Will China Eat Its Chip Investments?

For anyone consumed with China’s future as a semiconductor manufacturing power, this Business Week piece is a must-read.

And be prepared for a debunking of everything you’ve read about the inevitability of China’s future dominance of the sector.

The piece recaps a new book by a pair of University of California-Berkeley professors whose research finds:

  • China’s silicon designers haven’t mastered high-end inventions.
  • Academic programs produce quantity at the expense of quality.
  • The sector suffers from a lack of business success stories.
  • The path of government funding toward building plants is rife with local governmental interference and redundant investments.
  • Rampant overcapacity.

According to Business Week, the authors compare China’s rise to that of Japan’s, noting certain similarities and a few key distinctions. I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m going to.

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About Mike

Mike Buetow is president of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (pcea.net). He previously was editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly magazine, the leading publication for electronics manufacturing, and PCD&F, the leading publication for printed circuit design and fabrication. He spent 21 years as vice president and editorial director of UP Media Group, for which he oversaw all editorial and production aspects. He has more than 30 years' experience in the electronics industry, including six years at IPC, an electronics trade association, at which he was a technical projects manager and communications director. He has also held editorial positions at SMT Magazine, community newspapers and in book publishing. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Follow Mike on Twitter: @mikebuetow

One thought on “Will China Eat Its Chip Investments?

  1. We are a PCB manufacturer and PCB assembly factory in China.We often source component for customers also.According to our experience, there are indeed more and more China company plans to produce chips.such as capacitor,resistor,some simple ICs.

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