China's legacy chip companies are set to gain from the latest escalation in the US-China tech war, as Beijing's latest anti-dumping investigation targets analogue chipmakers from the US.
The Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday the import volume of US mature mode integrated circuit (IC) chips subject to the investigation increased 37 per cent from 2022 to 2024, but the import price decreased 52 per cent in the same period, which had "lowered and suppressed the sales prices of domestic products".
The investigation, the latest episode in the ongoing US-China tech war, came before a scheduled meeting between the delegations of the two countries in Spain on Sunday.
Analysts expected the investigation, which would last for at least one year, to affect the sales of major US analogue chip companies like Texas Instruments and Analog Devices on the mainland and give a boost to their Chinese rivals.
Semiconductor chips are manufactured at a microelectronics enterprise in Haian, Jiangsu province. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Zhang Guobin, founder of the Chinese semiconductor industry website eetrend.com, said domestic companies like Silergy, SGMicro, Southchip Semiconductor Technology, Joulwatt Technology, and Novosense Microelectronics would benefit from the investigation.
Analogue chips, which process real-world signals like sound, temperature and light by varying voltage and current within their circuits, were an important part of ICs, accounting for around 15 per cent of total sales of the global semiconductor market in 2024, according to data from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics and Frost & Sullivan.
These chips generally use more mature process nodes - such as those between 90 nanometres and 300nm - due to redesign costs and specific analogue requirements like lower noise as opposed to leading-edge nodes. They are mostly used in applications like power management, audio equipment, communication systems, sensors and automotive systems.
China was the world's largest consumer of analogue chips, with demand expanding rapidly over the past few years amid emerging applications such as electric vehicles, 5G communications and Internet of Things, according to a recent report by the Chinese research institute Chyxx.
China's investigation was expected to create a healthier development environment for domestic analogue chipmakers, said Zhang from eetrend.com.
These companies were mostly fabless chipmakers that had been subject to increased pressure to control costs compared with international integrated device manufacturers, which were able to handle the entire chipmaking process from design and manufacturing to sales under one roof, he added.
China's analogue chip market was estimated to reach US$44 billion in 2025 and continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8.3 per cent over the next five years, thanks to "rising cloud adoption, increasing availability of high-speed connectivity and growing adoption of IoT devices", according to a report published in May by research firm Mordor Intelligence.
The Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday the import volume of US mature mode integrated circuit (IC) chips subject to the investigation increased 37 per cent from 2022 to 2024, but the import price decreased 52 per cent in the same period, which had "lowered and suppressed the sales prices of domestic products".
The investigation, the latest episode in the ongoing US-China tech war, came before a scheduled meeting between the delegations of the two countries in Spain on Sunday.
Analysts expected the investigation, which would last for at least one year, to affect the sales of major US analogue chip companies like Texas Instruments and Analog Devices on the mainland and give a boost to their Chinese rivals.
Semiconductor chips are manufactured at a microelectronics enterprise in Haian, Jiangsu province. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Zhang Guobin, founder of the Chinese semiconductor industry website eetrend.com, said domestic companies like Silergy, SGMicro, Southchip Semiconductor Technology, Joulwatt Technology, and Novosense Microelectronics would benefit from the investigation.
Analogue chips, which process real-world signals like sound, temperature and light by varying voltage and current within their circuits, were an important part of ICs, accounting for around 15 per cent of total sales of the global semiconductor market in 2024, according to data from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics and Frost & Sullivan.
These chips generally use more mature process nodes - such as those between 90 nanometres and 300nm - due to redesign costs and specific analogue requirements like lower noise as opposed to leading-edge nodes. They are mostly used in applications like power management, audio equipment, communication systems, sensors and automotive systems.
China was the world's largest consumer of analogue chips, with demand expanding rapidly over the past few years amid emerging applications such as electric vehicles, 5G communications and Internet of Things, according to a recent report by the Chinese research institute Chyxx.
China's investigation was expected to create a healthier development environment for domestic analogue chipmakers, said Zhang from eetrend.com.
These companies were mostly fabless chipmakers that had been subject to increased pressure to control costs compared with international integrated device manufacturers, which were able to handle the entire chipmaking process from design and manufacturing to sales under one roof, he added.
China's analogue chip market was estimated to reach US$44 billion in 2025 and continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8.3 per cent over the next five years, thanks to "rising cloud adoption, increasing availability of high-speed connectivity and growing adoption of IoT devices", according to a report published in May by research firm Mordor Intelligence.
