From building the first electronic computer to maintaining a stronghold of semiconductor design, the United States has long shined as a beacon for advanced electronics development.
But behind America’s rise stand many Chinese scientists and engineers whose monumental contributions have largely remained in the shadows.
Gerald Yin Zhiyao, co-founder and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc China (AMEC) – China’s leading semiconductor equipment maker – recently disclosed a shocking figure about these contributions.
During a show in July run by the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China National Radio Network, he talked about the fact that over the last 40 years, many of the most advanced semiconductor etching machines have come out of Silicon Valley, the centre of US tech innovation.
“When you actually look at the equipment, who’s doing it, it’s actually 70 to 80 per cent Chinese students,” Yin said. He spent decades working in the US and co-founded the Chinese Engineers Association of Silicon Valley in the late 1980s.
But now, “80 or 90 per cent of them have already returned” to China, he added.
