On August 14, Zhao Haijun, Co-CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), disclosed during an earnings call that the company saw a simultaneous rise in both wafer shipment volumes and average selling prices in the second quarter, with quarterly revenue exceeding $3 billion. He noted that Chinese internet companies have substantially increased their hardware investments, surpassing SMIC’s earlier projections. The production volumes planned by these clients have also far exceeded initial expectations. Consequently, there has been a sharp uptick in demand for supporting chips used in data center circuit boards and computing power modules—including logic circuits, BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) power management chips, and optical transceivers—creating a situation where supply is struggling to keep pace with demand.