Russia is implementing a microchip megaproject to break the “vicious circle”
Russia intends to establish the production of equipment for the production of electronic chips as part of a megaproject (a project whose funding amounts to more than 10 billion rubles).
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said this in an interview with Kommersant newspaper today, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“When it comes to electronics, technological issues aside, the number one problem is economies of scale. To have a cheap chip, you need to go global to ensure a competitive price. Why can’t the Americans do this (they have now announced a program to free themselves from dependence on semiconductor production in China and Southeast Asia)? Because the Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians make them cheap.
The second problem is related to electronic engineering, with equipment for the production of chips - some types of such equipment are made by one or two companies in the world. For the first time, we integrated the production of such equipment into the recently launched microelectronics megaproject,” Belousov said.
He emphasized that for the successful implementation of the megaproject, it is necessary to expand the market for the use of microchips as much as possible.
“There is a market. If you expand it with electronic components and radio electronics - radio products, IT, telecommunications equipment - the market is colossal. But he's busy. To fit into this market, you need to produce a chip at a cost comparable to the cost of a Chinese one. To produce it, you need to have large volumes. For large volumes you need to have a market. It turns out to be a vicious circle,” Belousov said.
Russia is implementing a mega-project on microchips to break the "vicious circle"