| Interview | Qiuxiao Fen Su Jianxun text | Su Jianxun Qiuxiao Fen editor After a month, the baby "lithography machine" that I had been asking for so hard was mortgaged to exchange money? This makes the chip company "Wuhan Hongxin semiconductor " (hereinafter referred to as "Hongxin") management, especially the newly hired CEO and industry leader Jiang Shangyi feel very wrong. lithography machine is the key equipment for manufacturing chips. Only a few companies in the world can produce it. Among them, the Dutch company ASML has the most advanced technology. However, due to Sino-US economic and trade frictions, according to Reuters, since 2018, the United States has lobbied the Dutch government many times, hoping that the Netherlands will not allow ASML to export high-end lithography machines to China, causing domestic chip manufacturers to “cannot buy it if they have money”. Hongxin employee Tao Yong is still fresh in his memory. On December 22, 2019, the daylight engraving machine was in place: Five people in a workshop on Wangan Avenue in Wuhan Lingkong Port Economic Development Zone ( Dongxihu District) The workers carefully transported a behemoth into the constant temperature workshop,This lithography machine, model NXT:1980Di, is wrapped in a sealed bag. In order to prevent oxidation, workers also inject inert gas into the bag to keep liquid nitrogen fresh all the way. lithography machine entered the factory, Hongxin is like a treasure. An entering ceremony was held for this lithography machine that day. The red back panel read "Hongxin Serve the Country, Realize China's Dream". Among the group photo, there was Jiang Shangyi, the second in command of the front desk, standing at the front desk. "Hongxin has a Jiang Shangyi, Jiang Dad brought a lithography machine", piles and piles are the most important events in the domestic semiconductor industry. 74-year-old Jiang Shangyi is a man in the semiconductor industry. In the industry, Jiang Shangyi is respected as "Jiang Dad". An industry insider described 36 krypton: "TSMC has many uncles and uncles, but only one'dad'." In June 2019, Jiang Shangyi joined Hongxin. After taking down the lithography machine, the face of "Papa Jiang" played a huge role. Once a Hongxin person asked why Jiang Shangyi could get a lithography machine, Jiang Shangyi replied: "We signed hundreds of units at TSMC. Which one of the top and bottom (ASML) is not familiar with us? It’s only because we are willing to sell it because of the face. Give us the first one." Face is not enough. The above-mentioned person told 36 Krypton that due to the limited production capacity of ASML, the external supply conditions are extremely strict. Even if the order is accepted, ASML will send a team of more than a dozen people to visit the customer’s factory on-site to judge the buyer’s technical blueprint and capital by a “scoring system”. Condition etc. Still relying on Jiang Shangyi, Hongxin quickly got the opportunity to be investigated. In December 2019, Hongxin obtained a brand new DUV deep ultraviolet lithography machine. For a while,Hongxin Company, which was only established for two years at that time, has seen no difference among the newly launched chip projects in recent years. And the ambitious goal it set before-to focus on the 14nm process when it gets started, and then to win 7nm, with a monthly production capacity of 30,000 pieces, which basically only TSMC and Samsung can achieve in the industry-it does not seem to be so dreamy . But Jiang Shangyi didn't expect that the lithography machine he tried so hard to get was mortgaged into the bank for money in less than a month after entering the factory. Tianyancha showed that on January 20, 2020, Hongxin mortgaged the imported ASML lithography machine to Wuhan Rural Commercial Bank, using this loan of 580 million yuan. In the mortgage information column, it is impressively written The lithography machine is "new and unused". "Dad Jiang started to feel that something was wrong." Lin Xiong recalled 36Kr. He was an early member of the Hongxin team. In June 2020, the frustrated Jiang Shangyi planned to resign from the position of director and CEO of Hongxin. At that time, Jiang Shangyi and the board of directors of Hongxin had already broken. In order to keep Jiang Shangyi, the board of Hongxin showed a sullen face. An insider told 36 Krypton that in order to prevent Jiang Shangyi from leaving, Li Xueyan, the then chairman of Hongxin, stated that he would send a lawyer's letter to prosecute him. On Dad Jiang's head." Under all sorts of obstructions, Jiang Shangyi could not get away, and he even became a puppet of Hongxin to show others. On July 8, 2020, Hongxin held the "Employee Commendation Conference". Jiang Shangyi was asked to attend the awards for employees. Hongxin officially released a group photo of Jiang Shangyi, Li Xueyan and others. The picture was booming, and the scene was harmonious. The picture shows a group photo of the Hongxin Commendation Conference in July 2020
The 7 and 8 from the left in the picture are Li Xueyan and Jiang Shangyi
Picture from Hongxin official website 
After the event,Jiang Shangyi quickly left Wuhan and then returned to his home in the United States. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, he once said: "My experience at Hongxin is a nightmare."
