Vimicro, the Chinese high-tech company run by overseas returned students in Beijing's Zhongguancun, has announced the sale of more than 10 million of its Xingguang digital multimedia CPU chips in the international market, granting it the world's largest market share at 40%.

The Xingguang (Star Light) digital multimedia CPU chip contains more than 200 patent technologies and has taken 80% of the domestic market.

"It indicates that China is approaching the era of 'Invented by China' from what used to be known as 'Made in China' in its integrated circuit (IC) industry," Zhang Qi, director of the Electronics and Information Administration with China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), was quoted by Beijing Youth Daily as saying.

China had seen a slow progress in its IC industry in the 30 years since it successfully developed its first IC in 1965–although over 10 billion chips were used each year from the late 1990s, 80% of the chips were imported. In 1999, a Xingguang digital multimedia chips project was jointly launched by the MII, the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and other departments. So far, leading IT companies from China and overseas, including Lenovo, China Telecom, China Netcom, Microsoft, HP, Samsung, Philips, Foxconn, and Fujitsu have become clients of Vimicro, national English-language newspaper China Daily has reported.