limited production capacity. Overreliance on externally purchased chips also poses a great potential crisis. Once a "bottleneck" event like Huawei occurs, many Chinese technology companies will be affected. It's like handing over the lifeline of Chinese technology enterprises to someone else. Which field does not require chips? The fields of household appliances, automobiles, mobile phones, and so on all rely on chips.

Fortunately, due to Huawei's chip breakage, the country has also begun to attach importance to the development of China's chip industry and increased investment and support for the chip industry. After years of hard work, the sales of domestic chips in China have significantly increased, but it cannot be denied that the gap is still significant.

In addition to national support, many technology enterprises, universities, and research institutions have also invested in the chip industry, and everyone is striving to make up for the shortcomings of chips. But it must be admitted that the current situation of China's chip industry is not as optimistic or pessimistic. The shortage of talent remains the key.

Although the growth rate of China's chip industry is very fast, in fact, the growth of the Chinese chip market is still concentrated in the mid to low-end chip field, and the high-end links of chips are powerless for the Chinese chip industry, such as chip design software, chip manufacturing, lithography machines, and so on. Setting aside the early technological barriers erected by the United States and South Korea, in order to make breakthroughs in the high-end aspect of chip manufacturing, a continuous supply of top-notch talents is needed.

In fact, chip shortage is not just a problem faced by China's chip industry, even in leading countries and regions such as the United States, South Korea, and the European Union, there is still a lack of talent. So the difficulty of attracting talent in the Chinese chip industry is greater than in other industries, after all, the competition for talent is facing the whole world.

According to data statistics, in 2020, the total number of employees in China's chip industry was only 200000, while by the end of 2021, the number of employees in China's chip industry had exceeded 60000. In addition, many universities have also established colleges related to chips, and the Chinese chip industry has also realized the importance of talent shortage. But there is still a talent gap of at least 400000 in China's chip industry, so this talent struggle has just begun.

If the Chinese market wants to reduce chip outsourcing, it needs to achieve self-sufficiency in chips, and there is still a long way to go. The first step is to achieve self-sufficiency in mid to low end chips, and the next step is to make breakthroughs in high-end chips, which requires some patience. But don't worry, let's take it step by step. What do you think of this? Welcome to leave comments and comments!