One month after Jiang Shangyi announced his resignation, a document from the local government fully revealed Hongxin's tragic situation. On July 30, 2020, the Dongxihu District Government of Wuhan City, where Hongxin is located, officially issued a report clearly stating that Hongxin’s project “has a large funding gap and faces the risk of project stagnation due to a break in the capital chain at any time”.
The head of the engineering general contracting company "Wuhan Torch Construction Group" (hereinafter referred to as "Torch") that failed to collect debts from Hongxin, the person in charge Lu Haitao angrily denounced to many local officials: "Why did Hongxin vote? 100 billion? That's not a liar!"
What is puzzling is that the first few people in Hongxin have no semiconductor background or even college education. How did they treat the Wuhan government, Performance leader Jiang Shangyi, and many cooperative companies, step by step cheated into this "100 billion scam"?
More importantly, for many local governments and various sources of funds that are eager to "make cores", how can they avoid entering the "Hongxin scam" again?
Hong core construction site, from 36 Krypton Qiuxiao Fen shooting
amateur team to do the next one hundred billion chip Bureau
To set up a chip project, find people, technology authorization, and government.Relationships are nested in layers, which is extremely difficult. But because the chip business requires land, building factories, and buying machines, each link involves huge amounts of hundreds of millions of dollars. Once speculators succeed, the rewards are extremely tempting.
Wuhan Hongxin, which tells a big story and involves a lot of money, is just such a bold project.
Cao Shan, the earliest player of Hongxin. In 2017, Cao Shan tried to form a semiconductor project. A person familiar with the matter told 36 Krypton that in order to find local governments willing to cooperate, Cao Shan usually circulates in various provincial capital cities, including Guangzhou, Hefei, Chengdu, Nanjing and other places, but in most cases it hits a wall.
In Lin Xiong's impression, Cao Shan is full of big talk, quite quack. In order to pack himself, Cao Shan often carries a number of business cards. His identities include "Vice President of TSMC", "Span1span Acer's first vice president in New York, USA" and so on. However, lies are often exposed because "the vice president of TSMC does not have the name Cao Shan" and "Acer has no company in New York."
Several people who have been in contact with Cao Shan told 36 krypton that "Cao Shan" is not even his real name, but his real name is Bao Enbao. Cao Shan borrowed the name of his home driver. "I have committed too many things, so I use aliases outside." A person familiar with Cao Shan told 36 Krypton.
But after walking a lot, Cao Shan developed a pair of long-sleeved communicative skills. On the eve of the formation of Hongxin, Cao Shan met another key figure, Long Wei.
Long Wei, the secret trader behind Hongxin. Many Hongxin insiders told 36Kr that Long Wei was "very energetic". Under Long Wei's needle thread, Hongxin knocked on the door of the Dongxihu District Government in Wuhan.
In order to control the company’s real power, Long Wei hired a close-knit Li Xueyan to serve as the director of Hongxin. Li Xueyan’s experience has nothing to do with chips.She has sold soju, opened a restaurant, and reselled Chinese medicine. Long and Li also inserted a number of cronies into key positions at Hongxin, such as Li Yueru, a supervisor of the board of directors. Some insiders said that he was a "personal nanny" who took care of Li Xueyan's daily life.
An absurd initial team was formed: Long Wei with "background" as chairman, "Jianghu Hunzi" Cao Shan as director, "chip Xiaobai" Li Xueyan as director and general manager, none of the three had semiconductor experience. . The founding team of such a 100-billion-level semiconductor project actually has a college degree, and Cao Shan himself only has a primary school diploma.
Unexpectedly, under the operation of Long, Cao, and Li, Hongxin quickly took off: On November 12, 2017, Cao Shan established a company called "Beijing Light Blueprint", 4 Tin Hau, Guang Quan Lanprint, as a major shareholder holding 90% of the shares, and the Wuhan Dongxihu District government jointly established Hongxin.
The hidden danger has been buried since then: It seems that the Wuhan Dongxihu District government has taken very little risk. As a 10% minority shareholder, it only injected 200 million yuan in start-up capital at this time, and invested tens of billions of chips at every turn. The project is only a small amount; the problem is that although the blueprint of Long, Cao, and Li's light quantity of holding 90% of the shares at that time assumed a heavy responsibility and promised to invest 1.8 billion yuan, they have not actually paid this amount. money.
