Mature node chip output to surge 6% in 2025
While most industry attention is focused on cutting-edge silicon, China continues to ramp up production of so-called mature nodes, leading to overall capacity increasing by 6 percent in 2025, according to TrendForce.
The Taiwan-based research outfit says that Chinese foundries are set to drive most of this mature process capacity growth next year, thanks to Beijing's domestic semiconductor substitution policies.
The latter are long-term plans to reduce the country's reliance on imported chips, especially in light of efforts by the US to curb China's access to advanced technology, and to increase its own role in the global semiconductor value chain.
In September, it was reported that China had spent more on chipmaking equipment to expand its semiconductor capacity in the first half of this year than the US, Taiwan, and South Korea combined.
TrendForce claims that as this new capacity comes online, China's share of mature process output among the top ten global foundries is likely to pass 25 percent by the end of 2025. The highest increases are expected to be seen in chips produced on 28 and 22nm nodes, but fabrication plants are also advancing their specialty process technologies.
