On May 20, South Korean media "Asia Economy" published an article stating that according to surveys, despite the United States strengthening its export restrictions on Chinese semiconductors, Chinese universities and researchers have surpassed the United States in semiconductor design and manufacturing research, leading the world.
Recently, a report released by the Georgetown University Emerging Technology Observatory (ETO) shows that from 2018 to 2023, among the top 10 institutions publishing semiconductor research papers in English, 9 are Chinese institutions. During this period, 8 of the institutions publishing the top 10% of highly cited papers each year are Chinese universities.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences published more than 14,300 chip-related research papers during this period, ranking first in both total publications and citations. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked second with approximately 7,850 total publications, and second in citations; Tsinghua University ranked fifth with 4,650 publications, and third in citations.
Although U.S. institutions rank second in the output of semiconductor design and manufacturing research papers worldwide, no institution has entered the top ten for total publications or citations. On the other hand, only France's National Center for Scientific Research and the National University of Singapore ranked third and ninth in total publications, and tenth in citations respectively.
ETO chief analyst Zachary Arnold explained that this analysis mainly focuses on academic research in emerging semiconductor technology fields and does not take into account internal industry research or patents. He particularly noted that in areas such as neuromorphic computing and optical computing, China leads the world in the number of research papers. The United States is taking measures to restrict the export of advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools to China in order to gain an advantage in next-generation semiconductor technology, but China's advantages in the research field have become evident. ETO pointed out that "export controls alone may not be enough to maintain American competitive advantages."
Currently, the United States and China are fiercely competing for dominance in next-generation semiconductor technology. The United States' restrictions on exports of advanced AI semiconductors to China began under the Biden administration. Therefore, NVIDIA has been producing performance-reduced H20 models exported to China, but the Trump administration set up export barriers at the inception of China's generative artificial intelligence "DeepSeek".
The U.S. Commerce Department recently announced new export licensing requirements for NVIDIA's H20 semiconductor exports to China. However, America's export control measures seem to have instead become a catalyst for China's accelerated development of independent technologies. According to reports by The Wall Street Journal citing sources, Huawei is developing its own AI chips, aiming to replace NVIDIA's high-performance AI chips.
Analysts believe that in recent years, Chinese universities have been at the forefront of the world in chip design and manufacturing research. They also influence next-generation semiconductor technology, putting China ahead in the competition.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1832642922395787/
Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author alone.