Recent media reports pointed out that Wuhan's memory chip enterprises have developed a new generation of memory chip technology, once again catching up with the technical level of American and Korean chips, and it is produced with domestic chip equipment, which represents a major breakthrough in China's chip industry chain.

Earlier, in the product TiPlus7100 SSD released by this memory chip enterprise in Wuhan, xtacking 4.0 process particles were found, which means that it has developed a new generation of xtacking technology. The previous generation of xtacking3.0 technology was released in 2022.

In 2022, this memory chip enterprise launched xtacking3.0 technology, reaching 232 layers, becoming the first in the world to mass-produce such a high-tech chip, while American and Korean memory chips are still striving to break through 200 layers. The breakthrough of Chinese memory chips shocked overseas.

This chip enterprise started from scratch and started production of NAND flash memory chips in 2016. In order to master the underlying technology of memory chips, it started from 32 layers and then broke through to 64 layers, but it was still not produced on a large scale. It was not until 2020 that 128-layer NAND flash memory chips were mass-produced, catching up with Korean and American memory chips, and large-scale mass production began.

After making breakthroughs in technology, this memory chip enterprise in Wuhan prepared to build a second-phase project and accelerated the research and development of chip technology. In 2022, it became the first in the world to mass-produce 232-layer NAND flash. The second-phase project also began mass production, with twice the capacity of the first-phase project. Chinese memory chips began to have a huge impact on the global memory chip market.

After China's memory chips have been improved in technology and capacity, since the second half of 2022, the price of global memory chips has plummeted, once halved, and Korean memory chip enterprises have even experienced a phenomenon of high inventory. Because China is the main market for Korean memory chip exports, it is estimated that nearly half of Korean memory chips are exported to the Chinese market, and Chinese manufacturing began to replace Korean chips with domestic memory chips, making it difficult for Korean memory chips to sell.

Faced with the rise of China's memory chips, which has affected the interests of American chips, the United States began to obstruct the export of advanced chip materials and equipment from countries such as Japan and the Netherlands to this memory chip enterprise in Wuhan, and even equipment that has been sold to this chip enterprise is not allowed to be repaired. This has led the executives of this enterprise to angrily say that no enterprise in the world does not provide after-sales service for sold equipment, which has also led its chip technology to stagnate at 232 layers, while Korean and American memory chip enterprises have broken through to more than 300 layers last year.

Faced with the barbaric behavior of the United States, this memory chip enterprise in Wuhan began to accelerate the replacement of imported equipment with domestic chip equipment. Unlike the technology used in mobile phone chips, mobile phone chips have begun to use 3-nanometer technology, while memory chips, in order to ensure durability, currently use the most advanced technology above 10 nanometers. Domestic memory chips use 19-nanometer technology, and domestic chip equipment can already partially replace it. The equipment of domestic chip equipment enterprises such as AMEC and Northern Microelectronics can meet the requirements.

Now it has finally achieved technology above 300 layers, once again catching up with Korean and American memory chips, representing that domestic chip equipment has achieved results, and chip technology research and development is no longer constrained by overseas chip equipment. This is the technological breakthrough that China's chip industry has been looking forward to, which will also inspire domestic chip industry chains to strengthen cooperation and get rid of the hope of relying on overseas chip equipment.

With the technology and capacity of domestic memory chips being improved again, China will once again reduce the import of memory chips. The previous two-year surge in memory chip prices has changed the situation where Korean and American memory chips have made a fortune. Since last year, the price of memory chips has soared by more than 40%. Samsung achieved a 14-fold surge in net profit in the second quarter of this year. Samsung's profit growth mainly comes from memory chips, and China's imports of memory chips have therefore paid more than $40 billion. With China's own memory chips that can be replaced, it can obtain more bargaining power and reduce the cost of Chinese manufacturing.