According to two sources in the industry, the world’s second-largest foundry company, Gexin, recently asked Chinese regulators to investigate the monopoly of TSMC, the leading wafer foundry company.
Sources said that Gexin had reported to TDC that TSMC had taken an unfair practice to prevent its customers from placing orders with other suppliers. GeGe complained that this move had a negative impact on its business and the entire industry.
In an e-mail to Nikkei Asia on Wednesday, HE Li Mei, TSMC senior vice president and chief financial officer, wrote: "It is common for complainants to file an antitrust review request from various antitrust agencies in major markets. If there is any investigation or Regulators asked or asked, we will cooperate fully.
She writes that customers and the industry as a whole have benefited from fierce market competition and that "TSMC is pursuing technological innovations and engaging in fierce and fierce competition, so the company does not see any competition in such a highly competitive industry."
Lattice told Nikkei that it can not comment directly on regulatory actions, but a spokesman wrote in an e-mail: 'If a competitor (such as TSMC) continues to engage in unlawful conduct that we believe is detrimental to competition, we will allow The relevant regulatory authorities know.
NDRC did not immediately comment.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker, has a market share of 55.9% and produces chips for companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia, which do not themselves have the fabs that cost and operate expensive.
The United States of Georgia core, Taiwan's UMC and mainland China's SMIC is the foundry market in addition to TSMC major manufacturers, they accounted for 9.4%, 8.5% and 5.4% market share.
With large IDM companies such as Samsung Electronics and Intel, they have also begun to take over the OEM business, trying to expand their income sources to enhance the company's growth. The company has struggled to maintain a firm foothold in the increasingly competitive industry.
Samsung is already the world’s largest supplier of memory chips. The company’s goal recently is to replace G-Core as the second-largest player in the field of contract chip manufacturing. The next step is to challenge TSMC.
In the EU investigation, TSMC has now been accused of unfair competition
One source said that TSMC has sent a person with whom Beijing has made good contact with the National Development and Reform Commission to learn more about the lawsuit. The source said that it is not clear whether the NDRC will file the accusation.
The National Development and Reform Commission is China's largest economic planning department and is also responsible for ensuring a fair and competitive environment for product pricing. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce is responsible for stopping monopolistic behavior in other areas. The Ministry of Commerce is responsible for supervising the anti-monopoly review in mergers and acquisitions.
This is not the first time that Gexin has complained to a government agency about its competitor. Reuters first disclosed in September last year that it had filed a similar complaint with the European Commission in the second half of 2017, accusing TSMC of unfairly using a rebate. Even penalties prevent customers from turning to other suppliers.
TSMC told reporters in October last year that the EU did contact TSMC for more information and the company is fully cooperating. 'We believe that the previous allegations are still in the preliminary stage. Therefore, it is too early to comment or predict how the case will develop. Early. 'He Limei said at the time.
China is the fastest growing market for chip manufacturing. The first 12-inch advanced process foundry built by TSMC in Nanjing will be put into production in May this year and cost US$3 billion. Most of the company's manufacturing base is in Taiwan. TSMC's 2017 camp It received NT$977.45 billion (approximately US$32.11 billion), of which 11% came from China, up from 9% in 2016.
Gragon also raised funds from Chengdu local government to build local fabs and plans to start production by the end of this year. The company has manufacturing bases in Singapore, New York State in USA, and Dresden, Germany. The company is controlled by Abu Dhabi State-owned fund Mubadala Investment Holdings.
TSMC’s major customers include NXP, Broadcom, Qualcomm, AMD, MediaTek, and Xilinx, and more than 450 vendors worldwide. Gexin is mainly dependent on AMD, but also includes some TSMC customers, but not including Apple and Nvidia.
The world’s largest mobile chip supplier, Qualcomm, was fined by the Chinese Development and Reform Commission for a US$975 million in 2015 for its violation of the patent licensing business model of the anti-monopoly law. In addition, Samsung was investigated by the National Development and Reform Commission last year for continuous price increases in DRAM.
In the EU, if it violates antitrust laws in the region, the company may be subject to a huge fine of 10% of its global revenue. For example, Google was fined 2.42 billion euros (3 billion U.S. dollars) last year because of its search engines and its own Smartphone operating system built its own shopping service. In January of this year, Qualcomm was also fined 997 million euros because of its alleged abuse of hegemonic status to guarantee Apple’s exclusive supplier status for five years.