According to Nikkei News, Apple is negotiating with the Chinese government-backed Yangtze Storage Technologies Corp. to buy its NAND flash memory chips, marking the first time that the U.S. giant has purchased memory from Chinese memory chip makers Chip, a move that will greatly promote the development of China's storage industry.
If the two sides finally reach an agreement, which means that Apple will purchase memory chips for the first time from Chinese manufacturers, this is undoubtedly a big gain for the storage of the Yangtze River.Although the initial orders may not be large, but can win big customers like Apple, For an established business is not easy.For China, the deal with Apple will help reduce the dependence on imported chips, government agencies in the semiconductor field has shown a willingness to invest heavily.
Whether Apple is under pressure to buy chips from Chinese manufacturers is unclear, after all, China has realized that it should exert pressure on foreign technology companies that want to enter the Chinese market.According to an industry executive, it is certain that, Transactions with Chinese companies will help Apple's expansion in this market.
It is reported that the first production line of Yangtze River Storage is located in Wuhan City, an investment of 24 billion US dollars, with the world's three single-seat clean area of the largest 3D NAND Flash production plant, the current production and Power plant has been capped in September 2017. Later this year, the Yangtze River storage will be officially mass-produced NAND flash memory chips.
As a result, even if the two sides reach an agreement, the earliest will not be able to supply until 2019. According to insiders, the Yangtze River storage may not be able to mass-produce according to the requirements of Apple after 2020. Two insiders said that Apple will put these Chip for the new iPhone, especially some other products sold in China's domestic market.
Currently, Apple buys NAND flash memory chips for the iPhone mainly from Toshiba in Japan, Western Digital in the US, SK Hynix in South Korea and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. According to Sean Yang, an analyst at CINNO in Shanghai, Apple is a global player The largest NAND flash memory chip customer, total demand in 2017 reached 160 million gigabytes, accounting for 15% of global demand.
For example, the iPhone X has 64G and 256G versions, with prices in China being Rmb8,388 and Rmb9,688, respectively.
Sean Yang said that supplying Apple to the U.S. giant will help manufacturers improve product quality in the sense that Apple will only use components that meet its high standards and will also help increase its mass production capacity Its rapid growth as an international player in the market.
Changjiang Storage was formally established on the basis of Wuhan Xinxin Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Co., Ltd. on July 26, 2016. The major shareholders of the Company include China IC Industry Investment Fund, Ziguang Group and Hubei Government, and is currently a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unisplendour Group The company is seen as China's hope of catching up and challenging market leaders such as Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, SK Hynix, Micron and Intel in the storage space, with several market leaders monopolizing the global NAND flash memory market for 2017. "
According to the Nikkei Asia Review and other local media reports, Tsinghua University and CKI have tried to license NAND flash memory technology with foreign counterparts such as Micron, SK Hynix and Intel, but there has been no major breakthrough in the negotiations.
Violet has denied having talked with Micron and SK Hynix but declined to comment on whether it would seek to work with Intel Corp. In 2014, the chip giant in the United States invested $ 1.5 billion in a controlling stake in Ziguang Share ratio up to 20%.
Intel said in a statement that it has had a solid relationship with Violet for many years, but the terms of the relationship are kept confidential and the company declined to comment on whether it would license its 3D NAND flash memory to the Chinese conglomerate.
Apple and the Yangtze River Storage Technology did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
China is making unrelenting efforts to build a competitive semiconductor industry, and the central and local governments have all poured huge sums of money in seeking overseas acquisition opportunities, but taking into account the issue of national security, China is facing many overseas countries in this field and Restrictions in the region include a ban on Chinese acquisitions, the blocking of Chinese enterprises from entering overseas markets and the purchase of advanced technologies.
In 2015, government-backed Ziguang Group, which had been trying to acquire Micron for $ 23 billion, was rejected by the U.S. government on the grounds of national security that the Chinese group later ceased its bid of $ 3.8 billion at the 2016 review of the U.S. authorities After the investment, becoming the largest shareholder of Western Digital.
For Apple, it needs to strike a balance between the United States and China, which is one of its major markets and the most important manufacturing base, and Apple must also secure its own memory chip supply chain. In 2017, The company joins a consortium led by Bain Capital, a US private equity firm, for 2 trillion yen ($ 17.7 billion) to invest in Toshiba's NAND flash memory chip manufacturing division.
According to NAR's 2012 Apple Vendor Vendor Data, the number of Apple suppliers in China has more than doubled in 2017 to 19 in 2012 compared with seven in 2012.
In addition, China was already Apple's third-largest market during October-December last year, accounting for nearly 20% of its revenue of 88.29 billion U.S. dollars, second only to the United States and Europe.
Apple CEO Tim Cook apparently has taken the Chinese market a top priority, having made 12 trips to China since taking the helm in 2011. In 2017 alone, he runs in March, October and December China hopes to strengthen its ties with its local partners and government agencies.
In July last year, Apple removed several VPN services from the Chinese version of the App Store that could help Chinese users bypass the firewall, a move that severely restricted Chinese Internet users from accessing foreign websites and, at the request of the Chinese authorities, The New York Times application was unveiled by the end of 2016 and many see the move as a censorship.
In December last year, Cook answered a question about removing VPNs from the China App Store at a Wealth Forum in Guangzhou, China: "When you enter a country and participate in a market, you need to comply with the country's laws and regulations."
'With the passage of time, my hope is that some services will come back, and I'm hopeful and optimistic about that,' he added.
On the other hand, Apple also said it will invest 350 billion U.S. dollars to help the U.S. economy grow and create 20,000 jobs within five years. During his election campaign, President Trump once questioned Apple's dependence on the global supply chain rather than on The United States produces products domestically, which has led to a decline in domestic manufacturing and the loss of jobs for Americans.
Since Trump came to power, Apple has invested $ 390 million in Finisar, a laser component supplier, in research and development and helped create more than 500 local jobs.