GINC Technology
Capability group

Semiconductors & Advanced Computing

The capacity to design, fabricate, tool, package and compute: the semiconductor value chain end to end, and the high-performance and AI computing built on it.

Domain
Critical Technology · Hard Power
Identifier
factbase.org/cpg/83AEVY1F16
Capabilities
6

Bounds. Holds the technology of the value chain; the fabrication plants, packaging works and computing centres as facilities belong to Strategic Infrastructure, chip trade and industrial outcomes to the economic domains, and control instruments to governance, with the leverage they exercise recorded at this group's control layer. Design tools, fabrication processes, equipment and materials are each held as capacities in their own right because each is a distinct point of national position in one chain.

Capabilities

The 6 capabilities

Semiconductor Design & EDA1W9YVWCN49The capacity to design leading-edge semiconductors and to command the design layer itself, electronic design automation, intellectual-property cores and verification, on which all design depends.Research2.5k papers −0%China 24%Patents22.6k families +75%China 69%Advanced Semiconductor FabricationWPY8136006The capacity to fabricate semiconductors at or near the leading edge: the process technology, yield mastery and production know-how of advanced nodes.Research2.5k papers −0%China 24%Patents147.7k families +18%China 38%Semiconductor Equipment & MaterialsD7FWJJE206The capacity to build the machines and supply the materials that make chipmaking possible: lithography, deposition, etch and metrology equipment, photoresists, wafers and speciality chemicals and gases.Research– papers No research data yetPatents132.4k families +39%China 46%Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous IntegrationZN3NJYQW68The capacity to assemble, package and integrate semiconductors at the frontier: advanced packaging, chiplet architectures and heterogeneous integration, where system performance is increasingly won.Research– papers No research data yetPatents89.4k families +26%China 37%Compound & Power SemiconductorsH4YJ782F1RThe capacity to develop and produce compound, wide-bandgap and power semiconductors, the device families that carry power electronics, radio frequency and extreme environments.Research27.7k papers +11%China 27%Patents26.3k families +46%China 50%High-Performance & AI ComputingEEFHJ9SJ2QThe capacity to build and operate computing at the frontier: supercomputing, AI training and inference at scale, and the accelerator and system architectures that deliver them.Research31.6k papers +15%United States 26%Patents33.2k families +67%China 54%

The capabilities compared

Papers and patent families, 2020–2024, with growth on the five years before and the leading nation in each.

CapabilityPapersGrowthResearch leaderFamiliesGrowthPatent leader
Semiconductor Design & EDA2.5k−0%China 24%22.6k+75%China 69%
Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication2.5k−0%China 24%147.7k+18%China 38%
Semiconductor Equipment & Materials–––132.4k+39%China 46%
Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous Integration–––89.4k+26%China 37%
Compound & Power Semiconductors27.7k+11%China 27%26.3k+46%China 50%
High-Performance & AI Computing31.6k+15%United States 26%33.2k+67%China 54%
Research

Who publishes it

Papers by year for each capability, and the nations' shares of the group's papers, 2020–2024. A capability that shares a v0.0 topic with another counts it in both.

  1. 1China18.9%12,147 papers
  2. 2United States17.5%11,210 papers
  3. 3India5.4%3,447 papers
  4. 4Japan4.7%3,018 papers
  5. 5Germany4.5%2,888 papers
  6. 6United Kingdom3.1%2,019 papers
  7. 7South Korea3.1%2,003 papers
  8. 8Italy2.5%1,632 papers
  9. 9France2.3%1,454 papers
  10. 10Taiwan1.9%1,204 papers
Patents

Who patents it

Patent families by priority year for each capability, and the origin nations' shares of the group's families, 2020–2024. A family in two capabilities' classes counts in both.

  1. 1China43.7%197,299 families
  2. 2Japan17.4%78,677 families
  3. 3South Korea13.1%59,255 families
  4. 4United States11.4%51,351 families
  5. 5Taiwan7.6%34,508 families
  6. 6Germany2.1%9,282 families
  7. 7Netherlands1.0%4,685 families
  8. 8France0.6%2,935 families
  9. 9Singapore0.5%2,446 families
  10. 10United Kingdom0.4%1,873 families
Companies

Who makes it

The companies across the group's capabilities, the global leaders and the leading firms of every region.

