The Chinese government has stressed implementing innovation-driven development strategy and improving a new system for mobilizing the resources nationwide to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields. However, where is the boundary between the government and the market in the innovation economy? How can this new system work well and get rid of excessive government intervention? In response to these questions, this article investigates the evolution of the financing system in America’s innovative semiconductor industry. When the industry was in its infancy or faced with the urgent crisis which called for structural transformation, the American government leveraged the state’s strategic investment to lead the expectation of the market, in order to create a new innovation ecosystem and an adaptive financing system. When the innovation ecology became more mature and competitive, the state gradually gave its way to the market and left more space for the latter to play a more fundamental role. This article regards the relationship between the government and the market in the innovation economy as dynamic and co-evolving, rather than static and fixed. This article reveals the dynamic change logic of government role from “market creating” to “market fixing” with the development of industry, which sheds light on dealing with government-market relationship of developing strategic innovation.