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English
The long-term game between China and the United States continues, and the process of semiconductor localization is accelerating. More and more enterprises in Chinese Mainland have entered the core making industry, and both mobile phone, automobile and even household appliance manufacturers have started the "core making road".
The sanctions imposed by the United States on Huawei have stimulated the development of domestic chip companies in China.
In the past two years, the United States has taken action against Huawei four times, not only pouring dirty water on Huawei's 5G communication equipment, but also using the modification of chip bans to restrict Huawei's use of 5G chips, directly affecting Huawei's mobile phone business.
But everything has two sides. The United States' chip cutting against Huawei not only affected Huawei's development, but also had a huge impact on domestic semiconductor companies in China, and even caused a major reshuffle in the global semiconductor market. Nowadays, China's semiconductor industry has fully started independent research, and the process of "de beautification" is accelerating.
The shortage of chips and significant price increases have made many companies realize that the supply chain cannot overly rely on foreign countries, but should seek suitable chip suppliers domestically or independently develop chips. This is a challenge and a rare opportunity for independent chip research and development manufacturers.
The dilemma of domestic chip companies?
01 Chip companies rapidly fission
Under the continuous fermentation of the "chip shortage" wave, "cross-border chip manufacturing" is becoming increasingly popular. In 2021, auto companies, mobile phone manufacturers, and Internet giants will be able to enter the "core making" track one after another, and even real estate, household appliances, department stores, cement plants and other enterprises will directly cross the road to start core making in the technology industry.
This means that too many chip companies registering may also lead to a situation of scattered funds and talent shortage, which can lead to a dispersed investment of funds and talents. After all, chips are already capital, technology, and talent intensive enterprises.
02 Talent dispersion in the chip industry
In terms of the overall environment of the chip market, the emergence of a large number of chip companies will inevitably lead to talent dispersion. The chip industry has opened up an "internal competition" for talent. In the "2022 Talent Market Insights and Salary Guidelines", it is pointed out that against the backdrop of sustained shortage of chip supply, salary performance has increased across all functions. Among them, leading figures in CPU/GPU, leading talents in heterogeneous computing, and AI chip R&D directors all have annual salaries exceeding 2 million yuan; The salary increase for positions such as IC design engineers in the integrated circuit field and chief medical officers in the biopharmaceutical field can reach up to 50%. It is common for an innovative talent to be approached by more than 10 headhunters or invited for an interview by an employer, with 4-5 offers in hand.
Enterprises are thirsty for talents, but high-end talents are particularly scarce, making it difficult to recruit and retain talents, which has become a challenge restricting the development of innovative enterprises.
Domestic entrepreneurial teams are gradually disappearing, and numerous "small workshops" for chip manufacturing have emerged. In addition, a considerable number of enterprises do not have their own "base" due to limited start-up funds, but rely on financing to maintain their survival. These results are not conducive to further expanding and strengthening the semiconductor industry.
03 Various feudal lords compete for funds
As is well known, the chip industry is very expensive. A mature 14nm chip manufacturing production line would cost approximately $10 billion, leading many companies into a "capital grab" competition. Due to the relatively high cost of investing in chip manufacturing, not only is capital consumption high and time-consuming, but it is also almost difficult to recover the investment cost. Throwing one billion yuan into it is like throwing water away. No matter how big a cake is given to many people, it is difficult for any enterprise to stand out.
Most aspects of the chip industry require more than ten years of accumulation to show results, and the influx of funds cannot comprehensively enhance the industry's technology and competitiveness in the short term. On the contrary, more and more companies are beginning to feel the torment brought by capital overheating. With a large number of domestic entrepreneurs emerging, competitors are competing to offer lower prices in order to win limited customers. Over time, the profit margin of the chip industry has been continuously squeezed.
04 Limited technical environment and insufficient localization production capacity
Due to the late start of China's chip industry, there are almost no advantages in chip design and manufacturing, and the localization production capacity of monocrystalline silicon and auxiliary manufacturing materials is insufficient. In addition, the technological monopoly and supply blockade of developed countries in Europe and America have included key materials and equipment in the prohibited list, seriously endangering the stability of China's chip industry system.