In 2017-2018, Cao Shan and Li Xueyan established the blueprint of Beijing light quantity Paid-in capital is 0 Data from Tianyancha
However, this does not prevent Hongxin from quickly becoming a star project in Wuhan in just one year. Since 2018, Hongxin has been listed as a major special project of Hubei Province for two consecutive years. Externally, Hongxindu introduced itself as a project with an investment of US$20 billion/RMB 130 billion.
Food, grass and ammunition from the Dongxihu District Government also followed up quickly. According to a document issued by the Wuhan Municipal Development and Reform Commission, in January 2019, Hongxin, which was established for only one year, had completed an investment of 6.5 billion yuan; by March 2019,Hongxin received more than 1.5 billion investment in one month. These investments come from the Wuhan Dongxihu District Government.
What is puzzling is, why can Hongxin get these funds? After all, the early technical and operational errors and omissions of the Hongxin team made people in the industry surprised.
For the fab, the initial technical route is almost a life and death link. Cao Shan's earliest technical direction for Hongxin was to produce chips with a 90-micron to 7-nanometer process. He also set a big steel-making goal: "Become a fab second only to TSMC and Samsung." But as long as Anyone who knows a little about the law of semiconductor development knows that no fab can produce chips that span 13 generations at the same time.
According to the laws of the semiconductor industry, chip manufacturing should gradually develop from the entry-level 65nm and 40nm to the more difficult 14nm, but Hongxin claims to specialize in 10nm and even 7nm chips.
A Hongxin employee once asked Cao Shan: "Why do you have to fly before you learn to walk?" Cao Shan replied: "The project is only worth 8 billion to make 65nm chips, and the energy value of 14nm is 120 billion, which is too much oil and water. "_Span4span
Why did Wuhan Dongxihu District invest so frequently and so eagerly to launch chip manufacturing projects? Lin Xiong’s analysis of 36 krypton was partly due to the Wuhan East Lake New Technology Development Zone across the river, Ziguang Group, the chip project "Yangtze River Storage" that landed here in 2016 was booming-the project later achieved 64 Mass production of layered 3D NAND Flash chips. Wuhan Dongxihu District has also made an industrial plan: to create an industrial cluster of "chips, screens, smarts, networks, and new", "I want to be a fab to connect the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain."
, a senior investor in the semiconductor industry in Shanghai, said to 36 Krypton: "It is difficult for local governments to be rational. When you see everyone is doing (chips), why can’t I do it? I can’t just say you do it, I do it. It’s just overheating.”
However, to prop up Hongxin’s territory, the three of them will inevitably show their feet. In order to make a fake show, Long, Cao, and Li desperately need a solid technical team.
Surprisingly, they did it.
great number of core public office released a conceptual diagram
Money talks
2019 In the same year, Cao Shan used his contacts again. He found a company called "Shanghai Jingtai". The company worked closely with major chip manufacturers such as TSMC and was good at buying and reselling second-hand equipment. He was quite "good eat" in the circle.
Cao Shan asked Shanghai Jingtai to act as a broker, and the two parties signed a contract worth tens of millions: Jingtai needs to help Hongxin gather 100 senior technicians from Taiwan and other places. The higher the level, the more commission that Hongxin pays. . Lin Xiong told 36 krypton that the commission offered by Hongxin at the time was, "If you can dig Jiang Shangyi, you will give 1 million, and if you find a deputy (manager level), you will give 500,000."
Driven by money, Shanghai Jingtai has established a relationshipToss and turn to contact Jiang Shangyi, who just ended SMIC 's tenure at the time, and was depressed.
Jiang Shangyi was deceived, and it has nothing to do with the ingenious words and expressions of Cao Shan and others.
The Hongxin team is well versed in packaging. Inside Hongxin, rumors about the background of the founding team have always existed: Long Wei is "the grandson of a certain senior executive" and Li Xueyan is "the younger sister of a certain leader." The two often perform dramas that they want to talk about. If someone mentions them Their mysterious identity will be denied face to face by the two, and they will shirk rumors from the rest of the team.
half-push half-and-half on one side, and on the other side, Long, Cao and others deliberately create an aura of identity. Lin Xiong told 36 krypton that when Cao Shan and others went to Taiwan and other places to seek technical teams to settle in, they often moved out of the banner of high-level government to cheat, claiming that the Hongxin project "the mainland is willing to invest 100 billion." In order to make the fake show real and increase the persuasiveness, Long Wei will also bring the technical team in and out of some hotels that he claims "can go to only if you have a background."
