Storm technology, China: "local" players to clear customs? -Chips, Tsinghua Unisplendour-IT information

On January 24, United Kingdom the Economist magazine said in order to get rid of dependence on foreign companies, the Chinese Government has invested heavily to support local development of the semiconductor industry, and before the photovoltaic panel full lessons and the LED lighting industry. However, due to timing and technical barriers, the plan still faces many challenges.

For the main content of the article below:

Aspiring

Since 1970, the Chinese Government has been off and on promoting local development of the semiconductor industry. But their ambition has never been so high now, investment budget has never been so much now. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, in the early days of development plans, second half of the 1990, the Chinese Government invested less than $ 1 billion. But this time, according to a grand plan enacted in 2014, the Government will invest US $ 100 billion to 150 billion to public and private funds.

This target by 2030 from technically catch up with the world's leading enterprises, including various types of chip design, Assembly, and packaging companies, which get rid of dependence on foreign suppliers . In 2015, the Chinese Government has set a new goal: 10 chips within domestic market content to 70%.

This is obviously a long way to go for goal. Last year, the domestic-funded and foreign-funded firms in China amounted to 145 billion-dollar chip. But China's domestic chip industry produced only for the needs of one-tenth. Some high-value chips, is almost entirely dependent on imports--including in China known as the brains of the computer processor, as well as rugged durability of the chip embedded in the car.

Government recognizes that to achieve this dream, must invest in foreign expertise for their use. In recent months, State-owned companies and Government agencies are stepping up acquisitions, investment overseas chip companies or transactions with these companies. On January 17, announced Qualcomm joint venture, Guizhou province, about 280 million dollars to set up a new dedicated development server chip company. In Guizhou province, the Investment Fund owns 55% shares of the new company. Two days earlier, and chip packaging and testing Taiwan Powertech technology agreed Unisplendour Group spent $ 600 million acquisition of 25% of its shares.

Chinese Government officials say, because of China's chip industry overly dependent on foreign technology, so the development of independent semiconductor industry is a strategic task . They also noted that the United States, European and Asian politicians from other countries to their local semiconductor industry over the past few years has invested huge amounts of money.

It is estimated that Chinese chip trade balance was only half of the original data, because Chinese factories imported quite a few chips are used in Apple's iPhone and Lenovo notebooks and other products, these products are also exported to overseas. Even so, promote the development of the semiconductor industry's policy remains in line with the Government's overall economic plan: to gradually reduce the share of labour-intensive manufacturing, promoting the development of higher value-added, more environmentally-friendly industries.

Focus fire

Morgan Stanley noted that the successful semiconductor companies are often able to obtain 40% or higher profit margins, and margins of computers, electronics and other hardware is often less than 20%. So, if Chinese companies to design and produce more chips, and having one day to control the underlying technical standard like Intel, China will be able to enjoy a greater share of the profits in the global electronics industry.

In promoting local solar panel before, and when the LED lighting industry, the Chinese Government has provided large sums of money for a large number of local enterprises, eventually leading to overcapacity and prices plunged. This time, Beijing appears to be focused on a few State-owned enterprises. For instance, SMIC in Shanghai will be focused on fostering the chip factory, owned by Huawei of Shenzhen SI semiconductors will become a few get major support from chip design company.

But of most concern are the Unisplendour group. The separated from Qinghua University's company over the past year has become the industry's top priority, and even challenged the mighty Intel . Zhao Weiguo, the boss of the company was born in Xinjiang, after coming to Beijing University, he won a lot of money in electronic resources, real estate and wealth currently held the Unisplendour Group Chairman and second-largest shareholder (shareholding ratio after Tsinghua University).

