Only paranoids can survive!
This is a famous saying by Andy Grove, who created the Intel chip myth.
Indeed, in the semiconductor industry where information is changing, it would be difficult to survive if it is not paranoid.
However, Grove did not expect that such paranoia was not only found in the United States. In China on the other side of the ocean, such characters appeared one after another.
After a long time, one of the middle-aged men said:
"Building a chip factory in the mainland is a sense of family and country. When we return to China to serve, we have no reason and no reason. We just hope to see that our Chinese nation can be strong and healthy." The man who spoke
is called Zhang Rujing . Looking at Zhang Jiang who was still a little panicked in front of him, he seemed to firmly believe that this place will become a prairie fire in the future and ignite the spark of China's chip manufacturing industry.
Listening to this generous speech, another man, Jiang Shangzhou, also responded firmly:
"From 2015 to 2020, the technical level and production scale of Shanghai's integrated circuit production line will definitely surpass Taiwan, China."
is this scene and became the place where the dream of SMIC , China's largest chip manufacturer, began.
01
jade "Ru" was born in Nanjing in 11948. Zhang Rujing went to Taiwan with his parents before he was one year old.
Zhang Rujing's father Zhang Xilun has a strong sense of family, country and nationality.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he and his wife were affiliated with the 21st Arsenal of the Arsenal and provided military equipment to the frontline troops of the motherland. Under the influence of Zhang Xilun, Zhang Rujing grew up under the guidance of patriotism since childhood.
When he grew up, Zhang Rujing lived up to expectations and was admitted to Taiwan University with excellent results. Later, he went to the State University of New York to study abroad, and obtained a bachelor's degree in engineering and master's degree.
In 1977, Zhang Rujing joined Texas Instruments, a leading company in the semiconductor industry at that time, and worked for twenty years. During this period, Zhang Rujing obtained a Ph.D. in electronic engineering, and, more fortunately, Zhang Rujing joined the research team of Jack Kilby .
Jack Kilby is the Nobel Prize winner in Physics and the inventor of integrated circuits. It is this opportunity that has exposed Zhang Rujing to the top semiconductor technology of the era.
may be the deliberate arrangement of fate. Another future semiconductor master, Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC, is also in Texas Instruments . The two people have too many similarities, the same surname is Zhang, they both left mainland China in the late period of the Liberation War, studied in prestigious American schools, entered the semiconductor industry, worked in the same company, and became a world-class Chinese talent in the field. Later, both of them left Texas Instruments and returned to Greater China.
In that special era, the two had the taste of meeting fellow villagers and recognizing heroes.
If it weren't for the later rebellion, the two would have become a good story in the history of Chinese semiconductor struggles.
Deyi for twenty years, Zhang Rujing was known as the "factory master" in the industry. Deyi's projects that are handed by Zhang Rujing are spread all over the world.
But what Zhang Rujing is most concerned about is always building a factory on the land in this country.
When it comes to manufacturing, Zhang Zhongmou is not a vegetarian. It is his foundry philosophy that has created , the world's largest chip foundry company, , TSMC. The difference is that Zhang Zhongmou wants to return to Taiwan 10 years ago.
html At the end of the 120th century, facing the IT revolution that swept the world, China, which was eager to achieve success in the semiconductor field, launched three major projects, "531 Strategy", "908 Project" and "909 Project", which cost tens of billions of dollars, but obviously underestimated the difficulty of the semiconductor industry. In the end, only Huahong Semiconductor became a case, and most of the other investments were vain.Seeing China's semiconductor technology gradually widening the gap between the world, Zhang Rujing secretly made up his mind that no matter how difficult it is, he must contribute his own efforts to the semiconductor industry on the mainland of his motherland.
First, the " WASSENANA Agreement " formulated by the United States firmly restricted the import of high-tech products from mainland China. If you rashly build a factory in mainland China, you will face many uncontrollable risks; second, the mainland's semiconductor foundation was too weak at that time, and it was difficult to support his dream of building a factory.
After thinking about it again and again, Zhang Rujing decided to make a long-term plan and return to Taiwan to "lay the foundation" and wait for the opportunity.
st generation of semiconductors came into being.
