The game between major powers and see the true meaning of the chip! The chip game between China and the United States is gradually becoming fierce, and Americans blockade, win over, industrial subsidies and other means are being staged one after another.
Block EDA/ECAD chip design software
After the implementation of the " Chip and Science Act ", which was tailor-made for China, Americans once again regulated the export of advanced technology.
On August 12, US time, the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Safety (BIS) disclosed a new temporary final rule on export restrictions in the Federal Register, involving advanced semiconductors, turbine engines, and other fields.
This ban implements new export controls on four technologies, including EDA/ECAD software necessary for integrated circuits with GAAFET (surround gate field effect transistor) structure, ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material represented by diamond and gallium oxide , and four technologies including pressure gain combustion (PGC).
The US Department of Commerce said that the four emerging and basic technologies controlled this time will "significantly increase military potential." Including the list means that the export of these four technologies will require an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce. If a company applies for an export license but does not allow it, the above technologies may not be available in the global supply chain. The effective date of the
related ban will take effect on August 15.
The EDA/ECAD software that was restricted from exporting this time is accurate sanctions, pointing to the core areas of chips involved in manufacturing, like an invisible hand, pinching the throat.
EDA is known as the "mother of chips" by the chip industry. It usually refers to the design method of using computer-assisted design software to complete the functional design, verification and other processes of integrated circuits. It runs through nearly 600 billion US dollars of integrated circuits (IC) industry design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. Chip engineers must rely on EDA software tools to complete circuit design, layout design and other work.
If chip manufacturing is compared to building a building, IC design is the design drawing of the building, and EDA software is the design tool for this drawing, but the EDA software is N orders of magnitude more complex than architectural design software. The limitation of
EDA software has a great impact on chip companies, such as Samsung . Its 3nm GAA architecture process technology that just broke through in June was also completed with the full assistance of EDA software such as ANSYS, Synopsys, Cadence and other EDA software. Without the cooperation of EDA software, it is more difficult to break through architecture and process limitations.
For a long time, the domestic market has been dominated by the three overseas EDA giants. In terms of revenue scale, in 2020, the total market share of Synopsys, Cadence and Siemens EDA in China's EDA market exceeded 77%.
EDA's domestic road started in the 1980s. The first EDA tool with independent intellectual property rights in Chinese history was born and won multiple international awards. With the dual support of national policies and capital, the number of domestic EDA manufacturers is increasing. According to data from the Xin Idea Research Institute, there are about 49 EDA companies in China in 2020, such as: Huada Jiutian, Xin Vision, Guangli Micro, Introduction Electronics, Sierxin, etc.
However, compared with the three international giants, there is still a gap between domestic manufacturers. At present, the most advanced processes that the three international giants can support have reached 2nm, while only some of the domestic manufacturers support more advanced process processes. For example, only one of Huada Jiutian supports 5nm, Siercoin supports 10nm process, and the rest only supports 28nm process.
Biden signed the Chip and Science Act to provide $52 billion in subsidies for
EDA/ECAD software, ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor materials and other precise strikes are just one of the various tricks in the United States. Americans also come up with the old routine of industrial subsidies.
htmlOn July 27, the U.S. Senate approved the passage of the Chip and Science Act by 64 to 33. Before this round of export control information was introduced, US President Biden signed the Chip and Science Act of more than $280 billion last week.The Chip and Science Act includes providing US chip companies with $52 billion in funding subsidies to encourage them to build factories in the United States.At the same time, it will also provide chip factories with tax credits of about $24 billion, scientific subsidies of more than $100 billion, etc. to consolidate and expand the advantages of the US technology industry.
It is worth noting that this bill also points to China. According to US media reports, in addition to the $52 billion in chip companies mentioned at the beginning and a package of tax exemptions, the bill also includes some content on restricting companies from investing in China, including restricting China's production of advanced chips below 28nm.
