New US$12 billion factory for SMIC 7nm and other sub-14nm wafers

Shanghai China-based SMIC, the third-largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, and the Shanghai government have announced the development of a new US$12 billion plant to focus on its 14nm and smaller lithography.

As reported by WCCFTech, SMIC’s new factory was one of the dozens of new projects funded by the Shanghai regional government to create a self-sustaining supply chain for electronics production. Producing its own 7nm wafers is particularly relevant for the company after being added to the United State’s trade entity blacklist in late 2020.

This new manufacturing plant currently has targeted output of 35k 12-inch wafers per month. This will be a drop in the bucket compared to SMIC’s current 385k 8-inch and 195k 12-inch wafer production, but it is significant because this fab will make up a large portion of the company’s sub-14nm production.

SMIC’s new 7nm node, announced in October of last year, will be produced at the new factory. This node reportedly compares well to competing nodes from other semiconductor manufacturers in all but performance, leading to tailoring the output to low-performance/low-power uses.