In 2013, the company began to emerge, then, purple Group invested US $ 2.6 billion acquisition of Spreadtrum and RDA. 2014, Intel invested US $ 1.5 billion acquisition of a stake in this future competitors 20%. As part of this plan, the two sides will jointly develop a mobile device chip, which is exactly what Intel has always been backward areas. Last May, the purple Group invested US $ 2.3 billion acquisition of 51% shares of three, the HP Hong Kong subsidiaries of the main production data-networking equipment. Last November, the Unisplendour Group announced increase plan by $ 13 billion, hoping to build a large memory-chip factories.

Shopping spree

Other Chinese companies are on a buying spree. Chip packaging company long electric technology in 2014 of $ 1.8 billion for companies Singapore STATS ChipPac's controlling stake. In 2015, the State-owned company has built wide asset management company spent similar funds to buy the Netherlands owned by NXP, a division of, which specifically for collecting base station chip. Consortium led by the China Resources group, spoke to United States Fairchild Semiconductor in a 2.5 billion dollar takeover offer. But in this takeover battle against foreign chip firms in the ziguang Group remains worthy of the "Captain".

"A lot of people have suspected that I was the ' white glove '," Zhao Weiguo said recently, "but we are really just a market-oriented company. "Although he played down the official support for the ziguang group, however, it was clear the various preferential policies: without the support of the Government, it is hard to imagine Unisplendour group over the coming 5 years 300 billion yuan (about US $ 45 billion) deal.

Different from buying foreign consumer brand, Chinese acquisitions in the semiconductor industry may not always receive a warm welcome . Reportedly, violet group has invested US $ 23 billion purchase last year by Micron Technology, which is production of DRAM memory chips are widely used in desktop computers and servers. But as a result of United States Government opposition, leading to the deal failed to materialize. The company of Korea SK Hynix takeover last November was rejected. Last December, the ziguang Group acquired the Taiwan chip packaging and testing company 25% stake in silicon technology.

Resulting backlash prompted larger Taiwan chip packaging company ASE launched last December on the silicon technology acquisitions.

Taiwan experiences

City, can achieve this ambitious plan, or can be free of dependence on foreign technology, Taiwan's experience may be instructive. Starting from 1980, Taiwan emerged many world-class chip manufacturing companies such as TSMC, and foster the active processor chip designer mediatek. But can this success is due to a good time to catch up: when the chip industry was designed to separate from the production model, while Taiwan happened to catch the trend. But Taiwan has recently been expanding for memory chips is becoming a disaster. United States market research firm Sanford c. Bernstein analyst Mark c. Lee (Mark Li), invested $ 50 billion in capital in the turn of the century (mostly by the Taiwan authorities to pay), but Taiwan companies have caught up with the "memory chip industry downturn."

These companies in pursuit of market share in the process of further losses . From 2001-2010, global memory chip manufacturer profits totaled $ 8 billion – but if you remove Samsung and SK Hynix's two successful Korea enterprise, other company's total losses close to $ 13 billion. Although costly, but mark c. Lee is of the view that Taiwan business investment is still too small to walk at the forefront of technology, and some impatient on the profit.

Daogelasi·fule of Zhejiang University (Douglas Fuller) believes that the global semiconductor industry matured in recent years increased the difficulty of China's penetration of this market. Established giants of the memory chip market has established his position, especially after the recent consolidation of the industry. And the chip itself and associated software, is becoming more and more complex, made it more difficult to grasp. ASE COO Tien Wu added that Taiwan businesses into the market coincides with the occasion of the expansion in this area, and mainland China enterprise to successful penetration of slowing growth to come in, the difficulty will increase.

Three challenges

ASM Pacific Technology is a company listed in Hong Kong in the chip equipment suppliers, says Lee Wai Keong, head of the company, if the chip giant wants to succeed in China, first of all, we must "cost culture to a culture of innovation." Asked Unisplendour group can be obtained through the acquisition of advanced technologies, he said with a smile: "the semiconductor industry, there are no shortcuts . "His suspicions were also supporting: China Taiwan, and Korea and the United States imposed Export restrictions and other policies prohibit the transfer of the latest technology to a Chinese company.