Relying on its strong technical strength, Zhang Rujing's Shida Semiconductor built two foundry factories in Taiwan in just two years, with a production capacity of one-third of TSMC.
At this time, TSMC was the boss of the global semiconductor foundry. The boss's inertial thinking was that he could not tolerate being surpassed. Faced with the rapid expansion of World University, TSMC became vigilant. The simplest method was to buy it with money.
In 2000, TSMC launched its "money capabilities" with one move and took out a sky-high acquisition fee of US$5 billion, which was 8.5 times the valuation of Shida at that time.
The minority obeys the majority. Even though Zhang Rujing is reluctant, the other shareholders have no reason to refuse such a large amount of money, and Shida Semiconductor still falls into the hands of TSMC.
After TSMC won the World University of Science and Technology, it immediately put aside its plan to build a factory in the mainland.
Zhang Rujing understood that if he continued to stay in the world, his desire to build a factory in the mainland would most likely not be realized in his lifetime.
In July 2000, Zhang Rujing went to the mainland alone to look for opportunities to build a factory. After Jiang Shangzhou, who was the deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government at that time, learned about this, he strongly invited Zhang Rujing to Shanghai for inspection and promised many preferential policies.
In the end, Zhang Rujing was moved by the sincerity of the city of Shanghai. He made a resolute decision: gave up his generous equity in TSMC, and brought his family with more than 300 engineers from Taiwan's World University and more than 100 Texas Instruments engineers to build a factory in Shanghai.
Zhang Rujing is not in vain as a "factory building expert". After coming to Shanghai, it took only 13 months to start chip trial production in the newly built factory, setting a record for the fastest chip factory building in the world at that time.
Zhang Rujing also gave the company a loud name: SMIC, which means that "Chinese chips will surely go to the world." On the day when
was completed and put into production, Zhang Rujing spent 20 yuan to buy 1,000 firecrackers, hung them on the main beam of the factory and set them off. Looking at the setting off firecrackers and the standing factory, Zhang Rujing recalled the teachings of his parents and imagined the scene where the seedling of SMIC thrived in the future, and he smiled with relief.
In 2001, the world was in the burst period of Internet bubble , and semiconductors also fell into a trough period. Zhang Rujing took the opportunity to collect second-hand equipment at a large amount of low prices, and SMIC's production capacity increased rapidly.
In 2003, Zhang Rujing led SMIC to break through the 90-nanometer process and pushed mainland chips to the nanoscale for the first time. Some people in the industry sighed:
Zhang Rujing used one person to defeat the troops, driving China's semiconductor field to catch up and keep up with the trend of the times again. It created a miracle that was once unable to achieve by the whole country.
It is worth mentioning that during the period of SMIC's rapid development, Jiang Shangzhou gave up his political career and joined SMIC in order to realize the prediction that "Shanghai's semiconductor industry can surpass Taiwan" that he made.
According to the aforementioned, most of the teams of SMIC come from SUD, which was acquired by TSMC. Engineers who have traveled across the ocean have brought rich experience and technology, but work processes and models similar to TSMC have also laid the groundwork.
The revolutionary mentor once said: Treat the enemy as ruthless as the autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves.TSMC is obviously well aware of this. Of course, he is unwilling to let go of Zhang Rujing, a "thorn in his eyes", but this time, his methods are even more ruthless.
In 2003, when SMIC was preparing to go public and show its ambitions, TSMC, which had been dormant for a long time, took action. TSMC sued SMIC on the grounds of stealing commercial secrets. Everything was planned. SMIC was not an opponent, so she had no choice but to settle out of court and finally finalized a compensation of US$175 million.
In 2006, on the eve of SMIC preparing to raise funds, TSMC re-used the same technique and accused SMIC of infringement of the latest 0.13 micron process in the name of "patent".
In 2009, the US District Court of California ruled that SMIC lost the case. This time, TSMC not only won 200 million US dollars, but also added 10% of its shares.
