The founder of China’s largest contract chipmaker has urged the country’s semiconductor industry to pursue breakthroughs in niche markets such as mature chips, citing their importance for “supply chain security”.

Richard Chang Rugin, 78, former CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), cautioned against blindly chasing industry hype around cutting-edge process nodes.

The industry veteran stressed the value of investing in mature nodes and specialty processes, which accounted for more than 80 per cent of global semiconductor demand, according to an interview with Chinese financial media outlet Star Market Daily published on Saturday.

Chang, who was born in mainland China and grew up in Taiwan, returned to the mainland and founded SMIC in 2000 after a 20-year career at Texas Instruments in the US. He resigned as SMIC’s CEO in 2009 amid a years-long trade secrets lawsuit and an out-of-court settlement with rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

“Many people think competition in the semiconductor industry is just about advanced nodes and that we will only achieve success when reaching 3nm or 2nm – this is a cognitive misunderstanding,” Chang said.