Beijing has been seeking in recent years to shore up its self-reliance in the increasingly vital field of semiconductors, and Shanghai-based SMIC is the country's chipmaking champion.

Washington has taken steps in recent years to cut off Chinese firms from accessing advanced US technology, working with its allies to impose tough restrictions on the flow of state-of-the-art chips and the equipment needed to make them.

"Unaudited profit attributable to owners of the Company was $492.7 million in 2024, a decrease of 45.4% from $902.5 million in 2023, mainly due to the decrease of investment income and financial income," SMIC reported in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Profit in the final quarter of 2024 also slumped, the filing showed, dropping 38.4 percent year-on-year to $107.6 million.

SMIC's fourth-quarter revenue, meanwhile, grew 31.5 percent to reach a total of $2.2 billion, it added.

SMIC said that, "based on the premise that there are no significant changes in the external environment", it expects revenue growth in the year ahead "to be higher than industry average in the same markets".

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SMIC