As many as 5,746 Chinese chip companies were deregistered in 2022, much higher than the previous year. Experts believe U.S. sanctions and China’s economic downturn have caused mass bankruptcies and that it would be difficult for China’s chip industry to recover.
Chinese media Titanium Media App reported on Feb. 16 that according to Chinese data analytics firm Qichacha, a total of 5,746 chip-related companies in China closed down last year, a sharp increase of 68 percent from 3,420 in 2021. On average, about 15 chip companies closed every day.
Workers producing LED chips at a factory in Huaian city, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, on June 16, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
According to an analysis published on Feb. 17 by Chip Language, a website that focuses on the semiconductor industry in China, the reasons for the closures include inexperienced operators who joined the semiconductor business in a rush and, once finding it unprofitable, closing their companies. The U.S. export controls on Chinese semiconductors also had a significant impact on the performance and confidence of Chinese chip companies….