In 2018, a senior government official visited Wuhan. Lin Xiong remembered that Li Xueyan pretended to mysteriously tell employees that the senior would visit the Hongxin factory secretly and encourage everyone to "make Chinese logic chips well." However, a careful employee later found out after multiple verifications that the executive did not actually visit Hongxin, and Li Xueyan's words were all lies.
When Jiang Shangyi received the invitation, the news that Hongxin took the initiative to get a 100 billion investment has been overwhelming, coupled with the near completion of the first phase of the project, in the summer of 2019, "Jiang Dad" decided to enter the game.
"If Jiang Shangyi were to do it, his technical capabilities would be very attractive to the market," once a Guozi head chip investor told the media, but based on the Hongxin rumors circulating in the capital market, "just I am afraid that Jiang Shangyi will be deceived.”
Under the endorsement of Jiang Shangyi,A large number of engineers come here, and Hongxin does not hesitate to double the salary to retain talents. Lin Xiong told 36Kr that in the engineering team, "a lot of 3 million and 5 million (annual salary)", at the peak, the number of Hongxin employees once expanded to more than 400.
It is because of Jiang Shangyi and the accompanying technical team that Wuhan Hongxin could buy a lithography machine. With the previous layman team, this was impossible to achieve. Some employees remember that the chairman Li Xueyan once gave a trick to the team that was unable to solve the lithography machine: "Invite ASML to come to China for dinner and give them gifts and Chinese calligraphy and painting."
Tao Yong remembers that when the Dutch lithography machine manufacturer ASML came to investigate, he had given Hongxin’s engineering team a high evaluation. Tao Yong said to 36Kr that ASML exaggerated Hongxin’s "seeing in mainland China". The best team ever."
Although the game looks glamorous at this time, it seems that there is hope of success, , but for the ghostly game player, "saving the game" as a chip is after all just a cover for money.
Wuhan Hongxin Timeline Compiled by 36 krypton based on public information and interview information
The golden pocket of scammers
It was quickly discovered that the high-paying Hongxin engineers were not right in the factory of Hongxin.
Some people familiar with chip manufacturing have surveyed Hongxin's factory and found that Hongxin's factory has problems such as misalignment of the central axis and insufficient emergency borrowed power reserves. "The ground is uneven. The chips are built. The factory will be scrapped within two years."_Span4span
also has a lower-level error. Because the height of the Hongxin factory is too low, the later lithography machine cannot be moved in, so the ceiling can be pushed up again to strengthen the load bearing of the floor.
Hongxin The engineers came to the conclusion that a group of unintelligible people designed a completely unusable factory.
Several Hongxin employees told 36 Krypton that in order to build the factory quickly, Cao Shan, a member of the bureau, asked for a request from a design institute. I came to SMIC’s old plant drawings and directly copied and built the Hongxin factory; while the engineering contractor Torch Group, which Hongxin found, did not have any experience in chip factory construction, and even had many lawsuits. There were hundreds of millions of debts in the court. _Span4span
Cao Shan once said to people around him: "The chip is too complicated, I don't really want to make a chip. I just want to build the factory building, we are familiar with civil construction, so we can do it. "_Strong5strong
Lin Xiong told 36 Krypton that in the name of "building a factory", the practice of "circulating money" is already a common method for semiconductor companies to transfer funds. "First of all, the establishment of a factory can be obtained from the central or local governments. Financial subsidies; in addition, the construction of the factory needs to find a contractor, and the contractor will pay a deposit of hundreds of millions of yuan in order to ensure the performance of the civil work. "Lin Xiong said.
In other words, building a factory can be deceived with both ends and held with both hands.
not only defrauded the government of investment, but also contractors and subcontractors have become Hongxin’s blood-sucking targets.
