# Chinese researchers map a route to 3-nanometre chips using older lithography machines

The same week, Chinese scientists tested a submerged solar array in open sea and Western manufacturers were reported to be behind China in sodium-ion batteries.

- Published: 2026-09-21T05:16:54.216Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-09-21/chinese-researchers-map-a-route-to-3-nanometre-chips-using-o
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3368196/chinas-3-nm-chip-progress-how-much-sex-couples-should-have-5-weekend-reads-you-missed?utm_source=rss_feed), [South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3367934/china-tests-first-practical-submarine-solar-power-plant-10-metres-depth-open-sea?utm_source=rss_feed), [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/0e4814df-e102-4874-97d6-f2b0ffaeda6a?syn-25a6b1a6=1)

Chinese researchers have set out a path to manufacturing 3-nanometre chips using older lithography equipment, according to work [summarised by the South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3368196/chinas-3-nm-chip-progress-how-much-sex-couples-should-have-5-weekend-reads-you-missed?utm_source=rss_feed). The relevance is the constraint being worked around. American and Dutch export controls deny China the most advanced lithography tools, and a process that reaches leading-edge geometries with the machines already installed would reduce the effect of those controls without removing them.

Chinese scientists separately built and operated a perovskite photovoltaic system [at a depth of 10 metres in the open sea](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3367934/china-tests-first-practical-submarine-solar-power-plant-10-metres-depth-open-sea?utm_source=rss_feed), which they describe as the first practical submarine solar installation. The application is power for underwater operations, a field with both commercial and military uses.

In storage, the Financial Times reports that [Western companies trail Chinese manufacturers in sodium-ion cells](https://www.ft.com/content/0e4814df-e102-4874-97d6-f2b0ffaeda6a?syn-25a6b1a6=1), a chemistry built on abundant inputs that could reduce the dependence of electric vehicles and grid storage on scarce materials.

The three items describe one strategy. Restrictions on inputs raise the return on substitution, and a state directing capital towards substitution accepts lower efficiency now in exchange for independence later. None of the three results is a finished product, and laboratory demonstrations often fail to scale. What they show is where Chinese research money is going and which Western chokepoints it is aimed at.

## What this means

Every successful workaround reduces the leverage that export controls give Washington in the trade negotiation now under way, which is why the chip result matters beyond the semiconductor industry. For investors, the exposure is in the pricing power of equipment suppliers such as ASML and Applied Materials, whose valuations assume their tools stay indispensable, and in battery materials, where a shift towards sodium chemistry would weaken lithium and cobalt demand while strengthening the Chinese cell makers that lead it. The timeline is years, not quarters, and the risk to the thesis is that laboratory demonstrations do not reach commercial yield.

## What to watch

- Whether Chinese foundries announce production, not research, at advanced nodes using domestic equipment, the step that would make the workaround commercially real.
- Orders and guidance at the leading lithography and deposition equipment makers, which reveal whether Chinese demand for imported tools is falling.
- Announcements of sodium-ion cell capacity outside China, the test of whether Western manufacturers respond or concede the chemistry.