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

With support from industrial transfers and the dividends of the era, it is expected that by 2030, Mainland China’s mature semiconductor capacity (≥28nm) will account for 51% of global mature capacity. Although these capacities will hold a dominant position in terms of volume, whether their value in the future turns out to be gold or cabbage depends on how to convert capacity advantages into market advantages.

Mature capacity is never out of date

In the eyes of the average person, mature capacity is almost synonymous with technological backwardness, but in reality, high-quality mature-capacity technologies are continuously updated and iterated, and their profit margins have long been no worse than those of advanced process nodes.

In the IDM segment, Texas Instruments’ chips mainly use 45nm, 65nm, 90nm and above process nodes, with many products even above 130nm. According to its 2025 annual report, all three new factories built by Texas Instruments also adopt mature processes. However, in 2025, Texas Instruments’ gross profit margin reached 57%, and STMicroelectronics and Infineon also make extensive use of mature processes, achieving strong market returns as well.

We recommend entering the Caixin database so you can access macroeconomic, stocks and bonds, and company profiles at any time. Financial and economic data are always within reach.