#SMIC

A 300 mm wafer caught mid-transfer back into a DUV exposure chamber in a bright cleanroom, a small pass-count display on the tool showing a number greater than one, the wafer not yet reseated on the exposure stage

How China Prints Near-Frontier Chips Without a Single EUV Machine

SMIC has no access to EUV lithography at all. It is still manufacturing chips close to the leading edge — by making an older tool do a harder job, more times, at real cost.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

A stainless sorting tray in a bright fab with dies being separated into two visibly uneven piles, a smaller pile of accepted dies and a much larger pile of rejects, a robotic picker caught mid-placement over the smaller pile

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

SMIC's Real Constraint Isn't the Node. It's the Yield.

Coverage of China's chip industry usually frames the gap with the West as a performance-gap story. The sharper, less-told version is a yield story — and the number behind it is startling.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

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