When he learned the trial result, Zhang Rujing burst into tears. He knew that he was the person he was going to deal with. If he didn't leave, SMIC would not be able to be peaceful.
Two days later, Zhang Rujing took the initiative to resign.
Before leaving, Zhang Rujing left a sentence to the engineers who came to see him off:
"Don't lie down and set off again in failure."
02
traveled against the current "boat"
semiconductor manufacturing is an extremely expensive business. From SMIC in 2000 to Zhang Rujing's resignation in 2009, SMIC has created many technical miracles in the past ten years, but its profits have always been negative.
At that time, Zhang Rujing was forced to leave office and the company faced a huge fine. For a while, SMIC was in a panic and the whole company was in panic. When his life was hanging on the line, Jiang Shangzhou was ordered to become chairman in a dangerous situation, which temporarily calmed down the panic situation of SMIC.
Jiang Shangzhou graduated from Tsinghua University in 1970 and went to the Institute of Communications of Zurich, Switzerland to study for a doctorate. After returning to China, he enjoyed a high reputation in the industry at Jiang Shangzhou, which is why Jiang Shangzhou was able to calm down SMIC's panic as soon as he came forward.
In 2001, Jiang Shangzhou was appointed as the deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. His first task in office was to investigate the future industrial direction of Pudong . After investigating high-tech industries such as integrated circuits, modern biomedical , and new materials, Jiang Shangzhou made a clear judgment:
"Shanghai should engage in the integrated circuit industry, and Zhangjiang should become China's Silicon Valley ."
From a god's perspective, Jiang Shangzhou has a forward-looking vision and a decision to prepare for the future, but his fate will make people. In 2002, Jiang Shangzhou was diagnosed with cancer.
In 2009, after Jiang Shangzhou took over as chairman of SMIC, he knew that he had not had much time and dragged his weak body, he did his best to do two things:
1. Introduce funds to help SMIC pay TSMC compensation
2. Find a capable successor for SMIC
On the one hand, fresh cash is injected into SMIC, which relieves the company's operating pressure. On the other hand, the new capitalist franchise has made SMIC's already complicated shareholder structure even more chaotic.
In order to launch SMIC, Zhang Rujing used his own resources to lobby all capitals to help, including Shanghai Industry and Peking University Bluebird with government background, Goldman Sachs with American background, Watten International with Taiwanese background, Handing Asia Pacific with Taiwanese background, etc. After the fundraising of
was completed, SMIC had a total of 16 shareholders, and its equity was very dispersed. Even Shanghai Industrial, as a major shareholder, held only about 12% of the shares, while Zhang Rujing himself held less than 1% of the shares.
These condensed capitals have jointly incubated SMIC, but in the final analysis, the interests of each party are different, and the business direction of SMIC is also different.
National funds hope that SMIC can support the local industrial chain and expand social value; the rest of the capital is more concerned about SMIC's own profits and hope to realize monetization value as soon as possible.
Social value and monetization value are not inherently contradictory, but it is really not easy to balance the two, which creates hidden dangers for subsequent infighting of the company. The problem of
can be said to be a hidden danger for SMIC. It has been around since its establishment. To put it bluntly, it is a problem of corporate governance. Several major factions have their own ulterior motives and do not compromise with each other. It would be fine if there is a strong person to balance it. If there is no, internal fighting is inevitable.
In 2011, in the last week of Jiang Shangzhou's life, he was still lying on the hospital bed and presided over the board of directors of SMIC on his mobile phone. However, on the eve of the shareholders' meeting, Jiang Shangzhou unfortunately passed away, which completely broke out in the internal strife that was originally hidden under the table of SMIC.
At that time, Wang Ningguo was the leader of the Taiwan faction. Wang Ningguo and Zhang Rujing have similar experiences. They were both born in mainland China, grew up in Taiwan, studied abroad, and finally returned to the mainland to develop the semiconductor industry. Yang Shining is the representative of the mainland delegation, and his backing is the latest investment in Datang Telecom.
"Firstly support Wang Ningguo" and "Firstly support Yang Shining" have fought fiercely, and even more and more intensely caused a "tax evasion incident", which eventually led to both Wang Ningguo and Yang Shining being eliminated, both of which were injured.