Chip companies in mainland China significantly lags behind global leader in innovation (although Hass Semiconductor is an exception). McKinsey consultants kelisiduofu·tuomasi (Christopher Thomas) estimated that ICAS a company's research and development spending up 4 times of times China's chip industry as a whole . In addition to research and development, a Chinese companies need to attract more experienced scientists and engineers. This is not impossible, gathered in Silicon Valley, after all, a lot of good Chinese talent. But if the ziguang group company wants to attract talents, you must learn how to expand the globalization of innovation, for example, set up research and development centers around the world.

This brings me to the second challenge: it is necessary to turn to international thinking. So far, Chinese companies mainly cater to the booming domestic market. But they must be prepared for the demanding global market. Even Chinese companies, also are unlikely to accept poor quality because of the chips from the domestic chip-those services companies especially in overseas markets.

Finally a challenge may be the most difficult. Chinese enterprises must be prepared to fight long and hard. The McKinsey analysis showed that both memory chip and a processor chip, whether it be design, manufacturing or packaging process, nearly all profits in each of the global semiconductor industry being one or two top grab-the-other companies would only tolerate losses.

Follow the star

However, if you do not want to waste billions of dollars of US $ 150 billion, China still has a positive example to follow, that is Samsung. This Korea Giants by virtue of research poured into the industry giant, has accumulated a series of technical personnel, and for many years to accept a lower return. Supporters argue that since the Government is a major investor, and primarily focused on overall strategy rather than short-term profits, so that Chinese companies can do that.

However, the Government deploy the latest plan may still encounter some resistance. Due to poor returns on investment in the photovoltaic panel and the LED lighting industry, led to the Chinese Government mainly through a handful of State-owned investment fund's initial investment of $ 30 billion. They want more market-oriented investments by the middleman, but no longer as in the past with excessive bureaucracy. However, the management of these funds, which reach a goal is not easy.

Even so, Morgan Stanley analysts still believe that China has a good chance in some semiconductor industry ranks among the world's highest . Local chip companies may be in televisions, mobile phones and computers and other products have an advantage, because in those areas of production and consumption in China were dominant. Regulators may also be given to local standards more tilt, or imposing local content requirements, but the risk is that Chinese companies could end up in the local market is very powerful, but still lacks international competitiveness .

Both the DRAM and Flash memory chip field, if we can convince some of the biggest overseas manufacturers a technology-sharing Alliance, helped those companies overcome their host Governments impose barriers to technology transfer, that Chinese companies will be formed. From this point of view, strong capital benefit. Last September, the Unisplendour group agrees to United States hard drive manufacturer Western Digital pump $ 3.8 billion. Sources of funding are full, so Western Digital will soon spend $ 19 billion acquisition of the world's leading Flash memory manufacturer SanDisk.

China had on many pillars to support local manufacturers in the industry, but results have been mixed. In the field of automobile manufacturing, the Government used to attract foreign companies through joint ventures and share technology, but to further increase the local businesses dependent on foreign partners. In the field of commercial aircraft, State-owned COMAC large aircraft company had spent years invested heavily in the development of aircraft, but still no launched products, when available, may be outdated.

In many areas of chip business, Chinese companies may eventually catch up in technology, but it is possible because of overcapacity and to impact the entire industry – as in the solar panel industry before. As Sanford c. Bernstein analyst Mark c. Lee said, before leading the entire market, it will not stop. But Zhao Weiguo but makes no secret of his ambitions, he recently said that "the chip industry is entering the era of giant, integration is accelerating. "He made it clear that, hope Unisplendour group become the ultimate live down one of the few giants. Is a mule is a horse, will eventually open.

