China Plans to Create Committee to Collaborate With Intel, AMD

Silicon Wafer
Silicon Wafer (Image credit: Shutterstock)

News outlet Nikkei reported that China plans to create a special committee to collaborate with big-name foreign chipmakers, such as Intel and AMD. With this new move, China aims to establish a domestic chip supply chain to circumvent the sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on the country.

The organization is called the "cross-border semiconductor work committee." If Nikkei's information is accurate, China may launch the committee in the first half of this year. The Ministry of Commerce will oversee this special committee in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to Nikkei's sources, the committee's objective is to fortify the relationship between Chinese and foreign companies. The end game is to build a chip supply chain by securing semiconductor technologies from Japan, Europe, and the U.S. In addition, the committee wants to woo overseas companies into establishing development and manufacturing sites in China with the promise of cooperation with the local governments and funding.

Nikkei's acquired documents allegedly revealed that China targets Intel, AMD, and Infineon Technologies of Germany. In addition, an industrial group from the Netherlands, including ASML, is also on the list. The publication's sources claimed that a few companies had expressed their desire to jump on China's initiative. However, Intel and the Dutch group refused to comment when Nikkei contacted them.

It's not the first time China has set out to forge a partnership with a foreign chipmaker. For example, AMD had struck a joint venture with China via the Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co. Ltd. (THATIC) to license some of its x86 and SoC IP. Then there's also the emergence of Zhaoxin, a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Chinese government, to produce x86 chips.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC), China's number one chipmaker, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (AMEC), a semiconductor equipment maker and smartphone giant Xiaomi will reportedly participate in the program. The other participants include Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 2015, China announced the "Made in China 2025" $20 billion campaign to bolster the domestic semiconductor industry. The plan was to achieve 70% tech self-sufficiency by 2025. However, things aren't going as planned, according to IC Insights. The U.S. firm estimated that China had reached 16% in 2020, and even China's optimistic numbers had it at 30%.

The U.S. has already blocked the major Chinese players, including Huawei and SMIC, from obtaining U.S.-designed equipment, materials, and software. In addition, Chinese processor developers Phytium and Sunway and several quantum computing entities are also on the blacklist.

China's latest act could serve as a stepping stone for achieving its goals. However, other countries are also offering subsidies and incentives to attract foreign investment in the semiconductor industry so that China will have stiff competition. Additionally, IP theft continues to be a concern, such as a Micron - UMC fiasco, so foreign companies will be reluctant to bring their technology over to Chinese soil.

Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • Kamen Rider Blade
    The entire Western World needs to STEP AWAY from China, Isolate them, then sanction the hell out of them like Iran once we all pull out.
    Reply
  • VforV
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    The entire Western World needs to STEP AWAY from China, Isolate them, then sanction the hell out of them like Iran once we all pull out.
    And then WW3 can start. Because China will just roll over, accept that and play dead, right?
    Reply
  • daedalus1
    It is about time we told china to get lost. They are playing the West and many others for fools. There is nothing to be gained by the chip manufacturers having anything to do with this, other than their eventual demise as china rips off the IP. They have their fingers in too many pies already, we have our universities being overtaken by them by their donations; to African countries being so far in hock to them, that the chinese are effectively colonising them.
    These companies need to stay well away.
    Reply
  • Historical Fidelity
    VforV said:
    And then WW3 can start. Because China will just roll over, accept that and play dead, right?
    China wouldn’t start ww3, they would lose against a rallied world.
    Reply
  • VforV
    Historical Fidelity said:
    China wouldn’t start ww3, they would lose against a rallied world.
    Rallied world? Do you think US still has "many" allies? Do you still think this US today is the same as the one 60 years ago? The old US with decent principles and ideologies is gone, the US of today is horrible in every possible aspect. I'm not saying China is better, there is no good choice today, just a different kind of bad...

    Have you ever heard of the BRICS countries? You (and a lot of others) have no clue what's coming... US is a dying empire...
    Reply
  • Historical Fidelity
    VforV said:
    Rallied world? Do you think US still has "many" allies? Do you still think this US today is the same as the one 60 years ago? The old US with decent principles and ideologies is gone, the US of today is horrible in every possible aspect. I'm not saying China is better, there is no good choice today, just a different kind of bad...