On December 20, 2019, Wang Liyin, the person in charge of "Wuhan Huanyu Basic Engineering Company" (hereinafter referred to as "Huanyu"), called Lu Haitao, the person in charge of the general contractor "Torch", urging a project payment of 2 million yuan, but The latter was told: “There is a backlog of 70 million in arrears,(To Hongxin) There was no approval after reporting. "_Span4span
If the payment is not repaid, the excuses provided by Hongxin are strange. For example, the contractor is required to redraw the signed contract on the grounds that it is "untidy and messy"; if you call Hongxin Finance for collection, The other party would use "the leader's mobile phone forgot to get in the car" as an excuse; the torch boss also complained to the people of Huanyu, and Hongxin directly relied on the account. "The cost of the high-speed mold (a formwork process) was more than 20 million, and Hongxin did not recognize it. ”_Span4span
According to multiple receipts obtained by 36 Krypton, during 2019, Hongxin and the general contractor Torch had many large-scale fund transactions. What is strange is that on May 30, 2019, Torch paid Hongxin _Span4span
There are many strange accounting transactions between Hongxin and the torch
The picture shows the torch of Hongxinhui on May 30, 2019. RMB 450 million
Image provided by Huanyu to 36 krypton
as the torch of Party B, why pay Hongxin? A person familiar with the matter told 36 krypton because Hongxin promised to pay excess loan interest The torch was paid to the torch, so the torch voluntarily borrowed money from the bank as a guarantor, and then transfused the blood to Hongxin.
This practice also made the torch deep in the quagmire. As Hongxin was unable to repay in time in the later period, as the guarantor, the torch returned A total of 11 million yuan of loan interest was advanced for Hongxin. During the phone call, Lu Haitao, the person in charge of the torch, shouted many times when talking about Hongxin: “This group of people has problems, and the subcontractors hate them to death. _Span4span
On January 21, 2020, only 3 days before New Year’s Eve, Lu Haitao, the person in charge of the torch, made 7 calls to Li Xueyan.None of them are connected.
He is desperate. As the farmers’ wages of 50 million yuan were not settled, the hundreds of workers who had not yet returned to their hometowns were anxious. They gathered on the construction site and saw their hard work for a year vanished. The worst happened. During the daytime on January 22, the workers rushed into the Dongxihu District Government of Wuhan, "the police could not stop them."
The contradiction has intensified, and Hongxin is still reluctant to release funds. It wasn't until 10:00 pm on January 22 that Hongxin Finance reluctantly promised to pay 12 million, and it went to 4 am. This plan was overturned by Hongxin again. Hongxin said that it could only pay 8 million and the remaining 4 million. Have to wait until the seventh day of the new year.
The two sides were at a stalemate over the payment plan. Lu Haitao was completely angered. He said to the government staff present at the time, “I invite you to detain me for 15 days and give the workers an account”, “I’ll report, I’ll fight The mayor’s hotline, report the situation to the city committee.”
This farce also spread to Hongxin, and the employees talked a lot. In order to appease employees, Li Xueyan has repeatedly reiterated that Hongxin is absolutely safe. She emphasized to employees from time to time: Any problem can happen to Hongxin, but money is definitely not a problem.
"The Hongxin group didn't have a word of truth", Lu Haitao expressed angrily.
In fact, money is definitely an issue.
unmatched accounts
When Hongxin was established, the overwhelming investment of 130 million yuan was the news of the core choice.But in the end, I couldn't even get 2 million.
So, does Hongxin have any money? Where is the money?
36 According to interviews and public information, Krypton has roughly compiled a record of large income and expenditures of Hongxin since its establishment in November 2017 and the resignation of Jiang Shangyi in June 2020. During the period of 2 years and 7 months:
Wuhan Hongxin's large income, expenditure and arrears statistics Based on interviews and public information
In terms of revenue, the Wuhan Development and Reform Commission previously issued a document showing that Hongxin has received a total investment of 15.3 billion yuan as of December 31, 2019.
is more than that. In order to spend more money, Hongxin continued to mortgage the physical assets such as land and lithography machines, of which 580 million was taken from the lithography machine. In addition, a person familiar with the matter presented evidence to 36 krypton, proving that Wuhan Hongxin once asked Torch Group, the general contractor of the project, as security, and successively withdrew about 700 million yuan in loans from local banks.
has a lot of pockets, and Hongxin’s expenditure is extremely limited. Roughly calculate an account for Hongxin:
1. The civil construction cost of the first phase of Hongxin is 1.7 billion yuan (experienced engineering contractors ask 36 According to Krypton, the civil construction of the first phase of the Hongxin factory is worth up to 2 billion);
2. It costs nearly 800 million to buy the lithography machine;
3. Hongxin did not spend money on the lithography machine For other production machines, the factory has not yet started operating, and has not incurred R&D and sales expenses;
4. The remaining large fixed expenditure is mainly staff salaries.Taking into account that the number of employees at Hongxin’s peak period is less than 500, the average monthly salary in the semiconductor manufacturing industry is 10,000 yuan. Even considering the high salary of senior technical personnel, if you roughly calculate the staff expenditure in two years of operation No more than 400 million yuan.
