In fact, it was not only Jiang Yan Hai, Li Ruo Bai, and the others who were watching the research institute. All the senior leadership, as well as those who knew part of the Pangu Program, were also paying attention. However, the Pangu Program had not yet been disclosed to other research institutes.
Everyone was currently waiting for this test. Although the entire research institute was privately affiliated, it was also part of the national strategic plan, much like Huawei's communications equipment technology.
Not all cutting-edge technologies needed to be controlled by state-owned enterprises. Even private research institutes conducting research in advanced fields could receive support from special national funding.
Thus, for this production plan, the state directly allocated special funds and handed them over to the relevant manufacturing companies.
Furthermore, since the only domestically developed 7nm chip with independent design rights was Huawei's Kirin series chips, Huawei's authorization was also required for the test production chips.
Several other chip manufacturers had also received the news, but they were not particularly nervous. China actually had quite a few manufacturers capable of designing various 14nm lithography machines, or even less precise ones, but chips at those levels could only produce industrial chips and had little market competitiveness.
Most of them were used by domestic companies and lacked sufficient competitiveness internationally.
But if a domestic research institute truly possessed the ability to design a 7nm lithography machine, then things would get interesting.
The whole world knew one fact: China could develop any high-end technology and then drive its price down to cabbage prices.
There was truly only one world-class lithography machine company, and it held a complete monopoly over production.
That was ASML, the semiconductor manufacturer. Its lithography machines accounted for more than 75 percent of the global market. The remaining 25