China's GPU industry chain in 2025

The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a secondary processor designed to perform graphics and graphics computing tasks in a wide range of applications, from PCs to workstations and many mobile devices. In China, the development of the GPU industry shows a trend of domestic manufacturers gradually emerging and continuous technological innovation, however, compared with international leaders, there is still a certain gap.

First, the industrial chain

The upstream of the GPU industry chain covers the supply of materials and equipment, including silicon wafers, photoresists, sputtering targets, electronic special gases and packaging materials. In terms of equipment, it includes lithography machines, etching machines and thin film deposition equipment. The midstream segment focuses on the R&D and production of GPU chips, which can be divided into different types such as PC GPU, server GPU and mobile GPU according to application scenarios. The downstream market is widely used in many fields such as data centers, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things.

2. Upstream analysis

1. Silicon wafers

(1) Market size

Although many core semiconductor wafer companies have launched capacity expansion plans, in the long run, it is expected that their production capacity will still be insufficient to fully meet the growing demand for semiconductor silicon wafers in the chip manufacturing field. Coupled with the consideration of medium and long-term supply security, China's semiconductor wafer industry will continue to maintain a rapid development trend. According to the "2025-2030 Global and Chinese Semiconductor Wafer Industry Development Trend Analysis and Investment Risk Prediction Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, from 2019 to 2023, China's semiconductor wafer market size climbed from 7.710 billion yuan to 12.330 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of 12.45%. Analysts at the institute further predict that in 2024, China's semiconductor wafer market is expected to reach 13.1 billion yuan.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

(2) Analysis of key enterprises

Compared with the major international semiconductor wafer suppliers, China's mainland semiconductor wafer manufacturers are still insufficient in terms of market share, and there is a significant gap between their technical process level and yield control ability and the international leading level. Among the leading enterprises in the field of semiconductor silicon wafers in China, Shanghai Silicon Industry, Lion Micro, TCL Zhonghuan and Zhongjing Technology have all shown their respective production capacity and business layout, and the specific details can be seen in the following chart:

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

2. Photoresist

(1) Market size

At present, the global photoresist market has expanded to a scale of 10 billion US dollars, showing huge market potential. China's photoresist industry chain is gradually improving, and with the continuous expansion of downstream demand, the photoresist market scale is also showing a significant growth trend. According to the "2025-2030 Global and China Photoresist and Photoresist Auxiliary Materials Industry Development Status Research and Investment Prospect Analysis Report" released by the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the scale of China's photoresist market is expected to reach about 10.92 billion yuan in 2023, and this figure is expected to further increase to 11.44 billion yuan in 2024. Analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that by 2025, the scale of China's photoresist market is expected to climb to 12.3 billion yuan.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

(2) Analysis of key enterprises

The main application areas of photoresist cover the semiconductor, panel and PCB industries. Further market segments, especially in the field of semiconductor photoresists, have extremely high technical requirements, and the market is mainly dominated by internationally renowned companies such as JSR, Tokyo Oika, Shin-Etsu, DuPont, and Fuji. The specific distribution is shown in the figure.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

3. Electronic special gas

(1) Market size

China's electronic specialty gas market has also shown a sustained and steady upward trend. According to the "2025-2030 Global and China Electronic Special Gas Industry Prospect and Market Trend Insight Special Research Report" released by the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the scale of China's electronic special gas market has reached 24.9 billion yuan in 2023 and is expected to increase to about 26.25 billion yuan in 2024. Analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that with the rapid development of semiconductor industries such as integrated circuits and display panels, the demand for electronic special gases will continue to rise, and it is expected that by 2025, the market size of China's electronic special gases will exceed 27.9 billion yuan.

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

(2) Competitive landscape

At present, in China's electronic special gas market, foreign companies occupy a dominant position. Among them, the air chemical industry has the largest market share, accounting for 25% of the share. It is followed by Germany's Linde Group, Air Liquide and Sun Nippon Sanso, with market shares of 23%, 22% and 16%, respectively.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

4. Encapsulation material

(1) Encapsulation substrate

There are significant differences between packaging substrate products and conventional PCB products, and their processing difficulty is high and the investment threshold is strict, which constitutes the two main thresholds for the development of the industry. In recent years, with the in-depth promotion of domestic substitution strategies, China's packaging substrate industry has ushered in new opportunities for development. According to the "2025-2030 China Semiconductor Packaging Substrate Industry Market Analysis and Prospect Trend Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, the size of China's packaging substrate market will reach about 20.7 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 2.99% over the same period of the previous year. Analysts at the institute predict that the market size will further expand to 21.3 billion yuan in 2024, and by 2025, the market size is expected to climb to 22 billion yuan.

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

The functions of the package substrate to the chip cover power supply connection, protection, support, heat dissipation, and assembly, etc., aiming to achieve the goals of increasing the number of pins, reducing the size of the packaged product, improving electrical performance and heat dissipation performance, and achieving ultra-high-density integration or multi-chip modularization. The situation of key enterprises is shown in the figure.