At the same time, Hongxin also owes a lot of foreign debts. According to 36Kr, Hongxin has not settled accounts with Jingtai, Torch and other professional contractors.
estimated that if all 15.3 billion investment funds are in place and all arrears have been settled, Hongxin should have about 12.4 billion remaining on the account. But where did the money go?
Sky Eye Check showed that in September 2020, in a lawsuit between Shengpin Precision Gas (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Hongxin, the balance in the Hongxin account was seized. The verdict showed that only about 15 million yuan was left in Hongxin's account at that time.
This problem seems to be unsolvable even for Hongxin insiders. 36 krypton interviewed a number of senior executives of Wuhan Hongxin, no one can explain how Hongxin got to the situation where the funds dried up.
During the investigation, 36 Krypton found that Hongxin has a complicated interest binding relationship with a number of in vitro companies.
Take one of the companies named "Foshan Hanqi" as an example. Hanqi is a consulting company of Hongxin in name, but it actually transfers benefits in the name of training employees/consulting. Tao Yong said to 36 krypton that the trader of the Hanqi team is Li Xueyan's younger brother Li Xuesong.
Lin Xiong also told 36 krypton that Hanqi has recruited many chip engineers from companies such as Yangtze River Storage, TSMC, and UMC through intermediary companies.
The daily work of these engineers is to write the technical data of the former owner into PPT.In the end, Han Qi packaged and sold these PPTs to Hongxin.
In order to cover up this kind of transaction, in Hanqi, the engineers participating in the training use pseudonyms, "Xiao Mao, Xiao Feng, Xiao Zhu". In order to confuse the audience, Han Qi also mixed other content in the training, such as Let engineers learn Nike's success and read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms collectively.
Although they are not doing their jobs properly, the monthly salary of these engineers is as high as 150,000-300,000. This expenditure is allocated by Hongxin in the name of "technology authorization."
The final result is that this company, which supposedly has already received a high investment, will soon be short of money.
According to Hongxin’s original plan, the first phase of the factory was supposed to start operation at the end of 2019, but at that time, Hongxinlian’s most important production equipment procurement had not yet started, "all stuck in the financial sector of the last link" . The response from the finance department was that "there will be money in January 2020", but this deadline has been continuously delayed to March, April, or even later.
chip manufacturing has been suspended for a long time. In April 2020, Tao Yong received a puzzling task: Hongxin’s board of directors asked 11 management, including CEO Jiang Shangyi, to write development plans for various departments, To solve a very broad proposition, everyone has to write a phone book as thick and report to the board of directors.” Tao Yong said to 36 krypton.
This work is obviously blinding. After the management team finished reporting their plans, no one on the board of directors of Hongxin raised any questions, but after the meeting adjourned, they informed all members: "The plan was written incorrectly and everyone should rewrite the second draft."
It is worth noting that, Also in April 2020, the Wuhan Municipal Development and Reform Commission once issued the "Wuhan City Major Projects Under Construction in 2020", which stated that by 2020, Hongxin plans to invest 8.7 billion yuan.
After another executive meeting like the emperor’s new clothes,Jiang Shangyi couldn't bear it and cursed Li Xueyan. He was a little excited: "We take Hongxin's salary and do things worthy of Hongxin. Writing these things (plans) is a waste of time", "I order you as the CEO, not to write all of them."
This is the first time Tao Yong has seen Jiang Shangyi angry. After the conflict with Hongxin's board of directors was completely intensified, in June 2020, Jiang Shangyi quickly resigned to Hongxin's board of directors and then left Wuhan.
Jiang Shangyi's departure became the last straw that overwhelmed the camel.
In July 2020, Wuhan City revealed the fact that Hongxin's funds were broken. In October, the National Development and Reform Commission stated that regarding the phenomenon of unfinished chip projects, it will guide local governments to strengthen their understanding of the risks of major project construction, and in accordance with the principle of “who supports and who is responsible”, it will notify those who cause major losses or cause major risks. responsibility.
Who is ultimately damaged?
