China does have invested a large amount of money in semiconductor businesses over the years, of which 47B is just another. It makes some progress, such as the self-made SW26010 processors in Sunway TaihuLight, the current top one supercomputer in the world. But progress is hard for reasons other than money:
* Late comers to the semiconductor industry can barely follow the trends, let alone lead. But if one cannot lead, it cannot survive in a free market. No one is going to buy a chip 3~5 years behind the latest technology when he/she has better choices.
* Compatibility issues. China cannot grow its chip with x86 instruction set, at least not the latest one, for patent issues. That further reduces the possibility of commercial success of its own chips.
* Semiconductor industry is now past its prime, the profit and salaries lower than the nascent Internet companies. Even in the US, plenty of EE students are jumping ship. In China, EE talents are doubly drained, by both American semiconductor industry, and by the local software industry.
* The Wassenaar Arrangement bans the export of many high end equipments necessary for chip making to China. While all the other countries/regions can specialize in one part of the semiconductor industry, China has to do all of them by itself, since it has no external help.
* The world politics dictate that Chinese firms are never going to buy ARM. They have the cash and the willingness, but western countries simply won't approve such buyout.
* Late comers to the semiconductor industry can barely follow the trends, let alone lead. But if one cannot lead, it cannot survive in a free market. No one is going to buy a chip 3~5 years behind the latest technology when he/she has better choices.
* Compatibility issues. China cannot grow its chip with x86 instruction set, at least not the latest one, for patent issues. That further reduces the possibility of commercial success of its own chips.
* Semiconductor industry is now past its prime, the profit and salaries lower than the nascent Internet companies. Even in the US, plenty of EE students are jumping ship. In China, EE talents are doubly drained, by both American semiconductor industry, and by the local software industry.
* The Wassenaar Arrangement bans the export of many high end equipments necessary for chip making to China. While all the other countries/regions can specialize in one part of the semiconductor industry, China has to do all of them by itself, since it has no external help.
* The world politics dictate that Chinese firms are never going to buy ARM. They have the cash and the willingness, but western countries simply won't approve such buyout.