Later, the board of directors invited the CEO and executive director of Qiu Ciyun airborne company to effectively balance the dispute between the two factions. At this point, SMIC's internal struggle came to an end, but after several tosses, SMIC has been hurt, and the gap with TSMC is getting bigger and bigger.
Fortunately, Qiu Ciyun's arrival shifted SMIC's business focus to a more pragmatic route, which is to temporarily put aside money-burning advanced process research and development, and instead focus on the commercialization of existing processes. In other words, it means to survive first and then "save the country on a curve." Under the guidance of this route, SMIC's losses have improved.
03
"Pine" cypress aspirations
After gaining a foothold, SMIC once again ushered in changes. Everything comes from the original intention of becoming a world's top semiconductor manufacturer. Restarting the research and development of advanced processes has become the top task. Qiu Ciyun, who consciously completed the historical task, also retired. In 2017, Zhao Haijun, who had a mainland background, took over as CEO.
At this time, SMIC welcomed a heavyweight figure - Liang Mengsong .
Liang Mengsong is a world-class semiconductor technology talent. He has more than 500 patents and has published more than 350 technical papers. During his work at TSMC, he worked with his mentor Hu Zhengming and to successfully develop fin-type long-effect transistors. This unprecedented technology led TSMC to get rid of the dependence of related American technologies.
However, like those capable and wise men in ancient times, Liang Mengsong was a person with extremely distinct IQ and EQ. As a technical backbone, his abilities are unquestionable. However, like many great people, he always has his own unique persistence, and sometimes even seems out of place with the surroundings. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that he has worked hard and made great contributions, but has been working diligently at TSMC for decades, but has never been promoted to a higher position.
In 2009, the heartbroken Liang Mengsong chose to leave. However, the skilled man is popular everywhere he goes. What he doesn't know is that the Korean Samsung has already coveted him, and he has a lot of money and a lot of money. He even "uses" his Korean wife to blow the wind beside her pillow, just to attract this stunning man.
In the end, Liang Mengsong led the team to join South Korea's Samsung, who ushered in a technological breakthrough and even surpassed TSMC in the corner. With the 14-nanometer process, he successfully won the order for Apple A9 processor , while TSMC still used a 16-nanometer process.
This made TSMC anxious. History is always surprisingly similar. Just like Zhang Rujing, TSMC filed a lawsuit against Samsung, but the effect is not bad. Liang Mengsong and Samsung had to terminate their cooperation, but this incident also made Liang Mengsong completely disappointed with TSMC.
Destiny is so wonderful. If TSMC hadn’t pressed it step by step, how could SMIC have the opportunity to extend an olive branch to Liang Mengsong?
For Liang Mengsong, who is obsessed with technology, he always wants to make achievements in the semiconductor field. As he said:
"I came to mainland China not to seek high-ranking officials and generous salaries, but just want to do my best to the high-end integrated circuits in mainland China."
In October 2017, SMIC announced that Liang Mengsong was the CEO of SMIC, and the entire chip industry was in full swing again.
Liang Mengsong's reward for joining SMIC is not as high as Samsung. According to Wang Xing, founder of Meituan , Liang Mengsong donated all the salary to charities.
Liang Mengsong may be the kind of "science student" that people often call him. He is paranoid about technology, and even if he is given a low salary, it doesn't matter. All he wants is a stage to show his strength and realize his ambitions.
Liang Mengsong quickly launched reforms after taking over SMIC. In less than a year, the yield rate of the low-order 28-nanometer process polysilicon process has been greatly increased from 60% to more than 85%.
In addition, Liang Mengsong believes that since SMIC's technology has become disconnected, instead of following the steps, it is better to give it a try: stop the subsequent development of the 28-nanometer process, skip the intermediate generation, and directly mass-produce the 14-nanometer process! The suggestion of
was widely opposed at SMIC, but Liang Mengsong still insisted.