中国强攻芯片技术：“土豪”玩家就可以通关？ - 芯片,清华紫光 - IT资讯

1月24日，英国《经济学人》杂志撰文称，为了摆脱对海外企业的依赖，中国政府斥巨资扶持本土半导体行业的发展，并且从之前的光伏面板和LED照明行业中吸取了充分的教训。不过，由于时机问题和技术壁垒，这一计划仍将面临许多挑战。

以下为文章主要内容：

雄心勃勃

自从1970年代以来，中国政府一直在断断续续地促进本土半导体行业的发展。但他们的雄心从未像现在这么高，投入的预算也从未像现在这么多。据摩根士丹利估计，在早期的发展计划中，中国政府1990年代后半期投入的资金不足10亿美元。但这一次，根据2014年制定的一项宏伟计划，政府将向公共和私营基金投入1000亿至1500亿美元。

此举的目标是到2030年从技术上赶超世界领先企业，包括各类芯片的设计、装配和封装公司，从而摆脱对国外供应商的依赖。2015年，中国政府还制定了新的目标：10年内将芯片内需市场自制率提升到70%。

这显然是一个任重道远的目标。去年，中国的内资和外资厂商共计使用1450亿美元的各类芯片。但中国本土芯片行业的产出仅为这一需求的十分之一。某些高价值芯片领域，中国几乎完全依赖进口——包括号称计算机大脑的处理器，以及汽车内嵌入的坚固耐用的芯片。

政府意识到，要实现这个梦想，必须投资购买国外专业知识为自己所用。最近几个月，国有公司和各类政府机构都在加紧收购、投资海外芯片公司，或者与这些企业进行交易。1月17日，贵州省宣布与高通成立合资公司，投资约2.8亿美元设立一家专门开发服务器芯片的新公司。贵州省的投资基金持有新公司55%的股份。此前两天，从事芯片封装和测试的台湾力成科技同意紫光集团斥资6亿美元收购其25%的股份。

中国政府官员认为，由于中国芯片行业过度依赖国外技术，因此发展自主半导体行业是一项战略任务。他们也都注意到，美国、欧洲和亚洲其他国家的政治家们过去几年都向自己的本土半导体行业投入了巨额资金。

据估计，中国的实际芯片贸易差额仅为原始数据的一半，因为中国工厂进口的相当一部分芯片都用在了苹果iPhone和联想笔记本等产品上，而这些产品最终还是出口到了海外。即便如此，促进半导体行业发展的政策仍然符合中国政府的整体经济规划：逐步降低劳动密集型制造业的比重，促进附加值更高、更环保的行业发展。

集中火力

摩根士丹利指出，成功的半导体公司通常能够获得40%或更高的利润率，而电脑、电子产品和其他硬件的利润率往往不足20%。所以，如果中国企业设计并生产更多的芯片，并且有朝一日还能像英特尔一样控制底层技术标准，中国就可以在全球电子行业中享受更大的利润份额。

在之前促进本土光伏面板和LED照明行业发展时，中国政府曾经为大量本土企业提供了巨额资金，最终引发了产能过剩和价格大跌。这一次，中国政府似乎将火力集中于为数不多的几家国有企业。例如，上海的中芯国际将成为重点扶植的芯片工厂，而华为旗下的深圳海思半导体则会成为为数不多的几家获得重点扶持的芯片设计公司。

但最引人关注的当属紫光集团。这家从清华大学分离出来的公司过去一年已经成为行业的重中之重，甚至对不可一世的英特尔发起了挑战。该公司的老板赵伟国出生于新疆，来到北京读大学后，他在电子、房地产和资源领域获得了不菲的财富，目前则担任紫光集团董事长兼第二大股东(持股比例仅次于清华大学)。

该公司在2013年渐渐崭露头角，彼时，紫光集团斥资26亿美元收购了展讯和锐迪科。2014年，英特尔又斥资15亿美元收购了这家未来的竞争对手20%的股份。作为这项计划的一部分，双方将共同开发移动设备芯片，这也恰恰是英特尔始终落后的领域。去年5月，紫光集团斥资23亿美元收购华三51%的股份，这家惠普的香港子公司主要生产数据网络设备。去年11月，紫光集团又宣布130亿美元定增计划，希望建设一座大型存储芯片工厂。

