China's integrated circuit (IC) industry grew 21 percent per year from 2013 to 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said.

Growth is five times the global growth rate, bringing the country closer to becoming a first-tier vendor, especially in chip design, the ministry said. Smart cars and artificial intelligence technology were adopting more domestically-designed chips, it added.

The market was worth 250.8 billion yuan (around $39.8 billion) in 2013 and grew to 541.1 billion yuan ($85.9 billion) in 2017. China's chip production was at 85.7 billion yuan ($13.6 billion) in 2013 and increased to 156.5 billion yuan ($24.8 billion) in 2017.

Investment exceeded 100 billion yuan ($15.8 billion) annually in the past three years, the ministry added.

China designated semiconductors as a strategic industry in 2014 and is aiming for domestically-made ICs to overtake imports by 2025 with investments of 1 trillion yuan ($160 billion).

The country currently has a trade deficit and relies on imports to drive its tech sector. In logic chips it continues to rely on Nvidia and Intel, while Samsung, the world's largest DRAM and NAND producer, is the top vendor for memory chips for local manufacturers.

The state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has been active in overseas acquisitions to gain an edge in chip design.

Local vendors are also set to produce their own memory chips, both in DRAM and NAND, in the first half of next year.

By: DocMemory
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