Comments by "D W" (@DW-op7ly) on "Who wins an economic/cold war: China or U.S.?" video.
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This is why China would win... This Chip industry where the Chinese are actually behind. The USA bright idea was to cut off technology and make them innovative. Would have been smarter to lower prices and dump chips into China
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far, Yangtze Memory, also known as YMTC, has remained under the radar of the U.S. government. But the company is taking no chances. With the guidance of Beijing, it has launched a massive review of its supply chain in an effort to find local suppliers -- or, at least, non-U.S. ones -- to replace the current dependence on American technology.
The collective effort has occupied over 800 people, full time, and including staff from its multiple local suppliers, for two years. And they have not finished yet.
YMTC is seeking to learn as much as it can about the origin of everything that goes into its products, from production equipment and chemicals to the tiny lenses, screws, nuts and bearings in chipmaking machinery and production lines, multiple sources familiar with the matter said. The audit extends not only to YMTC's own production lines, but also to suppliers, suppliers' suppliers, and so on.
"The review is as meticulous as knowing where the screws and nuts are coming from, the lead time, and if those parts have alternatives," one person familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asia.
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. plant in Wuhan. (Photo by Yusho Cho)
Each supplier is assigned a score for geopolitical risk, identified in many pages of documents detailing the components they use in its machines. YMTC has sent engineers to audit local equipment suppliers' production sites to verify that the origins of parts have been truthfully reported, one of the people told Nikkei.
American-made parts are scored highest for risk, followed by parts bought from Japan, Europe and those made locally, the person said. Meanwhile, suppliers are asked to provide corrective action reports to explain how they can together diversify procurement and find alternatives.
"Previously, when China talked about self-sufficiency, they were thinking about starting to cultivate some viable chip developers that could compete with foreign chipmakers," a chip industry executive told Nikkei. "However, they did not expect that they would need to do all that, starting from fundamentals.
"It's like when you want to drink milk -- but you not only need to own a whole farm, and learn how to breed dairy cows, and you have to build barns, fences, as well as grow hay, all by yourselves."
Nikkei
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