In the first half of 2019, Liang Mengsong led the research team to overcome 14-nanometer technology and helped SMIC to cross the fifth generation of chip technology in three years. Although is still two generations behind TSMC's 5-nanometer technology, SMIC's leap of 14 nanometers this time is equivalent to completing TSMC's 10-year path in just 3 years.
On July 16, 2020, SMIC was listed on Science and Technology Innovation Board . It not only became the largest IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, but also the largest IPO on the A-share 10 years.
is the time when everything is going well again, and SMIC is "inflicted" again.
On December 15, 2020, Liang Mengsong was exposed to resigning at the board of directors. Anyone with a discerning eye knows the reason that day was the day when Jiang Shangyi landed. Jiang Shangyi also worked at TSMC before and had a disagreement with Liang Mengsong. It is hard not to mention the "intention" of the upper class if such a high-ranking official is airborne. As for the truth, outsiders don’t know, we can only go to YY. Perhaps Liang Mengsong’s emotional intelligence is too low, or the management feels that it is uncontrollable and needs checks and balances.
has to admit that it is a common phenomenon that the serious "internal consumption" of enterprises in my country is a common phenomenon, and SMIC has many internal factions, which is even more so. In this context, the most disadvantage is those who are skilled and hardworking.
Fortunately, the incident turned around in the future, and Liang Mengsong continued to stay at SMIC.
Afterwards, SMIC was also involved in the US entity list and was set by the United States with a high technical threshold. The most well-known is that AMSL's lithography machine, , could not be bought for a long time, resulting in the "stuck" of the 7nm advanced process development, which led to SMIC being able to settle for the second best and started the N+1 process.
However, with the strong support of the country, the semiconductor industry's cyclical upward trend has also been on the right track after experiencing 81 difficulties.
Since 2019, SMIC's profit has grown at a rate of over 140% for three consecutive years, and by 2021, the company's annual profit has reached 10.733 billion.
04
ending
"Son of the United States" Buffett One of the most important investment secrets is to be firmly optimistic about the fate of the United States. This rule has taken him through many bull and bear markets and created proud investment results around the world.
What is the national destiny?
National destiny is that at certain specific moments, there are always people born in adversity, bringing hope to this country!
Even in the early 21st century, China's semiconductor industry was suppressed by overseas; even if geopolitical relations heated up, countries launched technological blockades on China, Zhang Rujing's selfless dedication, Jiang Shangzhou's dedication, Liang Mengsong's craftsman spirit, , the succession of generations of China is hope.
Zhang Jiang's continuous investment in the chip industry over the past twenty years is the step forward of China's chip industry.The emergence of a number of companies represented by SMIC also means that overseas "bottlenecks" for us are gradually being broken.
is just that the investment in semiconductor manufacturing and the slow return cannot be recovered step by step. For Chinese semiconductors, we should see the gap and hope.
Anything that cannot kill us will only make us stronger.
" China Chip " still has a long way to go, let's be more patient.
full text, thanks for reading.
Reference
[1] The Past of China Chip Lukewen [Lukewen Studio] 2022-03-25
[2] The Past of China Chip Boss Dai Corporate Observer 2019-08-15
[3] Zhang Rujing and his chip empire [J]. IT Times Weekly. 2003(24)
[4] Zhang Rujing, the father of China's semiconductors, devoted himself to "China Chip" [J]. Chen Quanzhong. Times Post. 2020(16)
[5] In-depth investigation of China's chip industry [J]. Xie Zefeng, Yang Xuran. Talent. 2018(06)
[6] Ten years of drinking ice, hard to cool and passionate - the story of Taiwanese businessman Zhang Rujing's SMIC and China's "core" Taisheng Taisheng 2020-08-08
[7] "Semiconductor Godfather" Zhang Rujing's "core affairs" Shen Sihan; Shi Dan Business School 2022-07-06
[8] Liang Mengsong's SMIC's three years Shen Yiran; Li Zixuan Economic Observer 2020-12-21
[9] Fighting for SMIC Wan Xiaoxiao Economic Observer 2011-07-11
[10] Zhang Rujing's 10-year grudge between TSMC Pan Deng Business (Comments) 2010-01-15
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