The new policy issued by the China Semiconductor Industry Association on April 11, 2025, shifts the integrated circuit origin certification standard from “packaging location” to “wafer fabrication location.” This change will accelerate the migration of global chip companies’ wafer fabrication processes to mainland China.
As a critical validation step between chip R&D and mass production, wafer fabrication determines whether a chip can be successfully commercialized. In this context, six core wafer foundry companies in the industry will face significant development opportunities.
The first company is SMIC, which is the second-largest pure-play foundry globally, providing 8-inch and 12-inch chip manufacturing services across all categories, including logic chips and memory chips. As the first domestic company to achieve mass production of 14nm FinFET technology, its technology nodes range from 0.35 microns to 14 nanometers. By the end of 2024, its monthly production capacity will reach 948,000 wafers (equivalent to 8 inches), with cumulative shipments exceeding 8 million wafers. In 2024, it achieved revenue of 57.796 billion yuan, with the foundry business contributing 53.246 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 30%.
The second company is Hua Hong Semiconductor, which is the fifth-largest foundry globally and has unique advantages in specialty processes. Its 8-inch and 12-inch production lines focus on embedded memory, analog power management, and RF, with technology nodes ranging from 0.35 microns to 55 nanometers. The 12-inch automotive chip production line in Wuxi has reached a monthly capacity of 83,000 wafers, with a 10% year-on-year increase in wafer shipments in 2024. The annual R&D investment is 1.643 billion yuan, accounting for 11.42% of revenue.
The third company is Jinghong Integrated, whose core competitiveness lies in the foundry of display driver chips, controlled by the Hefei State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. In addition to maintaining a leading position in the global LCD panel DDIC foundry, it has formed a strategic partnership with security leader SmartSens in the CMOS image sensor field, achieving a monthly delivery capacity of 15,000 stacked wafers. In 2024, revenue increased by 27.69% year-on-year to 9.249 billion yuan, with net profit increasing by 151.67%.
The fourth company is Chipone Integrated, which focuses on automotive-grade power semiconductors and originated from the power device department of SMIC. As the largest automotive IGBT foundry in China, its next-generation SiC MOSFET products have achieved world-class yield levels. Although it still incurred a loss of 968 million yuan in 2024, the loss reduction exceeded 50% year-on-year, and its automotive analog IC technology fills the domestic gap in high-voltage, high-power chips.
The fifth company is China Resources Microelectronics, which is the largest IDM semiconductor company in China and dominates the MOSFET device sector. It has the largest open mask factory in the country, with a monthly capacity of over 70,000 8-inch wafers and over 200,000 6-inch wafers. In 2024, revenue slightly increased by 2.2% to 10.119 billion yuan, while net profit declined by 47.55% year-on-year due to industry cycles.
The sixth company is Silex Microsystems, which maintains a leading position in global MEMS foundry through its Swedish subsidiary Silex, mastering core technologies such as TSV and TGV. The 8-inch MEMS production line in Beijing continues to ramp up, while also developing 8-inch silicon-based GaN epitaxy technology. In 2024, although revenue declined by 7.31% to 1.205 billion yuan, its technological reserves lay the foundation for future growth.
This adjustment of origin rules marks a strategic shift for the Chinese semiconductor industry towards breaking into the upstream of the value chain. The six companies, leveraging their respective accumulations in specialty processes, production capacity, and technological breakthroughs, will occupy a more advantageous position in the global industrial chain restructuring. The deepening of the domestic substitution process over the next three years will push the industry into a new phase of simultaneous technological breakthroughs and capacity releases.
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