大举收购

其他中国企业也在大举收购。芯片封装公司长电科技2014年斥资18亿美元获得了同行企业新加坡STATS ChipPac的控股权。2015年，国有公司建广资产管理公司花费相似的资金收购了荷兰恩智浦旗下的一个部门，后者专门为收集基站生产芯片。由华润集团领导的财团也向美国仙童半导体发出25亿美元的收购要约。但在这场针对外国芯片企业发起的收购大战中，紫光集团仍是当之无愧的“国家队队长”。

“很多人都怀疑我是政府的‘白手套’，”赵伟国最近表示，“但我们其实只是一家以市场为导向的公司。”虽然他淡化了官方对紫光集团的支持，但该公司却明显获得了各种优惠政策：倘若没有政府的支持，很难想象紫光集团能在未来5年展开3000亿元人民币(约合450亿美元)的交易。

与收购国外消费品牌不同，中国在半导体行业的收购交易未必总能受到热烈欢迎。有报道称，紫光集团去年曾经斥资230亿美元洽购美光科技，后者生产的DRAM存储芯片被广泛应用与桌面电脑和服务器。但由于遭到美国政府的反对，导致这项交易未能实现。该公司对韩国SK海力士的收购要约也在去年11月遭到拒绝。去年12月，紫光集团收购了台湾芯片封装和测试公司矽品科技25%的股份。

由此引发的抵制情绪促使规模更大的台湾芯片封装企业日月光于去年12月对矽品科技发起收购。

台湾经验

至于大陆能否实现这项野心勃勃的计划，或者能否摆脱对海外芯片技术的依赖，台湾的经历或许很有指导意义。从1980年代开始，台湾涌现出台积电等许多世界级的芯片代工企业，并且培育了联发科等活跃的处理器芯片设计商。但之所以能取得这种成功，是因为赶上了好时候：当时的芯片行业正在向设计与生产分离的模式转变，而台湾恰好抓住了这一趋势。但台湾最近对存储芯片的大力拓展却成为了一场灾难。美国市场研究公司Sanford C. Bernstein分析师马克·李(Mark Li)认为，尽管在世纪之交投入了500亿美元资本(多数都由台湾当局支付)，但台湾公司却赶上了“存储芯片的行业性衰退”。

这些公司在追逐市场份额的过程中进一步亏损。从2001至2010年间，全球存储芯片企业利润合计为80亿美元——但如果去掉三星和SK海力士两家成功的韩国企业，其他公司的合计亏损接近130亿美元。尽管花费巨大，但马克·李还是认为，台湾企业的投入还是太小，无法走在技术前沿，而且在盈利上有些急于求成。

浙江大学的道格拉斯·福勒(Douglas Fuller)认为，全球半导体行业最近几年的逐步成熟加大了中国渗透这一市场的难度。存储芯片市场的老牌巨头已经确立了自己的地位，尤其是在最近的行业整合之后。而芯片本身也与软件存在关联，变得越来越复杂，使得中国企业更加难以掌握。日月光COO吴田玉补充道，台湾企业进军芯片市场恰逢这一领域大举扩张之际；而大陆企业要在增长放缓的时候成功渗透进来，难度将会加大。

三大挑战

ASM Pacific Technology是一家在香港上市的芯片行业设备供应商，该公司负责人Lee Wai Keong表示，如果中国芯片巨头想要取得成功，首先就必须从“成本文化转向创新文化”。在被问及紫光集团能否通过收购获得前沿技术时，他笑着说：“半导体行业没有捷径。”他的怀疑也得到了佐证：中国台湾、韩国和美国施加的出口限制和其他政策都禁止将最新技术转移给中国企业。