228 companies in Semiconductors & Advanced Computing, from 32 nations across 8 regions; the leading 25 below. Sorted by how experts see each company's global relevance in its strongest capability of the group, from very high to very low.

  1. Very high22 companies
  2. 1

    NetherlandsASML

    Sole supplier of EUV lithography scanners and the leading supplier of DUV immersion scanners, the critical chokepoint tool for leading-edge chipmaking.

    In Semiconductor Equipment & Materials

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · Netherlands, Veldhoven · founded 1984 · 44k staff

  3. 2

    GermanyInfineon Technologies

    World's largest power semiconductor supplier, producing silicon IGBTs/MOSFETs, CoolSiC silicon-carbide devices and CoolGaN (after acquiring GaN Systems in 2023), with a 200mm SiC fab in Kulim, Malaysia.

    In Compound & Power Semiconductors

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · Germany, Neubiberg · founded 1999 · 58k staff

  4. 3

    United StatesNVIDIA

    Dominant designer of AI accelerators (Hopper, Blackwell, Rubin GPUs), NVLink/InfiniBand interconnect and the CUDA software stack that power most AI training clusters and leading supercomputers.

    In High-Performance & AI Computing

    Very high relevance · Design · United States, Santa Clara · founded 1993 · 36k staff

  5. 4

    United StatesSynopsys

    Largest EDA and semiconductor IP vendor, covering synthesis, verification and the leading interface IP; it absorbed Ansys simulation in 2025.

    In Semiconductor Design & EDA

    Very high relevance · Design & engineering software · United States, Sunnyvale · founded 1986 · 20k staff

  6. 5

    TaiwanTSMC

    Largest foundry in the world with about two-thirds of foundry revenue; first to volume production at 3nm and 2nm (N2).

    In Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication

    Very high relevance · Contract manufacturing · Taiwan, Hsinchu · founded 1987 · 84k staff

  7. 6

    United StatesApplied Materials

    World's largest wafer fab equipment maker by revenue, leading in deposition (CVD, PVD, epitaxy), ion implant, CMP and e-beam inspection.

    In Semiconductor Equipment & Materials

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · United States, Santa Clara · founded 1967 · 36k staff

  8. 7

    TaiwanASE Technology Holding

    The world's largest OSAT (it includes SPIL), offering fan-out, 2.5D/3D, SiP and its VIPack chiplet-integration platform, and adding CoWoS-type capacity for AI chips.

    In Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous Integration

    Very high relevance · Contract manufacturing · Taiwan, Kaohsiung · founded 1984

  9. 8

    United StatesCadence Design Systems

    Second of the big-three EDA vendors; it leads in custom/analog layout (Virtuoso), hardware emulation (Palladium) and digital implementation, and also sells IP.

    In Semiconductor Design & EDA

    Very high relevance · Design & engineering software · United States, San Jose · founded 1988 · 13k staff

  10. 9

    United Statesonsemi

    Vertically integrated SiC producer (from boule growth in New Hampshire to EliteSiC MOSFETs and modules) and a leading supplier of automotive power devices, with a SiC expansion in Rožnov, Czech Republic.

    In Compound & Power Semiconductors

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · United States, Scottsdale · founded 1999 · 26k staff

  11. 10

    South KoreaSamsung Electronics

    Runs leading-edge logic (first gate-all-around 3nm) and the world's largest DRAM and NAND fabs; tops international patent filings in this capability.

    In Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · South Korea, Suwon · founded 1969 · 268k staff

  12. 11

    United StatesAMD

    Designs EPYC CPUs and Instinct MI300/MI350 accelerators that power the exascale Frontier and El Capitan systems and a growing share of AI clusters.

    In High-Performance & AI Computing

    Very high relevance · Design · United States, Santa Clara · founded 1969 · 28k staff

  13. 12

    United StatesAmkor Technology

    The second-largest OSAT, supplying 2.5D, fan-out, flip-chip and SiP packaging, and building a CHIPS Act-funded advanced-packaging campus in Peoria, Arizona that will serve Apple and TSMC.