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Data source: Compiled by Prismark and China Business Industry Research Institute

(2) Bonding wire

Bonding wire, as a tiny metal wire that realizes the electrical connection between the input and output connection points of the internal circuit of the chip and the internal contact points of the lead frame, its diameter is between a dozen microns and tens of microns. According to different materials, bonding wires can be divided into two categories: non-alloy wires and alloy wires. Non-alloy wires mainly include gold wire, silver wire, copper wire and aluminum wire; The alloy wire covers varieties such as gold-plated silver wire and copper-plated bonding wire.

China's leading enterprises in the field of bonding wires, such as Heraeus, Japan's Tanaka Precious Metals Group, Yantai Yinuo Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., etc., all occupy an important position in the market. For a list of companies, please refer to the diagram below.

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

(3) Lead frame

At present, most of the world's leading lead frame manufacturers are concentrated in Asia, and some of them have a significant share of the international market. Although the Dutch Société Electronics Group is located in Europe, other major companies are located in Asia. In Chinese mainland, companies such as Ningbo Kangqiang Electronics Co., Ltd. and Ningbo Hualong Electronics Co., Ltd. have also emerged that have achieved outstanding results in the field of lead frame manufacturing, please refer to the chart below for details.

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

5. Etching machine

(1) Market size

Etching machines, as key equipment for the manufacture of semiconductor devices, photovoltaic cells and various types of micromachinery, have shown significant market growth momentum in the world in recent years. According to the "2025-2030 Global and China Semiconductor Equipment Industry In-depth Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, the total global etching machine market will reach about US$14.82 billion in 2023, an increase of 5.93% over the same period last year, and the market size is expected to further expand to US$15.65 billion in 2024. Analysts at the institute predict that the global etching machine market is expected to reach $16.48 billion by 2025.

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Source: Gartner and China Business Industry Research Institute

(2) Analysis of key enterprises

Competition in the field of etching machines is extremely concentrated and intense. On the global stage, international giants such as LAMResearch, AMAT and TEL have firmly controlled the market with their cutting-edge technology, diversified product portfolio and large customer network, accounting for the majority of the etching machine market. At the same time, domestic enterprises such as China Micro Corporation and North Huachuang have gradually emerged in the field of etching machines by relying on independent research and development and innovation strength, and have become leaders in the domestic industry. For details, please refer to the chart.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

3. Midstream analysis

Global GPU market size

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and supercomputing technology, the market demand for GPUs, as the core components of these key technologies, is rising. According to the "2025-2030 China GPU Industry Market Status Survey and Development Trend Forecast Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, the global GPU market size has reached about $59.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to increase to about $71.9 billion in 2024. Analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that the global GPU market will continue to expand and is expected to exceed the $80 billion mark by 2025.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

Chinese GPU market

As a general-purpose AI chip, GPUs have demonstrated excellent performance in the field of parallel computing, especially for those application scenarios that require large parallel computing, such as machine learning and deep learning. In recent years, China's GPU market is ushering in a new stage of rapid development. According to the "2025-2030 China GPU Industry Market Status Survey and Development Trend Forecast Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, in 2023, the scale of China's GPU market will reach 80.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.78%, and it is expected to exceed 107.3 billion yuan in 2024. Analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that by 2025, the size of China's GPU market is expected to increase to 120 billion yuan.

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Source: China Business Research Institute

3. GPU Competitive Landscape

The overall value of discrete GPUs in discrete graphics cards has increased significantly. With the growing demand from high-end software office users, gamers and e-sports enthusiasts, the market share of discrete GPUs has also continued to rise. In the field of discrete CPUs, Nvidia occupies the absolute leading position, with a market share of about 81%, while AMD's market share is about 19%.

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Source: JPR, China Business Industry Research Institute

4. GPU enterprise layout

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Source: China Business Industry Research Institute

5. Analysis of key enterprises

At present, the A-share listed companies focusing on the GPU field are mainly concentrated in Guangdong Province, with a total of 14. Beijing and Jiangsu Province both have 8 listed companies, ranking second.

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Organized by China Business Industry Research Institute

Fourth, downstream analysis

1. Data centers

According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's three basic telecom operators continue to improve the layout planning of computing infrastructure. By the end of 2024, the number of Internet data center racks open to the public has reached 830,000, which effectively promotes the collaborative operation of computing power and network, improves scheduling efficiency, and facilitates the provision of diversified computing services.

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Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China Business Research Institute

2.AI computing power

In 2024, China's total intelligent computing power will achieve a breakthrough of 725.3 trillion times per second (EFLOPS), an increase of 74.1% over the same period of the previous year, which is more than three times the growth rate of general computing power (20.6%) in the same period. According to the prediction of analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute, in 2025, the scale of China's intelligent computing power is expected to jump to 1037.3EFLOPS.

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Data source: IDC, China Business Research Institute

3. Cloud computing

China's cloud computing market continues to show strong vitality and vitality. According to the "2025-2030 China Cloud Computing Industry In-depth Analysis and Development Trend Forecast Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, in 2023, the scale of China's cloud computing market has exceeded 616.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 35.5%, which far exceeds the global average and is expected to reach about 837.8 billion yuan in 2024. Analysts at the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that with the promotion of AI native technology and the innovation of cloud computing technology, as well as the gradual implementation of large-scale models, China's cloud computing industry will enter a new growth peak. It is estimated that by 2027, the scale of China's cloud computing market will grow by leaps and bounds, and is expected to exceed 2.1 trillion yuan.