Chip technology requires lithography machines, and lithography machine patent technology is monopolized by ASML, which is highly influenced by Europe and America. Against the backdrop of technology blockade against China, it is difficult to engage in substantive technical exchanges with the company, making it extremely challenging to independently develop domestically produced lithography machines and achieve technological breakthroughs in the short term. These objective factors make domestic high-performance chips completely dependent on imports, and the "bottleneck" problem is obvious. On this basis, it is urgent to improve the supply chain of key semiconductor raw materials in China.
How can domestic chip companies break through?
The policy tilt of the country towards the chip industry is the most basic and direct political support
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized at a press conference in March 2021 that the information society of the new era in the 21st century cannot do without the puzzle of chip integrated circuits. The high-quality development of the chip industry is related to the development of modern information industry and industrial chain. Continuous achievements have been made in technological development, with significant progress in key processes, technologies, and materials over the past 20 years. The comprehensive development capability of enterprises continues to strengthen, and a new number of leading enterprises have emerged.
The government has taken a series of measures to increase tax reduction for enterprises, reserve and cultivate talents, and strengthen cooperation on a global scale. Integrating the industrial chain into the wave of globalization development, promoting a virtuous cycle of industrial development, not only provides support for domestic independent informationization development, but also provides strong support for the community with a shared future for mankind.
Through adjustments in taxation, subsidies, and distribution, we support the continuous enhancement of integrated circuit industrialization capabilities, driving chip companies to improve product technology, expand economies of scale, and reduce product costs. This has brought positive signals and better experiences to end device consumers in the industry chain, attracting more consumers to purchase products containing domestically developed chips, and thus forming a virtuous cycle both internally and externally.
Macro policies provide not only powerful, but also favorable, and incentive institutional guarantee mechanisms for the development of China's chip enterprise product market. Provided the most powerful logistical support for China's chip enterprises to move towards the strategic goals of standardization, order, branding, and sustainability.
02 Increase the cultivation of talents in the chip industry and increase overall support for "production, education, research, and application"
Talents are the cornerstone of high-tech. We need to improve the domestic mechanism for cultivating integrated circuit talents, further strengthen cooperation between integrated circuit enterprises, universities, and research institutes, carry out the construction of training special bases, closely adjust teaching content and practical methods in conjunction with enterprise development and market demand, focus on cultivating advanced and versatile talents, and promote the close integration of production, education, and cutting-edge technology.
Establish an effective incentive system for technological innovation, recognize and reward high-end talents who have made outstanding contributions to the development of integrated circuits, stimulate talent innovation and creativity, and create an atmosphere of independent research and continuous innovation.
Guided by the national demand for major integrated circuits, we will launch the National Science and Engineering Research and Exploration Program, actively promote the high-end process of domestic chip design and manufacturing, and comprehensively improve the technical level of various aspects of chips from point to area.
03 Establish an independent, controllable and secure domestic chip industry chain and supply chain system
The chip industry chain in our country is relatively fragile. If any link in the supply chain breaks, it will be "choked" by others, and the chip industry as a whole will be in a passive state, even bringing crises to the country's economic and social development.
In the new stage of development, in order to break free from the passive situation of the chip industry being controlled by others, China needs to fully grasp the cutting-edge technological achievements and advanced innovative applications formed by the new round of global technological revolution, and steadily promote the localization and localization of key core equipment, design software, and key materials in the chip industry chain.
In addition, it is necessary to actively build an independent and controllable chip industry chain and supply chain system, in order to steadily improve the self-sufficiency rate of chips needed by various industries in China, enhance the service capabilities of local upstream manufacturers to downstream, increase customer stickiness, reduce the impact of market demand or supply changes on enterprise operations, and further enhance the cooperation level between local integrated circuit upstream and downstream manufacturers, so that local suppliers have certain industry chain supporting service capabilities, and reduce the possibility of partial or overall supply chain collapse in the face of interference factors in the supply system. At the same time, reduce the dependence on chip technology and products from non friendly countries, regions, and physical enterprises, in order to achieve technological self-reliance and self-improvement of the national chip industry.