After investing as much as 15.3 billion yuan in this project, the Wuhan Dongxihu District government has to deal with the mess. In November 2020, Wuhan Dongxihu District acquired the light quantity blueprint which holds 90% of Hongxin shares and completely took over Hongxin. Tao Yong told 36 Krypton that after the government took over Hongxin’s mess, it cleared Li Xueyan and sent a lobby group to Shanghai and other places to seek acquisitions, but this project might not be able to come back to life, because most of Hongxin’s employees have already found Okay, just wait for the opportunity to quit after finishing the year-end bonus.
Huanyu’s Wang Liyin is still running around for the 40 million project balance. In the year and a half since collecting debts, he has been running around, tried to write to Li Xueyan, contacted the court and the district government, but did not get a satisfactory response. Because of this money, his Huanyu company is on the verge of bankruptcy.
torch here,In order to recover the arrears, since September 2020, they have been pretending to "return to work in full". In fact, they have gathered a small group of workers to help Hongxin do the "facade work" of painting exterior walls and removing scaffolding every day.
In December 2020, there are workers "construction" on the Hongxin construction site Photographed by 36氪 Qiu Xiaofen
Who benefits?
In the call recordings obtained at 36 krypton, Wang Liyin and Lu Haitao both talked about hearing the rumors that Hongxin had absconded with money, and the government was also alert. "A friend went to the Dongxihu government to verify, and the government replied that Hongxin had rolled some (money) and left." Wang Liyin said.
According to Tianyan Check, in May 2019, Hongxin Chairman Long Wei and Director Cao Shan withdrew from the company's management. After leaving Hongxin, Cao Shan let go of the people around him: "Haha, Taiwanese (referring to Jiang Shangyi) are really cheating, this is a game, let him be the spanner."
A Hongxin insider told At 36 krypton, Long Wei, the former chairman of Hongxin, confided the truth after a big drink: "My salary is only ten or twenty thousand a month. When can I get one hundred million by salary? But after finishing this project (Hongxin), I can retire."
Cao Shan continued to travel around, copying the "chip game" in a similar way. 36 Krypton learned that Cao Shan holds multiple chip projects in the trader. Since November 2018, Cao Shan has successively established Zhuhai Yixin, Yunxin International, Hubei Tianxin, Jinan Quanxin...Even after Hongxin’s thunderstorm, Cao Shan still made the “Quanxin” project in Jinan flourishing. , Using the same routine as Hongxin, spurred Jinan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a factory.
There are many chip companies behind Cao Shan,36氪 sorted according to public information There are many chip companies behind Cao Shan, 36 krypton sorted according to public information
Before publishing, 36 krypton made 11 calls to Cao Shan, both of which were refused and hang up. Cao Shan only sent a short message of "please message". After 36 Krypton sent to verify the origin of the news, Cao Shan lost the news.
The helplessness and plot of the local core-making craze
What kind of soil scam is breeding?
An industrial investor stationed in the Yangtze River Delta for a long time told 36 krypton that in local core-making projects, evidence of “deception” is often difficult to confirm. The chip manufacturing process is complicated, and a project has become obsolete. It is difficult to tell whether it is because the investor's funds are not in place, the local government has interfered too much, or the technology and equipment are defective. Furthermore, the chip project exploded, which is a "family ugly" of the local government.
This directly leads to the fact that the cost of fraud in the semiconductor industry is lower than everyone thinks, and half-way abortion projects have frequently appeared:
In May 2020, a major chip manufacturer, Chengdu GF, which plans to invest US$10 billion , Officially announced a complete shutdown. This project only lasted for 2 years;
In July 2020, Nanjing Dekema, the chip project that originally claimed to have invested 3 billion US dollars, became a "three debt company" with arrears of wages, arrears, and taxes. ", has now entered the bankruptcy liquidation process;
2017,The Huai'an District Government of Huai'an City gave out 2.6 billion yuan to purchase 60% of Dehuai Semiconductor's shares in one go-this amount is equivalent to the local general public budget revenue for a year, but now only a company with hundreds of millions of yuan in debt is left.
Since 2015, the main domestic unfinished chip projects 36 krypton based on public data collation
Of course, not every chip project is deliberately deceived by a "game player" like Hongxin, but there are still many projects that have broken funds and aborted halfway.
In 2020, the chip manufacturing industry presents a weird phenomenon: the local core-making project rapidly enters the market while thundering. According to statistics from market research agency CB Insights, in the first half of 2020 alone, 15 provinces and more than 29 cities have landed semiconductor projects, a year-on-year increase of 84%. According to the ranking of contract amount, Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shandong Province ranked top four, making Shanghai, which has always attached great importance to semiconductor project investment, only ranked fifth.
