as early as 2014, Beijing had decided to double down on semiconductor subsidies, launching what became known as the “Big Fund” to back a new leap forward in chips. Key “investors” in the fund include China’s Ministry of Finance, the state-owned China Development Bank, and a variety of other government-owned firms, including China Tobacco and investment vehicles of the Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan municipal governments. Some analysts hailed this as a new “venture capital” model of state support, but the decision to force China’s state-owned cigarette company to fund integrated circuits was
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