Su Fei, a senior chip architect at Intel, recently decided to end his 20-year career in the United States and return to his alma mater, Tsinghua University as a full-time professor, becoming the latest case in the wave of overseas semiconductor talents returning to China in recent years. This move not only reflects the change in personal career choices, but also reflects the profound changes in the global flow of scientific and technological talents.

Su Fei's return to China is not an isolated case. Data shows that in the past five years, about 4,500 Chinese scientists have returned to China from overseas, among which the return of talents in the semiconductor field is particularly prominent. From Pan Zizheng, a member of the core team of DeepSeek, to former Apple chip engineer joining the School of Microelectronics at Fudan University, the return trend of overseas Chinese engineers is reshaping the global scientific and technological talent map.

Historical reversal of talent flow

The flow of traditional scientific and technological talents is undergoing fundamental changes. For a long time, the top engineers trained in China often choose to develop overseas, especially in the United States, forming the so-called "talent outflow" phenomenon. However, this trend has reversed significantly in recent years, and more and more overseas Chinese science and technology talents choose to return to China to develop.

McKinsey's research data reveal the depth of this change. It is estimated that by 2030, the global digital talent gap will reach 85 million, and China needs to fill 40% of AI engineers and 30% of data scientist positions. Faced with such a huge demand for talents, China is attracting overseas talents to return through various means, including providing competitive salary, superior scientific research conditions and a broad development platform.

In the semiconductor field, the trend of talent return is more obvious. Yin Zhiyao, chairman of China Micro Semiconductor, once said that 90% of the top talents in the Chinese semiconductor equipment field have returned to China to start businesses. These engineers returning to China not only bring back advanced technical experience, but more importantly, they bring back a complete industrial understanding and global vision.

Cao Jinchang, senior vice president of human resources at Anmou China, pointed out when analyzing the phenomenon of overseas Chinese chip talent return that behind this trend is the fundamental improvement of China's semiconductor industry development environment. From policy support to capital investment, from market opportunities to technical challenges, China is providing unprecedented development opportunities for overseas talents.

Multiple factors that drive backflow

The motivations for overseas talents to choose to return to China are diversified, with both subjective career planning considerations and objective environmental changes. From a subjective perspective, many overseas Chinese engineers hope to return to the motherland at a critical stage of their careers and contribute to the development of China's science and technology undertakings. Su Fei mentioned in his IEEE candidate statement that "the opportunity to bridge the gap between academia and industry has inspired him", which reflects the desire of many overseas talents to engage in more challenging and meaningful work in China.

From the objective environment, policy changes caused by intensified technological competition between China and the United States have also promoted the return of talents to a certain extent. The continuous escalation of US technology restrictions on China has restricted the development space of Chinese engineers in the United States. At the same time, China's strong investment in key technologies such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence has provided a broader development space for overseas talents.

The development trajectory of Biren Technology illustrates this very well. The company's team is nearly 1,000, with R&D personnel accounting for more than 80%, and the proportion of master's degree or above is more than 85%, attracting 100 top overseas talents to return to work in the domestic GPU industry. The addition of these overseas talents not only enhances the company's technical strength, but more importantly, it brings an international vision and management experience.

Higher education institutions play an important role in the return of talents. Top universities such as Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Zhejiang University have successively established "Integrated Circuit Colleges", providing an ideal academic platform for overseas talents. These institutions flexibly introduce overseas scientists through flexible mechanisms such as "double-hire system", and some research plans even have Nobel Prize winners involved.

Far-reaching impact of the global science and technology landscape

The large-scale return of overseas talents is profoundly changing the global scientific and technological innovation pattern. In the field of artificial intelligence, the success of the DeepSeek team is largely due to the experience of its core members working overseas, especially among the top technology companies in the United States. These engineers bring back the experience accumulated by companies such as Google and Nvidia back to China, promoting the rapid development of China's AI technology.

In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, the return of overseas talents has also had a significant impact. From chip design to manufacturing processes, from materials science to equipment research and development, experts from overseas play an important role in every link. This return of talents not only improves the technical level of China's semiconductor industry, but more importantly, it lays a talent foundation for the sustainable development of the industry.

However, the return of talent also brings new challenges. How to better integrate the experience advantages of overseas talents, how to avoid excessive dependence on external experience while maintaining the vitality of technological innovation, and how to build an institutional environment suitable for the development of talents in different backgrounds, these are all issues that require in-depth thinking and resolution.

From a global perspective, the flow of talents between China and the United States reflects the fundamental differences in the scientific and technological development strategies of the two countries. The United States relies more on attracting global talents to maintain its leading position in science and technology, while China builds an independent and controllable scientific and technological innovation system by cultivating local talents and attracting overseas talents to return. This difference will have a profound impact on the future global technological competition landscape.

The return choice of overseas talents such as Su Fei marks the arrival of a new era. In this era, the global flow of talents is no longer one-way, but two-way or even multi-way. China is transforming from a traditional talent exporter to a talent attractive country. This transformation will inject new vitality into global scientific and technological innovation and reshape the world's scientific and technological development map.