1. The big fund is nearing completion in the second phase, compound semiconductor is one of the three major centers of gravity
According to foreign media reports, China's 'major fund' is nearing completion of its second-phase $19 billion fund-raising. As trade tensions intensify, it is currently planning to increase overall investment in the industry. Large funds are close to announcing the establishment of a new fund to focus on supporting local chips. Production and technology. Among them, compound semiconductors is one of the three major areas that this new fund focuses on. The industry said that compound semiconductors mainly include a series of non-silicon semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, silicon carbide, etc. From 2016 According to statistical data, gallium arsenide is the most mainstream product in global compound semiconductor applications, and it occupies the most mainstream product in semiconductor applications, accounting for approximately 79% of the total. 5G, 3D sensing and automotive electrification are the main growth factors in the industry. Driving force.
The Agency anticipates that the compound semiconductor industry will reach US$67.3 billion by 2025. It will be one of the leading companies for semiconductor materials such as domestic targets, and it will also be the largest supplier of gallium arsenide at the domestic level. Yunnan Industrial Co., Ltd. Yunnan Xinyao Semiconductor successfully put into production 2-6 inch semiconductor grade and semi-insulating gallium arsenide crystals and substrates. At present, the gallium arsenide single wafer production capacity is 800,000 pieces/year. Galaxy Securities
2. Big Funds Trigger China's IC 'Chain Reaction'
On May 1st, Ziguang Zhuangrui, one of the Ziguang Group, took the theme of 'Caring the Core Well' and paid tribute to the 'Core Craftsman' picture in the circle of friends. As the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as the Big Fund) After the establishment of the first large-scale investor, Ziguang Zengru has ranked the top three global shipments.
The introduction of major funds, local governments, financial institutions, social capital, industrial companies, and scientific research institutions rallied, which triggered a chain reaction in China's integrated circuit industry. The overall strength of China's integrated circuit industry has been significantly enhanced.
Changing the traditional way of subsidy
Luo Haoyuan, an investment partner of Zhongyue Jinqiao Investment Group, told the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: 'Unlike traditional manufacturing industry, heavy capital, high technology is the threshold of the integrated circuit industry, and the operating system is complex. A little carelessness, huge input may not even meet with a splash. To have courage and dare to invest in the long term, in our hearts are Yingjie. '
In June 2014, China issued the “Outline for Promoting the Development of the National IC Industry,” and “The establishment of a national integrated circuit industry development group, the establishment of a national industrial investment fund, and increased financial support” were listed as the first three safeguard measures.
On October 14, 2014, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that the State Integrated Circuit Industrial Investment Fund was established on September 24. This is the first time China has changed the traditional subsidy methods such as taxation, land preferences, and R&D incentives. To promote the development of the integrated circuit industry in a market-oriented manner.
In response, Wang Zhanyi, chairman of the State Integrated Circuit Industrial Investment Fund Co., Ltd., once stated in public that through the establishment of industrial funds to support the development of strategic industries, it is possible to achieve national will, meet the requirements of strategic industries for long-term investment, and use funds. The mechanism effectively avoids the disadvantages of traditional support methods such as direct state funding or direct investment.
As of the end of November 2017, the major funds actually contributed approximately RMB 79.4 billion, and 62 projects have been effectively determined, benefiting 46 companies. The entire investment chain has been fully covered in all links of the production chain, manufacturing, design, packaging and testing, and equipment and materials. Driven by large funds, the sub-funds proposed or established by various localities total a total of more than 300 billion yuan, which is equivalent to achieving a 1:5 amplification effect.
Industry support does not sprinkle sesame salt
At the beginning of the establishment of a large fund, its funding was once the focus of attention.
'In contrast to China's previous support for 'salted sesame salt,' the Big Fund's emphasis on improving the competitiveness of leading companies has received high recognition in the industry. 'Luo Haoyuan said.
