China injects tens of billions of dollars in chipmaking tools, but it's easily more than a decade behind the market leaders — Here's why

China has invested heavily in chipmaking tools, but it lags behind market leaders by over a decade due to reliance on Western equipment for advanced technologies. While China produces competitive logic and memory chips, it heavily depends on foreign tools, making it vulnerable to export controls. Efforts are being made to develop domestic EDA tools and wafer fab equipment, but challenges in lithography remain a significant hurdle. Chinese companies like SMEE and SiCarrier are striving to catch up, but replicating advanced lithography tools like ASML's remains a formidable task, with a gap of over 10 years expected to persist.