Jul 31, 2026 11:53 am IST

Opinion | Why China's Latest 'Chip' Breakthrough Is Shaking The World

China was never supposed to get this far, the US tried to ensure that through its sanctions. Beijing, however, had other ideas.

Syed Zubair Ahmed Syed Zubair Ahmed Columnist

Syed Zubair Ahmed Columnist

Have you ever watched the closing stages of a marathon?

For most of the race, the leader looks comfortable. Every now and then, he glances over his shoulder and sees a runner who never seemed much of a threat. Then, almost without anyone noticing, that runner begins to close the gap. His stride lengthens. His pace quickens. And just when the leader thinks the finish line is safely within reach, the challenger suddenly looks capable of sweeping past.

That is increasingly what the global semiconductor race looks like. For years, the United States and its allies built an overwhelming lead in the technologies that power the modern world. Taiwan dominated the most advanced chips. South Korea dominated memory chips. The Netherlands produced the world's most sophisticated lithography machines. American companies designed the processors powering everything from iPhones and AI chatbots to fighter jets.

China, despite its manufacturing prowess, remained largely dependent on others for the most advanced technologies. That equation may now be changing.

The Lithography Breakthrough

Early this week, Reuters reported that China has begun mass-producing domestically developed immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, marking a major milestone in Beijing's long campaign to reduce dependence on foreign technology. According to Reuters, the effort is being led by Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group, a relatively unknown state-owned company that has brought together engineers from several of China's leading lithography startups.

On its own, that is significant enough. But it comes alongside reports from Chinese researchers claiming huge progress towards something even more ambitious: they are poised to produce a home-grown Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine. If those claims are true, they could represent one of the biggest shifts in the semiconductor industry in decades. China, in other words, has crossed one technological milestone. It is now claiming to be approaching another.

These reports have coincided with the blockbuster stock market debut of memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). Right now, it's the toast of eager investors. Together, they suggest the chip war may be entering a new phase.

DUV And EUV Lithography

With enough engineering ingenuity, Chinese engineers are now using DUV machines to produce advanced 7-nanometre chips. EUV takes the technology to an entirely different level. It allows manufacturers to produce the world's most advanced processors - the 2nm, 3nm, and 5nm chips, now powering artificial intelligence systems, high-end smartphones, and the next generation of supercomputers.

Without EUV, building those chips becomes vastly more difficult. That is why EUV has long been regarded as the holy grail of semiconductor manufacturing. For years, one company that stood at the summit of the DUV and EUV........

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