Changjiang Securities believes that the support of large funds for local IC industry funds has brought about gradual improvement in equipment, personnel and technology, which has promoted collaboration and linkage within the domestic semiconductor industry and is of great significance to the establishment of the ecosystem.
There are many such cases. For example, large funds actively lead Ziguang Zengrui, Zhongxing Micro and other design companies strengthen cooperation with chip manufacturing companies such as SMIC, and promote the products of equipment and materials companies such as China Microelectronics, North Huachuang and Shanghai Silicon Industry Group. Applied in the local production line.
Luo Haoyuan said: 'This is not to say that China's integrated circuit industry did not have an industrial chain before, but large funds have made the industrial chain more healthy and complete. To a certain extent, they have formed a good momentum of coordinated development. Although we still need to break through in the high-end areas, Reliance on imports has eased. '
Ouyang Wu, chairman of Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily: 'The big fund is an institutional innovation for the development of integrated circuit strategic industries. It is a deepening of the country's deepening innovation in science and technology innovation, exploring the combination of national strategies and market mechanisms. , The beneficial attempt to enhance the competitiveness of the upstream and downstream industrial chain of integrated circuits is inestimable for the development of China's IC industry chain.
The weak link needs to break through
The first-phase investment of major funds covered the manufacturing of integrated circuits, the leading company of packaging, and partially covered the design, equipment, and materials listed companies. What is the focus of its investment in the next step?
Although all kinds of arguments related to the second phase of the big fund are currently classified as 'lakes and lakes' predictions, many people have caught the clues from the speeches made by Ding Wenwu, the president of the major fund, in a public address: 'The next step, big funds will increase investment in the design industry. Proportion (currently only 17%), and will focus on national strategies and emerging industries for investment planning, such as smart cars, smart grids, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, 5G, etc., while supporting the equipment and materials industry as much as possible to promote its accelerated development . '
Luo Haoyuan said: 'Beyond the big investment direction, we analyze that the second phase will be tilted toward the field of equipment and materials to achieve a breakthrough in the weak point of 'point-to-point'.
'We have made this judgment because the structure of China's integrated circuit industry has improved, but the basic areas of equipment and materials that provide key support to the semiconductor industry are very weak. 'Luo Haoyuan said, 'This has long been recognized in the industry. The domestic equipment and materials industry lags behind the demand for market development, which is already a bottleneck restricting the development of China's semiconductor industry, and brings many risks to the development of the industry.
Wei Jun, the vice president of the big fund, once bluntly stated: 'The gap between equipment and materials is not as big as it is, and even the right investment target can't be found.'
Although the big fund is somewhat mysterious and low-key, it bears the important mission of changing China's long-term 'weak' situation in the integrated circuit field. Under the current international competition situation and industrial environment, how will it continue to contribute to the breakthrough of the relevant industry weaknesses? , becoming the most concerned issue in the industry and abroad.
3. Chinese core anxiety, AI has the opportunity to catch up
After ZTE and Huawei, it is expected that more tech companies will be involved in the Sino-US trade war in various forms in the future, especially the cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI). This will allow Chinese officials and the industry to quickly grasp The anxiety of 'China Core' has intensified, but there are also some media names, including Internet giants such as Baidu and Ali. In fact, they all have been quietly 'on the core', and China has the opportunity to catch up on the AI chip.
According to the data, China’s chip imports amounted to US$230 billion in 2016, which is almost twice the amount of the second largest crude oil import, and most of them come from the United States. The chip is the key point in the core technology of the information industry. If the United States expands the scope of chip sanctions, it will spread The object will change from enterprise to industry.
In fact, in April 2015, the United States had banned the export of chips to China’s supercomputers. At that time, it included the National Supercomputing Center in Changsha, the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin and the National University of Defense Technology in the United States. List of entities with national security or diplomatic interests in the United States.
Until the end of 2017, China began to use domestically produced chips, such as 'Tianhe II', to use the new domestic Matrix 2000, replacing the original Intel accelerator.
