China Chip Exports Soar 136% as Global AI Boom Offsets U.S. Curbs [China Watch]

China Chips Ride Global AI Frenzy

Chinese Semiconductor Firms Keep Raking in Cash Despite U.S. Curbs

China’s semiconductor exports are enjoying an unprecedented boom as a global investment frenzy around artificial intelligence fuels demand. Despite U.S. restrictions on advanced chip technology, China’s chip exports surged 136% from a year earlier last month, helped by a global semiconductor shortage and soaring prices.

The jump suggests China is strengthening its position across the global AI supply chain, from semiconductors to servers and power equipment, even as Washington steps up technology curbs.

China’s Chip Export Windfall

Data from China’s General Administration of Customs and a report by the South China Morning Post showed on Oct. 15 that China’s integrated-circuit exports rose to $44.951 billion in September, up 136% from a year earlier. China’s total exports increased 36.3% over the same period to $447.18 billion. Chip export growth was about 3.7 times faster than the pace of overall export growth.

The gap between export volume and export value is striking. China exported 32.7 billion semiconductors last month, up just 1% from a year earlier. Export value, by contrast, jumped 136%. That indicates higher chip prices, rather than a sharp increase in shipments, drove the improvement in export performance.

The increase reflects a surge in demand for memory chips as big tech companies around the world pour money into AI data centers. Tight supplies of memory used in AI servers also appear to have pushed up the export prices of Chinese chips.

For the first nine months of this year, China’s cumulative semiconductor export volume totaled 275.2 billion units. Export value reached about $302 billion. China still faces limits in advanced chip manufacturing because access to cutting-edge production equipment remains restricted. Even so, it continues to supply a wide range of semiconductor products to global markets and maintain a sizable role in the industry supply chain.

China Pulls in the Global AI Supply Chain

Exports of information-technology products needed to build AI infrastructure also increased. Computer-parts exports for the January-September period rose 2.1 times from a year earlier. Exports of storage-related components such as solid-state drives, or SSDs, increased 1.3 times. Exports of data-processing equipment, including servers, climbed 7.2%.

Wang Jun, a department official at China’s General Administration of Customs, told a press conference on Oct. 14 that the rapid development of the AI industry is accelerating global investment in computing infrastructure and expanding demand for both end products and intermediate goods. Rising electricity demand from large-scale data centers is also boosting exports of Chinese power-related products, including equipment for power generation, transmission and energy storage.

Chinese-made AI glasses and robots are also entering overseas markets, broadening the range of AI applications, Wang said. He did not disclose detailed export figures for those products.

China’s semiconductor imports are also rising rapidly. Imports of memory-related components in the first nine months of this year jumped 150% from a year earlier, while integrated-circuit imports rose 56.6%. The increase reflects growing demand for overseas semiconductors and key components as investment in data centers and AI infrastructure expands inside China.

Experts say the simultaneous surge in China’s semiconductor exports and imports underscores how global AI investment is benefiting the country. While China remains constrained in securing advanced semiconductor technology, companies tied into the global supply chain are benefiting from higher chip prices and stronger demand for servers and power equipment.

Still, some say it is difficult to link the jump in export value directly to improved technological competitiveness in China’s semiconductor industry because the gain depended more on higher prices than on shipment growth.

Kim Eun-jung, Beijing correspondent, kej@hankyung.com