Frontier Introduction
According to a news report from Nikkei Chinese Network, China is catching up in the photoresist industry, which has been almost monopolized by Japanese companies for a long time. Photoresist is a chemical material used in conjunction with lithography machines and etching machines. The quality of photoresist directly determines the quality of semiconductor products. This industry has been long monopolized by Japanese companies, with Fuji Film and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo accounting for 90% of the global photoresist supply. In the more advanced EUV photoresist field, Japanese companies directly monopolize 96.7% of the global material supply.
Under policy support, the Chinese photoresist industry is developing rapidly, and some materials have entered the customer verification stage or the small-scale supply stage, making the trend of rapid replacement of mid-to-high-end products unavoidable.
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Industry Market
The development of Japan's semiconductor industry originated from Masaru Ibuka of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Ibuka purchased the patent license for transistors from Western Electric, the parent company of Bell Labs in the United States, for $25,000, and began manufacturing radios using American technology with the intention of making profits.
Subsequently, Ibuka led the development of the TR-55 model of mini radio and named the product brand Sony. The Sony TR-55 caused a rush to buy both domestically and internationally, selling well, and Ibuka renamed his company, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd., as Sony.
Sony opened the door to Japan's semiconductor industry, giving rise to a boom in Japanese semiconductor companies such as NEC, Toshiba, Fujifilm, Nikon, and Tokyo Electron.
To compete with the United States, Japan launched a large-scale industrial research and development plan. This plan was led by the Japanese government, with Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and NEC as core companies, jointly developing with the Japan Electrical Technology Laboratory, the Electronic Comprehensive Research Institute of the National Institute of Industrial Technology, and the Computer Comprehensive Research Institute. The investment scale reached 7.2 billion yen.
The Japanese industrial research and development plan covered the entire industry chain. The first research institute was established at Hitachi, responsible for the development of electron beam devices and micro-exposure devices; the second research institute was established at Fujitsu, responsible for the development of variable-size electron beam devices; the third research institute was established at Toshiba, responsible for the development of scanning and copying devices; the fourth research institute was established at the Japan Electrical Technology Laboratory, responsible for the development of basic materials; the fifth research institute was established at Mitsubishi, responsible for the development of manufacturing process technologies and projection exposure equipment; and the sixth research institute was established at NEC, responsible for the product packaging design, testing, and evaluation, which was also the final step in product manufacturing.
This clear and comprehensive industrial chain development approach gathered dispersed technical forces together for joint research and development, allowing Japanese companies to take the lead in the competition with the United States and achieve coordinated development throughout the entire industry chain.
Domestic Replacement
Today, China's semiconductor industry is also learning from Japan's development model. The large fund created by national resources has already made three rounds of large-scale investments, with key investment targets including SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Yangtze Memory Technologies, Zhiyuan Semiconductor, and Northern Semiconductor, among other leading domestic semiconductor companies, covering the entire supply chain from upstream material and equipment manufacturers to end manufacturing enterprises, supporting the development of the entire industry chain.
Japan's large-scale integrated circuit plan gave Japan a significant advantage in equipment and materials. Even after being suppressed twice by the United States, Japanese companies' advanced chip manufacturing industry nearly stagnated, but Japan could still continue to expand in the chip industry through its supply chain advantages.
According to relevant industry data, the Chinese photoresist market size was approximately 10.92 billion yuan in 2023, reaching over 11.4 billion yuan in 2024, and is expected to reach over 12.3 billion yuan in 2025, showing a trend of large-scale domestic growth.
In addition to photoresist, the Chinese large silicon wafer industry is also showing a continuous growth trend. Previously, this industry, like photoresist, was a product monopolized by Japanese companies. However, under the strong push of the state in recent years, currently, 95% of polycrystalline silicon and 96% of photovoltaic silicon wafer production capacity are supplied by Chinese companies.
With the vast and mature resource advantages within the country, Chinese enterprises have significant advantages in power supply and green circular industries. Resource advantages can drive the development of the chip industry, thus demonstrating strong latecomer potential. In recent years, the United States has continuously blocked Chinese enterprises, ignoring the importance of resource construction, leading to a shortage of electricity resources in its AI industry.
AI industry, apart from hardware chips, is also about the large-scale supply of electricity and water resources.
According to a report published by Bloomberg Finance, if the AI industry is compared to a virtual country, its annual electricity consumption would rank fourth globally, behind China, the United States, and India. Future chip industry development is a competition for resources, and Chinese enterprises are in a leading position in this future competition.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7560245860446044691/
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