    Have you ever heard of the BRICS countries? You (and a lot of others) have no clue what's coming... US is a dying empire...
    Dude I completely disagree with your premise on the US however i respect your opinion, but yes the world would rally against China if they become an aggressor, even if other countries hate the US, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and any country being invaded by China would happily accept military support from the US, and other countries would gladly side with the US and other first world countries out of fear of being invaded. A mutual defense against a Chinese aggressor is the logical choice vs each country dealing with a Chinese aggressor on their own. You have a right to think of the US however you want, but drop your bias for a second and think of the logical approach to this situation.

    Also, I do not worry at all about the BRICS, in fact most of the countries are in opposition to eachother in one form or another. you do realize that India and China hate eachother and are in fact in the middle of military border disputes, Russia is a dying country, with birth-to-death rate of 0, and their entire economy is built around oil and gas which in 25 years will be almost entirely replaced by renewable energy sources.

    To quote Wikipedia on the BRICS nations it says, “The existence of the BRICS grouping does not signify a formal or informal alliance; there are multiple economic, territorial, and political disputes between the five governments.”
    Reply
  • VforV
    Historical Fidelity said:
    Dude I completely disagree with your premise on the US however i respect your opinion, but yes the world would rally against China if they become an aggressor, even if other countries hate the US, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and any country being invaded by China would happily accept military support from the US, and other countries would gladly side with the US and other first world countries out of fear of being invaded. A mutual defense against a Chinese aggressor is the logical choice vs each country dealing with a Chinese aggressor on their own. You have a right to think of the US however you want, but drop your bias for a second and think of the logical approach to this situation.

    Also, I do not worry at all about the BRICS, in fact most of the countries are in opposition to eachother in one form or another. you do realize that India and China hate eachother and are in fact in the middle of military border disputes, Russia is a dying country, with birth-to-death rate of 0, and their entire economy is built around oil and gas which in 25 years will be almost entirely replaced by renewable energy sources.

    To quote Wikipedia on the BRICS nations it says, “The existence of the BRICS grouping does not signify a formal or informal alliance; there are multiple economic, territorial, and political disputes between the five governments.”
    If China becomes the aggressor?

    But who is the aggressor if China is completely blocked? I mean completely blocked...

    They would see themselves as the victim and actually understandably so, from their POV.
    How about if the entire world blocks the US? Isn't the US the victim then? It would be the same thing.

    I'm just saying, who ever does the most stupid thing next, can easily start WW3.

    Also, you have no idea about Russia and what they can do.

    Anyway, let's stop here. Let's agree to disagree and in 5-7 years (or sooner) when WW3 starts before or after the biggest world wide economic crash happens, then you will remember what I said. Both WW3 and that crash are inevitable. They are a question of WHEN, not IF. There is a reason all major countries are weaponizing themselves for dozens of years now... hint: not for military parades.

    But like I said, I'll stop here, I won't reply again.
    Reply
  • Historical Fidelity
    VforV said:
    If China becomes the aggressor?

    But who is the aggressor if China is completely blocked? I mean completely blocked...

    They would see themselves as the victim and actually understandably so, from their POV.
    How about if the entire world blocks the US? Isn't the US the victim then? It would be the same thing.

    I'm just saying, who ever does the most stupid thing next, can easily start WW3.

    Also, you have no idea about Russia and what they can do.

    Anyway, let's stop here. Let's agree to disagree and in 5-7 years (or sooner) when WW3 starts before or after the biggest world wide economic crash happens, then you will remember what I said. Both WW3 and that crash are inevitable. They are a question of WHEN, not IF. There is a reason all major countries are weaponizing themselves for dozens of years now... hint: not for military parades.

    But like I said, I'll stop here, I won't reply again.
    Well that’s generally how countries that get black listed for stealing technology and IP from the world for their own gain act…like they are the victims….doesn’t matter though, victim status has no bearing on the facts of the matter.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    The entire Western World needs to STEP AWAY from China, Isolate them, then sanction the hell out of them like Iran once we all pull out.
    We would only being hurting ourselves doing that. If we try to isolate them, one of two things will happen. We will accelerate there drive towards technical independence, where they no longer buy products from our companies, and we end up creating competing Chinese companies to our own. The other is they will steal the IP anyway. If they're going to end up with our IP anyway, we might as well get something out of it by working together with them before they steal it.
    Reply
  • Unolocogringo
    With the US embargo of advanced node tools,designs and software to run said tools, this is the only way to get advanced node equipment and manufacturing know how into the country.
    Just another ploy to get what they want.
    The US would surely give the manufacturing giants permits to import advanced node equipment and set up a fab there.
    Without it all of their fabs will be stuck with older process node equipment.
    Reply