The current "ZTE ban" storm further indicated that China needs large-scale commercialization, and even China's "core" that can replace foreign chips is a top priority. According to the Luyang media report, the three companies with the most interest in chip layout in China are Huawei. , Baidu and Ali, Huawei layout chips relatively early, Hass semiconductor was established in October 2004, there are a large number of communications and mobile devices can apply Hass chips, to promote the continuous upgrading of technology.
As for the Internet giants, they have long been reluctant to only serve online services. Ali's IoT strategy requires a large number of chips to integrate algorithms, systems, and software. Therefore, it not only announced that it has independently developed Ali-NPU AI chips. Acquired China-made CPU company Zhongtian Wei, Ali also invested in a large number of semiconductor companies, such as the Cambrian, Barefoot, Shen Jian, Lin Nai and Yi Jie.
Baidu was also deployed very early. Last year it became the first network giant to have its own chip, released the XPU (Cloud Computing Acceleration Chip), adopted a new generation of AI processing architecture designed by Baidu, and can be applied to AI, data analysis. , cloud computing and driverless.
4. Anhui introduced semiconductor industry development plan
To nurture and promote the development of semiconductor emerging industries, the General Office of the Anhui Provincial Government has issued the “Development Plan for the Semiconductor Industry of Anhui Province (2018-2021)” and “Planning” recently, which aims to nurture and expand the backbone enterprises of the semiconductor industry and build the features of Anhui. The semiconductor industry chain is of great significance in promoting the application of key areas. It will help drive the transformation and upgrading of Anhui's automotive electronics, new displays, and home appliances, and cultivate and expand new economic growth momentum.
The "Planning" proposes that by 2021, the scale of the semiconductor industry in the province will strive to reach 100 billion yuan, and 300 related enterprises in the industrial chain will be established. The industry will be built with Hefei as the core and cities such as Yanzhou, Zhangzhou, Wuhu, Tongling and Chizhou as the main industries. Develop arcs to build a 'one nuclear-arc' semiconductor industry spatial distribution pattern.
"Planning" clarifies five key tasks for the development of the semiconductor industry in Anhui Province in the next three years:
First, to expand the scale of the chip design industry. To develop dedicated panel designs for panel displays and touch-driven chips, automotive electronics chips, home appliance chips, MEMS sensors, high-end power electronic power devices, and to guide chip design companies and complete machine manufacturers. Collaborative development.
The second is to enhance the capabilities of the chip manufacturing industry. Based on the current situation, we will accelerate the development of advanced technology for memory chips and large-scale production of our products. We aim at leading international IC companies, actively introduce the next-generation advanced technology, large-size wafer production lines, and promote high-end manufacturing.
The third is to improve the level of packaging and testing industry. We will vigorously develop advanced packaging technologies such as bumps, flip-chips, wafer-level packaging, and through-silicon vias to support the construction of advanced packaging and test production lines and packaging and testing technology R&D centers.
Fourth, we will vigorously develop related supporting industries. We will attract a number of electronic and chemical supporting companies that gather a number of targets, substrates, special liquids, and special gases. We will further expand the advantages of semiconductor silicon materials, lead frames, and sputtering targets.
The fifth is to promote the application of key areas. In the areas of new display, automotive electronics, computers, wearable devices, etc., promote the integration of production, study and research, gradually form the joint development of chip design, manufacture and application, and implement home appliance core chip localization projects. Economic Daily
5. China 'Lacking core and soulless', relying on 'mining machine' to save money does not work
Almost overnight, 'Lack of core and soullessness' has become the hottest term in the field of China's science and technology and information technology. The chip industry has become the most vulnerable part of the international competition and has become an unspeakable pain in the minds of countless industries.
The U.S. ban may cause ZTE to enter a state of shock. ZTE chairman Yin Yimin’s remarks made people feel chilled in this fast approaching summer. After all, ZTE is the top four telecommunications companies in the world. With 80,000 employees, the annual turnover exceeds 100 billion RMB.
