text/ Jincuodao Channel
5 On a business trip for 19 hours, he can harm 23 million people. Only Pelosi , who has been on the stage, can do this.
In order to curb the separatist elements of Taiwan independence, after Pelosi left, the People's Liberation Army launched military exercises. Almost all the six major ports in Taiwan Province were blocked. The fish beaten by fishermen could not be sold, the sand and gravel used to build houses could not be transported in, and even the express delivery from ordinary people could not be landed.
But at this time, TSMC, the largest chip company in Taiwan, made a harsh statement: "If the mainland dares to take action, will cut off the supply of chips."
, behind the scoundrelative, TSMC has invested 1.5 trillion NT$ annually, supplying more than half of the world's chips. By controlling TSMC, you can control China's chip supply to a certain extent.
But it is obvious that Pelosi's abacus is destined to be empty. Today, China's chip industry is no longer the same as before.
founder of SMIC once said that although it cannot be taken lightly, " The United States' ability to restrict China is not that strong."
As the godfather of China's chip industry, how did he break out into a "core" path under the "encirclement and suppression" of foreign giants?
was "banned" by Taiwan, and
took 400 people to the mainland to build factories
When the United States mobilized the whole country to sanction Huawei , Huawei used its killer Kirin 710A.
This is a real Chinese chip designed by Huawei and manufactured by SMIC. SMIC is the world's fourth largest foundry company for integrated circuits.
The founder behind him is Zhang Rujing.
Under the suppression of the United States, the biggest constraint on China's construction of the semiconductor industry is that it has no talents and resources, and it cannot buy the latest high-tech products. Chinese engineers cannot even overcome the threshold of the core part of a well-known semiconductor company.
How did Zhang Rujing create SMIC under the nose of the United States?
During the establishment of SMIC, Zhang Rujing posed two fatal threats, and was first "banned" by Taiwan.
2000, cross-strait relations became tighter, and Taiwan's technological blockade on the mainland became even more crazy. Zhang Rujing became a thorn in Chen Shui-bian's side and was fined US$155,000 as a warning and asked him to withdraw his investment within 6 months.
Zhang Rujing was not afraid at all. directly gave up his Taiwanese household registration, and was separated from Taiwan.
The bigger threat is on the old boss TSMC.
After he retired from Texas Instruments , it took him three years to make Shimao Semiconductor ranked third in Taiwan. This made Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC, feel a huge sense of crisis, and he spent $5 billion to acquire Shida.
At that time, Zhang Rujing proposed the conditions to Zhang Zhongmou: the third semiconductor factory in is built to the mainland.
However, TSMC broke its promise after acquiring CTO. Therefore, Zhang Rujing attracted 400 people from all over the world to build factories in Shanghai, and 300 of them came from TSMC, which also laid the "thunder" for it later.
In the semiconductor industry, Zhang Rujing is a "godfather-level" factory building expert. He worked for Texas Instruments in the United States for 20 years and has established more than ten factories in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
semiconductor industry is a money-burning industry, which often requires billions of dollars of investment. Zhang Rujing's factory building philosophy is "it is best to build a factory in a recession."
coincided with the bursting of Internet bubble in 2001. During the low period of semiconductor , SMIC took advantage of the opportunity to purchase a large number of low-priced second-hand equipment. Tianjin's Motorola factory was not well managed, so Zhang Rujing bought the entire factory by selling shares at a low price.
Zhang Rujing is also a master of resource integration. He used the reputation accumulated over 30 years to narrow the gap with Europe and the United States.
In just one year, he raised US$1.4 billion in startup capital and purchased a batch of 0.18 micron manufacturing equipment abroad.
don’t have technology? Zhang Rujing went to four departments of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and State Department to attend the hearing, promising that "technology can only be used for civilian purposes, not military purposes." In addition, the five major churches in the United States also endorsed him and finally obtained a US technology export license.
never thought that the thunder buried still exploded.
9 months after the establishment of SMIC, TSMC launched a patent litigation war on the grounds of "stealing trade secrets", which lasted for 10 years.
In 2003, at the critical moment when SMIC was about to go public in Hong Kong, Zhang Zhongmou, who had been dormant for a long time, gave Zhang Rujing a fatal blow.
reconciliation is very expensive. SMIC paid TSMC $200 million in cash and 10% of equity . It should be noted that SMIC's annual revenue was less than 200 million yuan at that time. The even heavier price of
is that Zhang Rujing was forced to resign from SMIC.
does not use American things, independent innovation
In the "reconciliation" with TSMC, Zhang Rujing also signed a competition agreement: within 3 years, he will not be allowed to engage in chip-related work.
For the 61-year-old engineer, this is tantamount to a ban.
But Zhang Rujing was calm. He said "Don't think this is a big failure in life, don't be beaten down."
In fact, even if it is "banned" and suppressed, Zhang Rujing never admits defeat, even if he reduces his salary, he still has to continue working.
semiconductor industry still has a grudge against domestic chips, worrying that the quality does not meet the standards, and does not want to take unnecessary risks while choosing mature foreign technologies.
