YMTC, a Chinese 3D NAND maker, is not only ramping up production of flash memory at a rapid pace, but does so using silicon wafers produced in China, according to chief executive and chairman of Sumco, a major raw wafer manufacturer. This, among other tactics, allows the Yangtze Memory Technology Co. (YMTC) to increase the output of 3D NAND despite major sanctions imposed by the U.S. government against the company. It also indicates that China is strengthening its chip supply chain to boost the production of its own homegrown blank wafers, which are then used to create various types of semiconductors.
"Although the majority of wafers produced in China are test wafers, based on our investigations, we understand that wafer production is at around one million," said Mayuki Hashimoto, CEO and chairman of Sumco, at the company's earnings call earlier this month (via SeekingAlpha), according to a quote published by Sravan Kundojjala, an analyst with SemiAnalysis. "The key memory player, where the state is the majority stakeholder, is thought to be consuming 400,000 to 500,000 in domestically produced wafers."