中国大陆的芯片企业在创新方面大幅落后于全球领导厂商(尽管海思半导体是个例外)。麦肯锡咨询师克里斯多夫·托马斯(Christopher Thomas)估计，仅英格尔一家公司的研发开支就达到整个中国芯片行业的4倍。除了投入研发外，中国企业还需要吸引更多经验丰富的科学家和工程师。这并非不可能，毕竟硅谷聚集了很多优秀的华裔人才。但如果紫光集团这样企业想要吸引这些人才，就必须学会如何展开全球化创新，例如，在世界各地设立多个研发中心。

这便引出了第二项挑战：必须要转向国际化思维。目前为止，中国企业主要还是迎合繁荣的内需市场。但他们必须为苛刻的全球市场做好准备。即使是中国企业，也不太可能因为芯片产自国内而接受质量不佳的芯片——那些服务于海外市场的企业尤其如此。

最后一项挑战或许最为艰巨。中国芯片企业必须为长期而艰苦的斗争做好准备。麦肯锡的分析表明，无论是存储芯片还是处理器芯片，无论是设计、制造还是分装环节，全球半导体行业每个领域的全部利润几乎都被一两家顶尖企业攫取——其他企业只能忍受亏损。

效仿三星

不过，如果不想浪费1500亿美元的巨额资金，中国仍有一个比较积极的例子可以效仿，那就是三星。这家韩国巨头凭借对研发的大举投入成为了行业巨擘，积累了一系列技术人才，并且长年接受较低的回报。支持者认为，由于政府是主要投资者，而政府主要着眼于整体战略，而非短期利润，所以中国企业可以做到这一点。

然而，政府部署这项最新计划的方式可能还是会遭遇一些阻力。由于之前对光伏面板和LED照明行业的投资回报不佳，导致中国政府此次主要通过少数几家国有投资基金展开300亿美元的初期投资。他们希望这些借助这些中间人展开更具市场导向的投资，而不再像过去一样附带过多的官僚色彩。然而，管理这些基金，使之达成目标却绝非易事。

即便如此，摩根士丹利的分析师还是认为，中国企业完全有机会在某些半导体领域跻身世界前列。本土芯片公司可能在电视机、手机和电脑等产品领域拥有优势，因为中国在这些领域的生产和消费方面均占据主导。监管者可能也会对本土标准给予更大的倾斜力度，或者施加本地化内容要求，但风险在于，中国企业最终可能在本土市场十分强大，但依然缺乏国际竞争力。

在DRAM和闪存两大存储芯片领域，如果能够说服一些规模最大的海外厂商达成技术分享联盟，帮助这些公司克服其所在国政府施加的技术转移障碍，那就将对中国企业形成促进。从这一点来看，雄厚的资本大有裨益。去年9月，紫光集团同意向美国硬盘厂商西部数据注资38亿美元。由于资金来源得到充实，所以西部数据很快斥资190亿美元收购了全球领先的闪存厂商SanDisk。

中国曾经在许多支柱产业中扶持本土厂商，但效果却喜忧参半。在汽车制造领域，政府曾经通过合资方式吸引外国企业与之分享技术，但却进一步加大了本土企业对外国合作伙伴的依赖。在商用飞机领域，国有大飞机公司中国商飞花费多年时间投入巨资开发飞机，但仍然没有推出成品，等到正式面市时，可能已经过时。

在许多芯片业务领域，中国企业最终可能在技术上实现赶超，但却有可能因为产能过剩而给整个行业带来冲击——一如之前的光伏面板行业。正如Sanford C. Bernstein分析师马克·李所说：在主导整个市场之前，中国不会停止。但赵伟国却毫不讳言自己的野心，他最近声称：“芯片行业正在进入巨头时代，整合速度正在加快。”他明确表示，希望紫光集团成为最终活下来的少数巨头之一。是骡子是马，最终将有定论。