But if no one uses it, how can China's chips develop? Zhang Rujing's first choice of domestic products. He often asks more questions when purchasing: "Is there any qualified domestic product replacement?"
not only loves to use domestic products, but Zhang Rujing has carried out independent model innovation in order to avoid being blocked by technology.
There are three models in the semiconductor industry, such as Huawei HiSilicon, which only does design; TSMC, which only does OEM; and there are also all-round players like Samsung and Texas Instruments, which do both design and independent production. Who can think of an all-round player in
? After all, you don’t have to be controlled by others. This is also the model that China needs the most.
The more full the ideal, the more skinny the reality is. "All-round" often requires thousands of design engineers, which is a difficult point.
For this reason, Zhang Rujing proposed the "China localization" strategy in Qingdao Xinen: introduces 30 to 40 design companies cross-holding , and acquires a design team of 3,000-4,000 people in disguise.
and the production line is built with second-hand equipment from Japan, South Korea and Europe. The technology is not beautified, so there is no need to worry about US technical sanctions.
In August last year, Qingdao Xinen 8-inch factory was successfully put into production, with a yield of more than 90%.
was suppressed by TSMC. How did Zhang Rujing support the "Chinese core"?
Many people think that Zhang Rujing is a business loser.
When he was suppressed by TSMC, he was "kicked" out of the SMIC, which he founded. For 30 years, he has been involved in startups and is far inferior to TSMC's Zhang Zhongmou in terms of business achievements.
But what you don’t know is that in the past 20 years, Zhang Rujing has raced against time. At the age when he should have retired, focuses on local entrepreneurship in China and has created several firsts.
He started his business in mainland China five times. His biggest feature is that he will do whatever he needs in the market.
"Build a factory in mainland China" is the obsession of Zhang Rujing and his son. After Zhang Rujing retired from Texas Instruments, his first stop in Wuxi , but due to the current situation, he worked hard for 2 months before returning to Taiwan.
Before evacuation, Zhang Rujing left behind domestic cutting-edge technology. He made the line width of the integrated circuit to 0.5 microns, which was about 1/200 of the hair thickness.
is not only a cutting-edge technology, but every time Zhang Rujing starts a business, almost always fills the weak links in China's semiconductor industry chain.
If you want to develop chips, you cannot do without silicon wafers . The larger the size, the more chips you cut, the lower the cost. This is China's weakness.
After leaving SMIC, the Xinsheng Company founded by Zhang Rujing took two years to pull out China's first 300mm single crystal silicon ingot, and achieved large-scale production of 300mm semiconductor silicon wafers as early as 2018.
In China, the semiconductor industry has a talent gap of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan per year. The training cycle is very long, and it is not uncommon to poach people with high salaries.
Zhang Rujing respects talents. Almost everyone who has worked with Zhang Rujing will mention that there are hundreds of people in the company, and he can remember everyone's name.
He led the establishment of Qingdao University Micronano Technology School and served as lifelong honorary dean, with the purpose of solving the gap in semiconductor talents.
4 entrepreneurship, Zhang Rujing was very calm: "Taiwan's entrepreneurship is a coincidence. SMIC was founded to fill the gap in the mainland without advanced integrated circuit foundry, investment is for transition, and Xinsheng is because the mainland does not have a complete silicon wafer industry."
Now Zhang Rujing is over 70 years old. He set out again and started his fifth entrepreneurship and joined Shanghai Jita Semiconductor.
chip has long become the "fat meat" in the eyes of many people. Some people play the patriotic card, but in fact they harm the country.
even the national team fell apart. Former chairman of Unigroup Zhao Weiguo , once held high the banner of patriotism to strengthen the chip industry. In the past five years, it led the acquisition of 16 companies including Spreadtrum Communications , Ruidike , and even made bold statements: acquire TSMC. In every merger and acquisition transaction, some can reach billions of dollars, which is not uncommon.
These mergers and acquisitions all exposed the investment nature of merchants and dragged Unigroup into the debt quagmire.
" China Chip " needs not a businessman who shouts slogans, but an entrepreneur who works hard.
Conclusion:
As the world's largest chip factory, TSMC has evaporated 300 billion in half a year. The most important reason for
is that it is subject to the United States. TSMC's largest shareholder is Citibank, accounting for 20.5%, which is more than all shareholders in Taiwan combined. Even core positions such as the board of directors are mostly Americans. Among the foundry chips, the United States accounts for 60% of them, and the semiconductor equipment needed must also be imported from the United States. TSMC is getting deeper and deeper, lowering its bottom line again and again. After cutting off cooperation with Huawei, he went to the United States to build a factory, but was listed as an "unsafe company", with a loss of 60 billion yuan and a core data handed over.
The backbone of TSMC is getting more and more curved, but mainland China also has semiconductor people such as Zhang Rujing, Jiang Shangzhou, and Liang Mengsong working diligently. In Zhang Rujing's view, there is a big gap in the lithography machine equipment vendors, but it has advantages in the third generation semiconductor material and is stronger in packaging.
What countless Chinese people have seen is that it is only a matter of time before China's chip industry can stand up.
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Author of this article | xingchen & Jingxu
