China IC design industry, 2020

The China government has set the long-term goal of fostering an independent and controllable semiconductor ecosystem.

In an effort to attain the goal, it continues to offer policy incentives and state funding, which has given rise to burgeoning establishment of new IC design firms. The top-10 IC design firms represent nearly 50% of China's IC design output.

Breaking down by specific fields, 40% of the output is contributed by those working on communication solutions. With the US government continuingly launching trade sanctions against China's leading high-tech companies, diversifying application markets and lowering industry concentration may be a development direction to take for China's IC design sector going forward.

China's domestic market served as a major revenue source for China's IC design industry in 2020. The top-10 IC design firms created about half of the sector's output and those working on communication, consumer device and computer chips represented more than 80%.