    In Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous Integration

    Very high relevance · Contract manufacturing · United States, Tempe · founded 1968 · 29k staff

  14. 13

    United StatesLam Research

    Market leader in plasma etch and a major supplier of deposition and wafer-clean tools, especially for 3D NAND high-aspect-ratio etch.

    In Semiconductor Equipment & Materials

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · United States, Fremont · founded 1980 · 17k staff

  15. 14

    GermanySiemens (Siemens EDA)

    Siemens EDA (formerly Mentor Graphics) is the third big-three EDA vendor; its Calibre physical verification is the de facto foundry signoff standard.

    In Semiconductor Design & EDA

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · Germany, Munich · founded 1847 · 312k staff

  16. 15

    SwitzerlandSTMicroelectronics

    Leading SiC MOSFET supplier (main supplier to Tesla's traction inverters), building an integrated SiC campus in Catania, Italy, and a 200mm SiC joint venture with San'an in Chongqing, alongside a GaN power line.

    In Compound & Power Semiconductors

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · Switzerland, Geneva · founded 1987 · 50k staff

  17. 16

    United StatesIntel

    The only US-headquartered leading-edge logic manufacturer, ramping its 18A node with RibbonFET and backside power through Intel Foundry.

    In Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · United States, Santa Clara · founded 1968 · 109k staff

  18. 17

    South KoreaSK hynix

    Leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM3E/HBM4) stacked beside AI accelerators, the main memory constraint on AI compute.

    In High-Performance & AI Computing

    Very high relevance · Components & subsystems · South Korea, Icheon · founded 1983

  19. 18

    JapanTokyo Electron

    Japan's largest chip-equipment maker, with near-monopoly share in EUV coater/developer tracks and major positions in etch, deposition and cleaning; top international patent applicant in this capability.

    In Semiconductor Equipment & Materials

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · Japan, Tokyo · founded 1963

  20. 19

    United KingdomArm Holdings

    Licenses the processor architecture and CPU/GPU IP cores inside nearly all smartphones and a growing share of data-centre and automotive chips.

    In Semiconductor Design & EDA

    Very high relevance · Design · United Kingdom, Cambridge · founded 1990 · 7,096 staff

  21. 20

    United StatesBroadcom

    Co-designs custom AI accelerators (Google TPU and other hyperscaler XPUs) and supplies Tomahawk/Jericho Ethernet switching for AI clusters.

    In High-Performance & AI Computing

    Very high relevance · Design · United States, Palo Alto · founded 1961 · 37k staff

  22. 21

    United StatesKLA

    Dominant supplier of wafer and reticle inspection and metrology systems used for process control in every advanced fab.

    In Semiconductor Equipment & Materials

    Very high relevance · Equipment & machinery · United States, Milpitas · founded 1975 · 15k staff

  23. 22

    United StatesAlphabet (Google DeepMind)

    Designs the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU, now Ironwood) family and operates some of the largest AI training fleets in the world through Google Cloud.

    In High-Performance & AI Computing

    Very high relevance · Software & platforms · United States, Mountain View · founded 1998 · 183k staff

  24. High3 companies
  25. 23

    United StatesWolfspeed

    Largest merchant supplier of SiC substrates and operator of the world's first 200mm SiC device fab (Mohawk Valley, NY); it restructured through Chapter 11 in 2025 and emerged with new equity.

    In Compound & Power Semiconductors

    High relevance · Advanced materials · United States, Durham · founded 1987

  26. 24

    JapanMitsubishi Electric

    Leading supplier of IGBT and SiC power modules for rail, industrial and EV use, and of GaN/GaAs high-frequency devices; it is building an 8-inch SiC fab in Kumamoto.

    In Compound & Power Semiconductors

    High relevance · Hardware & devices · Japan, Tokyo · founded 1921 · 150k staff

  27. 25

    United StatesQualcomm

    Leading fabless designer of mobile SoCs (Snapdragon) and cellular modems, and a major holder of wireless patents.

    In Semiconductor Design & EDA

    High relevance · Design · United States, San Diego · founded 1985 · 49k staff

All 228 in the Companies table →