‘Panic’ over capacity crunch in mature node chips drives orders to Chinese foundries

The global AI boom is driving orders back to Chinese foundries as overseas rivals shift production towards high-margin AI chips and high-bandwidth memory, creating a shortage in mature-node semiconductors, according to the head of China’s top contract chipmaker.“AI demand has directly pushed power-management and other mature capacity into shortage,” said Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Friday.Zhao noted that the squeeze was prompting consumer electronics and IoT customers to seek capacity in mainland China – a trend reinforced by electric vehicle demand, a robotics boom, domestic supply-chain localisation, and companies stockpiling.