Since Huawei was cut off, the United States' ambition to control the global high-end and sophisticated industrial chain has completely lost its ability to control the global high-end industrial chain. On the one hand, it spent $280 billion to formulate a chip bill, inviting foundry giants such as TSMC and Samsung to build factories in the United States. On the other hand, it is to jointly establish a four-sided chip alliance with Japan, South Korea, and TSMC.
But ideals are full and reality is skinny. The successive "reversals" of the two major forces, South Korea and Japan, poured "a basin of cold water" on the "hegemony" of the United States.
As we all know, chips are a highly global scientific research achievement that cannot be separated from the support of the global supply chain. However, the "shit-scratcher" of the United States has its basic technological advantages and has continuously revised the rules in recent years and imposed "sanctions" on high-tech Chinese companies such as Huawei through supply cuts and other means.
Although the development of Chinese companies such as Huawei has been affected to a certain extent, the US semiconductor market, which mainly focuses on exports, has also suffered heavy losses. Even non-US companies that are forced to participate in supply cuts, such as TSMC, ASML, Samsung, Nikon, etc., have suffered serious "backlash".
More importantly, the bullying behavior in the United States has made the American chip label "unreliable". In order not to be "bottled", many other regions have begun to invest and support the development of the local chip industry to reduce their dependence on American accessories and technology.
But who would have thought that in the face of this situation, the United States still did not know it and extended an "olive branch" to South Korea, Japan, TSMC, etc., in an attempt to form a four-party alliance to create a controllable chip pattern.
The companies in the region that were invited by the United States seem to be very cooperative on the surface, but in fact they are all due to the pressure from the United States and are reluctant. Especially South Korea has always been unresponsive to this and has been reluctant to sign the agreement.
As the US gives the final deadline, the South Korean side finally put forward its own conditions, that is, "not mentioning export restrictions to China." Because more than half of South Korean chip exports are aimed at the Chinese market, and the main purpose of the US's establishment of the "Quad-Square Chip Alliance" is to target Chinese companies, and it is difficult for both sides to reach a consensus.
In order to make South Korea compromise, the United States also gave Korean companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix "temporary immunity" to allow them to continue to supply semiconductor equipment and components to Chinese factories in the next year without obtaining individual licenses. But the result is not ideal.
. Just recently, Japanese media also suddenly reported that eight Japanese technology giants including Sony, SoftBank, and Kioxia have formed a high-end chip alliance "Rapidus", "sword-pointing" advanced chip technology that surpasses the 2nm process, and are planning to achieve mass production before 2027.
It is worth emphasizing that for this high-end chip alliance that only has Japanese companies and does not include American companies, Japan has decided to provide huge subsidies of 70 billion yen to support it.
You should know that when the US "sanctions" of Chinese companies such as Huawei, Japanese semiconductors have always been the "pawn" role. The termination of the supply of high-end photoresist for some Chinese companies is the best proof. Moreover, there have been news that the two sides have jointly developed 2nm chips.
So the question is, why do Japanese chip companies suddenly want to "start new things"? There may be two reasons.
First of all, while the United States is jointly implementing supply cuts for Chinese and Russian companies in other regions, it also adheres to the principle of priority for US companies in terms of shipment licensing and treats other non-US high-tech companies differently. Simply put, when "doing bad things", everyone goes together and bears the losses themselves. When there are "good things", American companies come first.
Japanese companies have seen its essence clearly in the chip market in recent years. If they continue to make trouble with it, in the end they will only lose their own interests, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
Secondly, Toshiba's previous lessons are still vivid in my mind. Japan's semiconductor, which was once prosperous, declined due to the suppression of the United States. After more than ten years of development, it gradually recovered.
Japanese companies are very clear that the reason why the US seeks cooperation now is mainly because it still has value. Once the US finally completely controls the high-end chip industry chain, then its good days may end. If you want to avoid "repeating the same mistakes", you must "have food in your hands".
The United States probably did not expect the successive "reversals" of South Korea and Japan, and this basically means that the Sifang Chip Alliance has "collapsed". Now only TSMC is left, and it continues to have the "Spring and Autumn Dream" of win-win with the United States.
Recently, there has been news that TSMC has packaged 3nm technology, supplier resources and related special talents, and chartered 10 round trips to the United States. It can be said that it has handed over all its "family assets". As for its final outcome, let's wait and see.
