Gold or cabbage: the two fates of China's mature manufacturing process

With industrial relocation and the boost of the era’s dividend, it is expected that by 2030, the share of mature semiconductor capacity (≥28nm) in mainland China within global mature capacity will reach 51%. Although these capacities hold the dominant position in terms of volume, whether their value becomes gold or cabbage in the future depends on how to convert capacity advantages into market advantages.

Mature capacity never goes out of date

To most people, mature capacity is almost synonymous with technological obsolescence, but in reality, high-quality mature capacity technologies continue to be updated and iterated, and profit margins have long not been lower than those of advanced process nodes.

In the IDM sector, Texas Instruments’ chips mainly use process nodes such as 45nm, 65nm, 90nm, and above, and many products even exceed 130nm. According to its 2025 annual report, the three newly built factories by Texas Instruments also all use mature processes. However, in 2025, Texas Instruments’ gross profit margin reached 57%, while STMicroelectronics and Infineon also make extensive use of mature processes and have likewise achieved strong market returns.

We recommend entering the Caixin database to access macroeconomics, stocks and bonds, corporate profiles, and other financial and economic data anytime—everything is at your fingertips.