China has formally created a $29 billion state-backed fund to invest in the semiconductor industry, advancing its goal of reducing a dependency on U.S. technology. From a report: China is the world’s biggest chip importer, and the long-awaited 204 billion yuan ($28.9 billion) fund will fuel Beijing’s efforts to forge its own semiconductor supply chain from chip design to manufacturing. It will play a key role in steering overall strategy and investment in the integrated circuit sector, which includes processors and storage chips used in smartphones and datacenters. Beijing’s effort to reduce its reliance on American chips is taking on greater urgency as the Trump administration adds more Chinese names to its export blacklist, cutting off the flow of chips to targeted companies from Huawei to SenseTime. The fund’s registered capital comes mainly from state organizations, according to company registration information, which was posted online on Oct. 22.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – China To Funnel Billion Towards its Chip Ambitions