Act requires chip manufacturers that accept federal funds and tax subsidies provided by the bill to prohibit "specific countries that pose a threat to the United States" including China and Russia from investing or expanding semiconductor factories that are advanced processes in order to curb advanced chip manufacturing in countries that pose national security issues. The plan is for ten years. The
Act also requires that U.S. companies funded by the Chip Act prohibit the production of advanced process chips below 28nm in China, which will be used in mobile phones, tablets and other products. More than $100 billion in funds provided by the
chip bill can basically meet the construction of factory construction of Intel , Samsung and TSMC. Intel may receive $20 billion in subsidy support through the "Chip Act" and $5 billion to $10 billion in discounts.
A research report released by Huatai Securities stated that companies that currently have semiconductor factories in China and the United States include TSMC (Nanjing), Samsung (Xi'an), and Hynix (Dalian). If these companies accept subsidies from the "Chip Act", they may be restricted from building or expanding advanced process wafer factories in China. In addition, Intel and Micron also have chip package and test factories in China.
According to the BBC (BBC), all U.S. equipment manufacturers have received letters from the U.S. Department of Commerce notifying them not to supply equipment for chip manufacturing for 14 nanometers or less to China. Tim Archer, chairman and CEO of American chip equipment manufacturer Panlin Semiconductor, said at the financial report meeting on July 27 that the scope of US technology export controls to China will be further expanded to foundries that produce chips below 14 nanometers.
Americans took out old industrial subsidies, wanting to break the existing chip production pattern again and hold chip production firmly in their own hands, but this contradicts the international division of labor of chips.
At present, mainland China has the world's widest electronic manufacturing industry chain, terminal brands and market demand foundation, driving the scale growth of domestic chip adoption and local chip manufacturing. According to SEMI data, the size of China's semiconductor equipment market increased from US$8.23 billion in 2017 to US$29.62 billion in 2021, with a four-year CAGR of 37.7%, and the corresponding global market share also increased rapidly from 14.5% to 28.9%, becoming the largest market for semiconductor equipment.
This is also our biggest advantage in the China-US chip game.
The United States wants to establish a chip quad alliance
Before the blockade was used, the Americans had long been thinking of winning over and closing the loop.
In March this year, the US government first proposed the "Chip Quad Alliance", with members being the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which are highly competitive in the field of semiconductor . The United States and Japan have advantages in chip design and parts equipment respectively, while South Korea and Taiwan are leading in foundry. After strengthening industrial cooperation, the four parties will build a strategic alliance from chip design, production to supply to further compete with mainland China.
But now Americans' abacus is about to fail.
According to reports from many South Korean media on the 8th, South Korea has expressed its willingness to participate in the preparation consultation of the "Chip Quadruple Alliance". However, South Korea's foreign ministry immediately clarified that South Korea has not confirmed to join the alliance.
On the eve of the preparation of consultations, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin visited China and became the first Korean senior official to visit China three months after the government came to power. According to Korean media reports, the focus of Park Jin's visit to China is to express South Korea's position on the chip issue and eliminate China's doubts in this regard.
Park Jin said in an interview before visiting China on the 8th that South Korea does not want to exclude specific countries. China is South Korea's largest trading target country and an important cooperation object of South Korea in supply chain. It is necessary for South Korea to communicate and dialogue with China on stable management of supply chains.
At present, the industrial chain of South Korea's semiconductor industry is highly dependent on China, and China is the largest destination for chip sales in South Korea.
According to data released by the Korea Federation of Industry, the Korean semiconductor industry has a dependence on materials provided by China at 39.5%, compared with 18.3% on Japan. Last year, the total export share to mainland China and Hong Kong China reached 60%, and the bilateral semiconductor trade volume reached US$76 billion. Under the general trend of global consumer electronics , China's market is more important to the South Korean semiconductor industry.
In the "chip era", the United States has fully upgraded the war from the trade field to the science and technology field. Even if the road ahead is long and difficult, it is imperative to localize all links of chips.
This article comes from the financial industry website
