How Did Chinese Silicon Carbide Pull Off a Comeback in 15 Years, Causing a Century Old Giant to Coll

Описание: From Being Shut Out to Snatching Global Orders:How Did Chinese Silicon Carbide Pull Off a Comeback in 15 Years, Causing a Century-Old Giant to Collapse Overnight?

May 21, 2025. The Star Market Daily, citing the Wall Street Journal, reported that Wolfspeed, the global "Godfather of Silicon Carbide" and a US enterprise, officially initiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings. A staggering $6.5 billion in debt became the final straw that broke the back of this giant that had monopolized the industry for 30 years.

At the exact same time, the Chinese enterprise Tian Yue Advanced (SICC) won the "Electronic Materials Gold Award" in Tokyo. Its silicon carbide (SiC) substrates are currently being queued for purchase by global semiconductor companies.

This completely overturns the inherent perceptions of the global tech community. On one side was Wolfspeed, the absolute leader who monopolized the global SiC market for nearly thirty years, held first-mover technical barriers, and secured $2.5 billion in special support from the US CHIPS Act for the expansion of its Mohawk Valley fab and technological iteration—once regarded as an "unsurpassable industry benchmark."

On the other side were Chinese enterprises, starting a full 15 years late. In the early days, they were banned from even taking photos of equipment at international exhibitions; their core technical manuals were cobbled together from second-hand channels; and R&D relied entirely on "groping in the dark," figuring out even the most basic crystal growth processes from scratch.

Yet, in this matchup of such disparate strength, the leader was ultimately forced into the desperate straits of bankruptcy. Wolfspeed's market cap reached a peak of $16.488 billion in 2021; by May 2025, it had shrunk to just $487 million. Over 97% of its market value evaporated in just over three years. This seemingly impossible reversal hides a fatal flaw in the logic of Western technological hegemony.

Actually, there is nothing mystical about Silicon Carbide. It is like the "Super Rebar" of the semiconductor world. Compared to traditional silicon materials, its resistance to high temperatures and high pressure is maxed out. Used in new energy vehicles (NEVs), it can extend range by 100km and cut charging time by half an hour; installed in 5G base stations, it boosts communication efficiency by 40%. It is the core cornerstone of the new energy and digital era.

Even more subversive is the price reconstruction: Chinese companies spent 15 years on R&D to slash the price of each SiC wafer from 14,000 RMB to 2,500 RMB, directly piercing the industry's cost floor. This is not just a price war; it is a massive shift in the discourse power of global high-end manufacturing, hiding the deep logic of the failure of Western cognitive models.

Next, we will dismantle this industrial reshuffle: Why did the technological blockade fail to lock out the latecomers? What are the differences between the R&D models of China, the US, and Europe? And what does this transformation mean for humanity's energy revolution?

The "Theory of Eternal Technological Monopoly," long held as a golden rule by the Western tech community, has completely shattered into bubbles on the critical track of Silicon Carbide.