. On the one hand, ZTE, , Huawei and other companies have frequently called for the importance of chip manufacturing because of high-end chips. On the other hand, local governments and social capital are over-seeking semiconductors and even many real estate companies Cement companies and other laymen have started the semiconductor business, and speculators have a chance to take advantage of it.
National Development and Reform Commission spokesperson Meng Wei pointed out this "core" disease in China in October last year: domestic investment in the integrated circuit industry is enthusiastic, and "three no companies" with no experience, no technology, and no talents enter the industry. Local governments are unclear about the laws of integrated circuits, blindly start projects, and low-level redundant construction risks appear.
chip is a technology-intensive and capital-intensive project after all. I really want to make it. The conditions are indispensable: that is, the government or other capital must have deep enough pockets and large enough determination. "The first phase of the chip project invested hundreds of billions of dollars.The cost of a chip project often takes 5 to 8 years to be determined; it also requires accurate positioning and talents.
Lenovo Group Vice President and Lenovo Venture Partners Song Chunyu believes that the first step to avoid stepping on pits depends on whether the founder is an industry veteran and whether the proposed goal respects the objective laws of the industry . In his view, it will take 20-30 years for integrated circuits to be made from materials to equipment to manufacturing processes. Key leaders are required, repeated verification with customers, and a process that requires long-term running-in with equipment.
"Semiconductors have no shortcuts, no short time." Song Chunyu said to 36 Krypton.
But it should be clear that the chip project has a bubble, which does not mean that the general direction of the chip is wrong. The development history of photovoltaics and new energy vehicles may be worthy of reference for the current chip industry: in the era of policy subsidies for these two industries, they have stimulated the rapid expansion of the industry, and at the same time they have become the hardest hit area. However, the intensive introduction of regulations and the gradual removal of bubbles, domestic companies currently occupy the leading position in the global photovoltaic industry from materials to equipment, and new energy vehicle shipments have also ranked first in the world.
In addition to crooks, there are many people who want to make a career in the chip field.
74-year-old Jiang Shangyi is well-connected in the industry and cherishes feathers very much. His early holding of TSMC stocks has made him not forced to make a living. As usual, "Dad Jiang" should not easily fall into Hongxin. trap.
A person who has had a lot of contact with Jiang Shangyi told 36 Krypton: "Daddy Jiang needs a stage too much."
Talking about why Jiang Shangyi hastily joined Hongxin, the above-mentioned person mentioned three reasons: One , Jiang Shangyi has worked at TSMC for half his life, and those who do technology are more like "scholars", with sufficient industry experience, but insufficient social experience; second,In 2016, when Jiang Shangyi moved from TSMC to SMIC to perform his duties, he angered the head of TSMC, Zhang Zhongmou. In order to calm his anger, Jiang Shangyi agreed to work only as a consultant at SMIC, but he had no rights. This situation allowed Dad Jiang "hero is useless".
More importantly, after suffered a supply cut-off of domestic semiconductors, who can break through the technology blockade first, means staying in history. "He (Jiang Shangyi) really wants to keep a name in this life." The person said. As of press time, 36 krypton could not contact Jiang Shangyi.
After leaving Hongxin, Jiang Shangyi regained his confidence and joined SMIC. Although his salary is only 1/5 of TSMC's period, he is more attracted to his career in advanced manufacturing processes.
Looking back, there have been three core-making waves in China: for the first time in the period of reform and opening up, 33 domestic units invested 1.3 billion yuan to introduce various integrated circuit production lines, but because of lack of experience, they finally invested Very few production lines are used; the second time was after the "909 Project" in the 1990s, and the third time was the establishment of the National Fund in 2014.
The three waves of core making are not without results. After the first core-making wave, in 1988, the output of China’s integrated circuits reached 100 million for the first time—this represented the country’s entry into the stage of large-scale industrial production; in the second wave of core-making, SMIC, , Loongson_ Representative companies like span4span; for the third time, in 2020, the number of integrated circuit production soared to 261.3 billion.
Xie Zhifeng, one of the founders of SMIC, once mentioned that the development of semiconductors in the United States, Japan and South Korea has reached its peak, the market is in China, talents are returning, and domestic semiconductors have reached the stage where the time, place and people are harmonious.
"If you don’t seize the opportunity at this stage,I will fall behind again in the next cycle".
(At the request of the interviewee, Tao Yong and Lin Xiong are pseudonyms. 36氪 author Li Qin and intern Geng Wujing also contributed to this article.)
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