With the intensification of the ZTE crisis, China's core is also facing opportunities under pressure. Mastering core technologies can only rely on themselves. It is no longer empty talk but a solid investment. It has become the consensus of the government, enterprises, and society.
In the past two days, there has been a widespread claim that the miner may have helped domestic 'chips' achieve overtaking. As a result, Bitcoin prices have soared, and the price of miners used for mining has risen accordingly.
At present, 90% of the world's bitcoin miners are produced by Chinese manufacturers, especially the most conspicuous in terms of bit-continents. Take the dominant ant S9 in the continental world as an example. It consumes 189 BM1387s that consume TSMC's 16nm FinFET manufacturing process. Taking into account the huge network of 'mining' calculation power, it means that there must be a large number of mining machines in operation, which brings huge benefits to chip manufacturers and packaging and testing plants.
According to public data, Bitland’s chip sales in 2017 were as high as RMB 14.3 billion, making it the second-largest domestic Fabless after Huawei Hass (a chip design only, not a manufacturing company).
"Shared Finance" understands that, for example, Huatian Technology, a major packaging supplier of BitContinent, has an output of about 60 million pieces/month in February 2018, and a calculation based on the consumption of 1.6 yuan/piece for the package cost of mining machine chips. , Its 2018 chip packaging and testing business revenue is estimated to exceed 10 billion yuan.
Therefore, there is a voice that the miner can save the Chinese chip industry.
However, if you want to develop a world-class independent chip that is no longer subject to human control, is it possible to rely on a mining machine alone?
"Shared Finance" also learned that the scale of China's integrated circuit market has reached the top of the world, reaching about 200 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, and the market growth rate in the next few years will be 7 to 8%. Whether it is compared with other countries, or Compared with other industries, this is a relatively high growth rate.
However, the domestic IC market mainly relied on imports. In the past year, China imported US$227 billion of chips, reached second place (oil 111.5 billion US dollars), third place (iron ore 57.7 billion US dollars), and fourth place ( The sum of the car and chassis of 44.6 billion US dollars).
According to the semiconductor chip industry chain, it is generally divided into three phases: chip design, wafer manufacturing, and packaging and testing. At present, domestic mining machine chip manufacturers that have emerged from the mining boom are mainly concentrated in the packaging and testing process, and in chip design. As for key links such as wafer manufacturing, manufacturers in mainland China are still very weak.
Chip design software is a key tool for the chip company to design the chip structure. Currently, the structural design of the chip mainly depends on the EDA software. At present, China mainly develops EDA software companies such as Spreadtrum and Huawei. The two companies' design software is mainly used for internal use. Market share is still very low, accounting for less than 10% of the total.
At the end of 2017 and January of this year, Kennan Minzhi and Bit Continent have issued their own self-designed artificial intelligence can be edge computing chip KPU and AI special consumption chip BM1680. To some extent, this can be said to be miner chip manufacturers An important breakthrough in the field of chip design.
In terms of manufacturing process, the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing process in mainland China is 28nm that SMIC and Lianxin have mass-produced. The Ministry of Science and Technology proposed to mass-produce 14nm process in 2018, but Intel and Samsung Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Taiwan, China, have already reached the 10nm node, or even the 7nm node. The current gap is between 4 and 5 years.
Therefore, “Shared Finance” believes that it is not enough to rely solely on the development of blockchains to save China’s “core.” The Chinese-made mining machines use ASIC chips, and the ASICs in the integrated circuit industry are considered to be specialized. The purpose of the design of the integrated circuit. Refers to the specific user requirements and the specific electronic system needs to design and manufacture of integrated circuits, so mining machine ASIC chip can only be said that the Chinese semiconductor industry in the global high-speed digital chip field a major breakthrough. There is still a long way to go before the country faces the issue of chip dependence on imports. Sharing Finance