SMIC’s New 7nm Chip Should Worry West — But There’s A Way Out

There were recent reports that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s biggest semiconductor foundry and fabrication facility has developed a chip using a 7nm technology node indigenously. The new chip, a leading-edge node (in terms of the number of transistors fitted on the chip itself) as per the TechInsights report, has been developed by SMIC for MinerVa Semiconductor, a semiconductor design company registered in Canada but with Chinese directors at the helm. The chip has been specifically designed and manufactured for the mining of the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The report also suggests that SMIC plans to use the process technology to develop other products at the same node in the future.