Executives of China's Big Fund III are re-adjusting its purpose to address the most notorious gaps in the country's semiconductor industry, namely lithography tools and electronic design automation (EDA) software. Previously, it was designed to support makers of fab tools and the semiconductor ecosystem in general. This recalibration comes as the U.S. intensifies efforts to restrict the access of China-based chip designers and chipmakers to tools and technologies vital for advanced semiconductors.
The main purpose of the third installment of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also called Big Fund III, was to strengthen local development and manufacturing of chipmaking equipment. This push has become urgent in recent years because companies like ASML, Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron are now barred by export controls from selling their most advanced tools to Chinese entities without an export license.
