Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)中芯国际

About

Pure-play wafer foundry across 8-inch and 12-inch lines: logic, mixed-signal/RF, power management, image sensors, and embedded non-volatile memory for fabless and IDM customers. Dual-listed on HKEX (0981) and the STAR Market (688981); reported FY2025 revenue of about US$9.3B.

Shanghai · Founded 2000 · Ticker 00981 / 688981

Why it matters

SMIC sets the ceiling on how much of China's design ambition becomes physical silicon. On mature nodes it is a scaled, profitable substitute; on advanced nodes it operates under export-control constraints that cap its tooling, which makes yield, capacity, and node progress the key watch items. The distance between those two realities — mature-node strength, frontier-node constraint — is the central question for the whole China stack.

Where it sits in the stack

Key semiconductor products

• Domestic foundry capacity for fabless chip designers across consumer, communications, industrial, automotive, and compute-related demand.
• Wafer fabrication
• Mature/mainstream logic·0.35μm-28nm
• FinFET/14nm-class
• Specialty platforms·CIS, RF, HV, eNVM, MCU, PMIC
• 8-inch foundry services
• 12-inch foundry services
• Logic
• Mixed-signal/RF
• Power management
• Image sensor
• Embedded NVM

Ecosystem

Competitive position

• SMIC is the default China foundry benchmark. When people ask whether China can make a chip domestically, SMIC is usually the first manufacturing check.
• Globally, the relevant comparison set is TSMC, Samsung Foundry, UMC, GlobalFoundries, Tower, and mature-node regional foundries, depending on process node and application.
• Mature-node self-sufficiency and frontier-node capability are different questions. SMIC can look strong in one and constrained in the other, and both reads are true at once.
• China's central foundry anchor; strong in domestic manufacturing scale and mature/specialty nodes, but frontier-node volume and yield remain constrained.
• Advanced lithography, process-control tooling, EDA, materials, yield learning, and customer-visible volume production.
• Global comparables: TSMC and Samsung Foundry at the leading-edge reference layer.
• Global comparables: UMC, GlobalFoundries, Tower, Hua Hong, and specialty foundries for mature-node and specialty-process comparisons.
• Advanced lithography access, process-control tooling, EDA, advanced packaging, materials qualification, and yield learning are the main constraints.

Recent activity

• FY2024—FY2024 revenue rose to US$8,029.9M, +27.0% YoY, with China-region demand the main driver [via www1.hkexnews.hk]
• FY2024—Wafer shipments reached 8,021k 8-inch-equivalent wafers, +36.7% YoY [via www1.hkexnews.hk]
• FY2024—Profit attributable to owners declined to US$492.7M (-45.4% YoY) on depreciation and capacity investment [via www1.hkexnews.hk]
• FY2024—Wafer revenue reached US$7,486.9M, with masks/testing/other at US$543.0M, confirming foundry fabrication as the dominant stream [via www1.hkexnews.hk]

Milestones and signals

• 2000—Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) was founded.
• 2026-10-04—Market cap: HKD 516B
• FY2024—Capacity: USD Blended ASP US$933 per 8-inch-equivalent wafer
• FY2024—Shipments: 8,021k 8-inch-equivalent wafers
• FY2025—Revenue: USD 9.3B
• Listing—Shanghai Stock Exchange (STAR Market) · 688981 · A-shares

What to watch

• Capex and utilization by node category rather than headline capacity alone.
• Mature-node demand from EV, industrial, MCU, analog, power, and image-sensor customers.
• signals of advanced-node volume, yields, and packaging pathways.
• Domestic tool and materials qualification inside SMIC fabs.