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AI Chips Attract Chinese Synthetic Diamond Producers

ChipsNovember 3, 20262 min read

Chinese makers of lab-grown diamonds are moving beyond jewelry and into AI chips and computer cooling. They want higher profits and a bigger role in advanced technology.

Diamond makers look at chips

Many Chinese companies that make man-made diamonds are now aiming at AI chips and semiconductors. These are the tiny brains inside computers. The makers want to earn more money than they can from jewelry. Today, about 70% of the diamonds made at one factory run by businessman Feng Jinjun are used for jewelry. He says he wants the share used for functional materials, meaning materials that do a job, to rise above 50% by 2030.

Key numbers

China makes about half of the world's man-made diamond supply.
One factory makes about 2 million carats of man-made diamonds each year. A carat is a unit of weight for gems.
Goal: over 50% of output for functional uses by 2030, and no more than 30% for jewelry.
Copper conducts heat at about 400 W/m·K. Diamond can go above 2,000 W/m·K, about 5 times more.
The International Energy Agency expects data center power use to more than double by 2030, to about 945 terawatt-hours.

Why heat is a problem

AI chips and data centers use a lot of electricity, and that turns into heat. Copper is the common material used to pull heat away, but it is close to its physical limit. Diamond is a much better heat conductor, which means it moves heat away faster. Companies such as Huawei, TSMC, and Lenovo are looking at diamond cooling. Intel's chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, invested in Diamond Foundry, a company that makes diamond wafers for chips.

Why it matters

If diamonds are used more widely in chips and cooling, China's strong position in making them could become a new weak point for US supply chains. The shift also links to the growing tech rivalry between the United States and China. Analysts say demand from chips, cooling, and quantum computing could become the next big growth driver for the industry.

What to watch

Whether companies such as Henan Liliang Diamond move funds from jewelry into industrial projects.
How large diamond crystals grow. Researchers have reached over 20 cm across.
Whether big chip and computer makers adopt diamond cooling parts in real products.
How the US and China respond in the chip supply chain.

Glossary

Huawei: A Chinese company that makes telecom equipment, phones, and chips.

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