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SMIC announced a planned $8.87 billion chip fab in Shanghai’s Lingang area in September 2021, targeting 100,000 300-mm wafer starts per month on 28-nanometer and older processes. The project was intended to add large-scale domestic capacity, not to compete with the newest 5-nm- or 3-nm-class factories. Lingang government notices show that the project was still undergoing design-plan adjustments in April 2026; they do not confirm that the fab has reached its announced capacity or entered full commercial production.
What SMIC announced in 2021
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s largest domestic foundry, announced the Shanghai project on September 3, 2021. A foundry manufactures chips from designs supplied by customers rather than primarily selling its own chip designs. The planned facility was in the Lingang Free Trade Zone in Pudong, Shanghai, and was commonly described as a “gigafab”—an informal label for an unusually large manufacturing project, not the name of a separate SMIC business.
| Project detail | Announced plan |
|---|---|
| Investment | Approximately $8.87 billion, an announced project amount rather than verified final spending |
| Wafer diameter | 12 inches, or 300 mm |
| Planned capacity | 100,000 wafers per month |
| Process focus | 28 nm and above |
| Ownership and financing | A joint venture majority-owned by SMIC, involving the Lingang Free Trade Zone; about $5.5 billion in registered capital, with additional investors expected |
The $5.5 billion registered capital and the approximately $8.87 billion announced project investment are different financial measures; they should not be added together as though both were separate project costs. The original terms were reported by Reuters, republished by Datafloq, and ET Telecom’s reproduction of Reuters.
Why build a large fab for 28-nm-and-older chips?
A fab’s size does not tell you how advanced its chips are. Lingang’s announced target was 28 nm and above: mature processes that remain useful in high-volume products such as automotive microcontrollers, power-management chips, display drivers, image sensors, industrial controls, connectivity components and Internet-of-Things devices. These parts are not necessarily the headline processors in a phone or computer, but they are essential across vehicles, factories and consumer electronics.
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The announcement came amid the 2020–2021 semiconductor shortage, which exposed bottlenecks in widely used chips, alongside Beijing’s drive to build domestic production and growing U.S.–China technology tensions. Lingang therefore had both a commercial rationale—adding capacity for customer demand—and an industrial-policy role in strengthening China’s supply resilience. The Congressional Research Service’s overview of the semiconductor industry and U.S. policy describes the broader competitive and policy context.
Contemporary coverage called the plan China’s largest logic fab, but “largest” depends on the metric and date. It is safer to describe Lingang as one of China’s largest planned logic-fab projects than to treat that label as a timeless ranking. Tom’s Hardware’s 2021 coverage used the larger claim at the time.
What 100,000 wafers a month does—and does not—mean
The figure is planned monthly wafer-processing capacity, not a promise to ship 100,000 finished chips each month. A 300-mm wafer contains many individual chip dies, but the number depends on die size. Defects, yield, product mix and equipment utilization determine how many usable chips result. The announced capacity is a design target, not evidence of the facility’s initial output or present production.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteMoving to 300-mm wafers can lower manufacturing cost per die because more dies can be processed on each wafer than on a smaller wafer, assuming suitable equipment, yields and demand. But larger-wafer tools are expensive, and a fab’s physical capacity does not by itself establish profitability. The CRS notes that very large fab approaches may reduce construction costs compared with separate standalone fabs; that is an industry-level potential benefit, not a measured saving for Lingang.
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How export controls shaped the project’s significance
The United States placed SMIC on its Entity List in December 2020. Restrictions limited access to certain U.S.-origin semiconductor manufacturing equipment and technology, making some advanced-tool acquisitions more difficult and disrupting plans to expand into high-end chip production. They were not a blanket prohibition on every tool, every product or all manufacturing by SMIC.
That distinction matters: a high-volume mature-node fab could still serve strategic and commercial purposes without being a leading-edge facility. Its announced 28-nm-and-above scope should not be taken as evidence that it can make 5-nm- or 3-nm-class chips. Nor does the Lingang plan establish anything about SMIC’s separate work at other process nodes. The Congressional Research Service discusses U.S. restrictions and the wider semiconductor supply chain.
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Lingang was part of a wider capacity buildout
SMIC’s Shanghai plan was not its only expansion effort. Contemporary reporting also discussed projects or plans in Beijing, Shenzhen and Tianjin. The Tianjin proposal was a separate project, reported as a planned 12-inch fab with a proposed 100,000-wafer monthly capacity and process coverage from 28 nm to 180 nm; those figures should not be attributed to Lingang. See Asia Financial’s report on the Tianjin project.
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SMIC’s 2025 annual report gives a company-wide picture: monthly capacity exceeded 1 million standard logic 8-inch-equivalent wafers, and the company reported 2025 revenue of $9.327 billion, utilization of 93.5% and gross margin of 21%. Those are figures for SMIC overall, not a report of Lingang’s own output or financial performance. They cannot establish that the Shanghai facility reached its planned capacity. See SMIC’s 2025 annual report filed through HKEX.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Lingang project status through August 18, 2026
| What is documented | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| September 2021 announcement | A planned $8.87 billion project, 100,000 300-mm wafers per month and 28-nm-and-above technology |
| Lingang notice dated November 7, 2025 | A design-plan adjustment for the SMIC Lingang 12-inch wafer foundry production-line project, Phase One |
| Lingang notice dated April 2, 2026 | A further design-plan adjustment for that Phase One project |
| Full operational status | Not established by those notices; they do not confirm completion, commercial production or 100,000 wafers per month |
The notices show that the project remained in development and subject to design changes years after its announcement. They do not establish the final construction schedule, the amount ultimately spent, first wafer input, customer qualification, yield or ramp-up. The notices are published by the Lingang authorities on November 7, 2025 and April 2, 2026.
What would count as evidence that the fab has succeeded?
A project announcement and a design notice are early milestones, not proof of manufacturing results. To assess the fab’s progress, look for distinct evidence at each stage:
- Construction completion: the buildings and required infrastructure are finished.
- Equipment installation: production tools are installed and functioning.
- Wafer input and qualification: the fab begins processing wafers and customers validate the resulting processes.
- Commercial ramp: production rises toward sustained capacity with acceptable yields and utilization.
- Business performance: customer demand, product mix and costs support durable returns.
Large-scale expansion also carries ordinary execution risks: design changes or construction delays, constrained equipment supply, slower-than-expected qualification, shifts in demand, and price pressure if many suppliers add mature-node capacity at once. These are risks to consider, not evidence that any particular failure has occurred at Lingang. More domestic capacity can improve supply resilience without guaranteeing high utilization or strong returns, and a single fab cannot make China independent across equipment, materials, software, chip design, packaging and testing.
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