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Russia's new chip program will involve huge investments over the next eight years, and the goals don't sound ambitious. For example, while TSMC plans to reach 2nm by 2026, Russia wants to achieve 28nm local chip manufacturing by 2030.

The Russian government has initially planned a new semiconductor development plan, and will invest about 3.19 trillion rubles (about 38.43 billion US dollars) in the semiconductor industry by 2030. The funds will be used to develop semiconductor production technology, chip design, data center infrastructure development, related semiconductor talent training, and chip solutions marketing.

In terms of semiconductor production technology, Russia plans to spend 420 billion rubles (about 5.2 billion US dollars) for the development and improvement of new manufacturing technologies. One of the short-term goals is to develop a 90nm manufacturing process by the end of 2022 to increase chip yields. Another longer-term goal is to develop a manufacturing process using the 28nm node by 2030.

Russia is quite successful in software and high-tech services. But it lags behind in chip design and manufacturing. Although there are plans to cultivate domestic semiconductor talents and develop the IC design industry in Russia. But one thing the country plans to do by the end of the year is to set up a reverse-engineering program of "Foreign Solutions" to move its manufacturing to Russia. By 2024, Russia plans to produce all digital products in Russia.

Although Russia's plan contains many elements and sets targets one by one, it should be noted that so far, even China has not been able to localize a considerable part of key chip manufacturing. Whether Russia, without access to technology developed in the US, UK or Europe, will achieve its goals by 2024 or 2030. It's not known yet, but that doesn't mean there aren't possible answers. The entire plan is expected to be finalized on April 22, 2022, and then sent to the Russian Prime Minister for formal approval.