1. Close an MCU factory again! Renesas gradually exits automotive semiconductor production;
On June 4th, Microelectronics reported that after Renesas Electronics shipped the most advanced MCUs to TSMC, Renesas Electronics announced on the 1st of this month that Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., its 100%-owned subsidiary, will ) The Yamaguchi Plant and the Shiga Plant's partial production line (silicon product line) will be closed in the next 2-3 years. Thus, from March 2011 to present, Renesas' 22 production sites in Japan will be further reduced to 8 seat.
It is understood that the Kochi plant of RSMC was shut down on May 31. The Kochi Plant mainly produces home appliances and automotive MCUs. The factories that are planned to be closed and some of the products produced on the production line will be discontinued or partially transferred to other locations. produce.
Yamaguchi Plant mainly produces general-purpose MCUs for industrial machinery and other applications. Due to the use of the older 6-inch silicon wafer production line, the number of semiconductors that can be obtained per chip is small, and the production efficiency is poor. However, the Shiga Plant Section After the production line is discontinued, the production line for producing compound semiconductors such as laser diodes will continue to be produced.
In order to reduce the high cost of chip production equipment, in March this year, Renesas Electronics plans to build the automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) entirely from TSMC and focus on software and semiconductor R&D. Renesas will gradually withdraw from its own fabs. With semiconductors, the goal is to mass-produce through TSMC in 2020. The Nikkei pointed out that Renesas can lower production costs, and TSMC can also use depreciated equipment to produce 28-nanometer MCUs.
Last year, Renesas Semiconductor’s revenue grew 23.4% to 765.7 billion yen, including automotive semiconductor revenue growth of 13.8% to 408.1 billion yen.
In the first quarter of 2.2018, the global semiconductor equipment revenue was 17 billion US dollars;
Gathering micro-network news, the latest report of the global industry association SEMI stated that in the first quarter of 2018, global semiconductor manufacturing equipment spending reached a record of 17 billion US dollars, soared by 59% in March and ended at a record high of 7.8 billion US dollars the first season.
The quarterly bills amounted to US$17 billion, breaking the record set in the fourth quarter of 2017. The Billings area in the first quarter of 2018 was 12% higher than the previous quarter and 30% higher than the same period of last year. These figures are related to Japanese semiconductors. The Equipment Association (SEAJ) has jointly collected more than 95 global equipment companies that provide monthly data.
The Billings’ quarterly data by region is multi-billion-dollar, with quarterly quarter-to-quarter growth and year-on-year growth by region as follows:
News reporter Cheng Tianmeng comprehensive report
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) Chairman Zhang Zhongmou will attend its final shareholder meeting at TSMC on June 5th and formally retire.
Zhang Zhongmou was known as the 'semiconductor godfather'. He was born in 1931 and founded TSMC in 1987. He is 87 years old this year. After retirement, Zhang Zhongmou will no longer serve as a director, consultant or chairman to achieve complete 'null retirement'. TSMC will implement 'double' Heads of Parallel Leaders' System: Liu Deyin took over the chairmanship and was the final decision maker of the company; Wei Zhejia served as the president, led and operated the company, and reported to the board of directors.
According to Nikkei News, reported on June 4th, TSMC’s chip foundry business now has a global market share of 56%. In addition to being the sole supplier of Apple’s iPhone core processor chips, TSMC has a total of 465 customers worldwide, including almost All major global chip designers. Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia, Broadcom, NXP, Huawei chip company Hass, MediaTek and other companies rely on TSMC's cutting-edge manufacturing process to build advanced chips.
TSMC has planned future 3nm process chips
In addition to appointing successors, Zhang Zhongmou also made a general development plan for the future of TSMC before he retired.
According to Taiwan’s “World Magazine” report, an independent analyst, Andrew Lu, provided Smartkarma’s report in October 2017 that Zhang Zhongmou has planned TSMC’s R&D, design, experiment, trial production and mass production in the next 2 years, including 7nm, 5nm, 3nm process chip.
Nowadays, Apple’s most advanced mobile phone, the iPhone X, uses a TSMC 10-nanometer chip. According to Bloomberg News quoted informed sources on May 23, the processor used in the next-generation iPhone, which will be introduced later in 2018, has already started production at TSMC. The chip is a 7-nm process that is smaller, faster, and more efficient than the current 10-nm process used in the iPhone X.
Retired in 2005, He took orders from Apple after the return
Zhang Zhongmou once 'retired' once in 2005.
According to Taiwan media reports, in 2005, Zhang Zhongmou sent his CEO to the current CEO of MediaTek, Cai Lixing, and retired himself as the chairman. In the 2008 financial crisis, TSMC led Cai Lixing to perform performance assessment and layoffs, which caused dissatisfaction among employees. Zhang Zhongmou also returned to TSMC as CEO in 2009.
After the heavy CEO, Zhang Zhongmou doubled his capital expenditure in 2010 to 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, led Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to spurt the cutting-edge 28-nanometer process chip in the industry, and the 28-nanometer process chip has become the mainstream of the smartphone era. In the same year, TSMC took Under the original apple order that has been exclusively owned by Samsung, it became the giant of the foundry industry. According to “The World Magazine” reported in October 2017, as of 2016, TSMC’s stock price has increased by 237 percent in the seven years that Zhang Zhongmou has regained control.
In the post-Zhang Zhongmou era, TSMC needs to find new business opportunities
TSMC's market value has surpassed Intel's.
The highest share price of TSMC was generated on January 23, 2017. At that time, the market value of the company reached US$229.81 billion, which exceeded Intel. Taiwan’s media reported that in the past few years, the market value of TSMC and Intel took the lead, but June 2017. Since then, Intel has come from behind and its market value has surpassed TSMC. Now, the gap between Intel and TSMC seems to be getting bigger and bigger. This has become a regret for Zhang Zhongmou before his retirement.
In addition, the competition in the chip industry has become increasingly fierce, and the customer structure of TSMC has also changed. According to the Nikkei report, TSMC’s reliance on its top customer, Apple, and its customers in mainland China is gradually strengthened. In 2017, Apple accounted for TSMC’s operating revenue. 22%, In contrast, in 2016 and 2015, Apple accounted for only 17% and 16% of TSMC sales, respectively.
Apple is also seeking to manufacture its own chips, including processor chips, fingerprint chips and Bluetooth chips for Airpods wireless headphones, to reduce its dependence on suppliers. In addition, the report of the Bank of China noted that Samsung and Intel are strengthening their foundry. Business, TSMC is likely to face strong competition from these two companies. With the rise of chip makers represented by SMIC (00981) in mainland China, TSMC may face an outflow of talent.
The change of the market can not be ignored. The industry growth point of chip manufacturing is shifting from the areas of PC chips, smart phone chips, etc., to the Internet of things and self-driving cars. TSMC's TSMC still needs to find new business opportunities.
4. Heavyweight shareholders will debut TSMC 7nm yield better than the same period last year;
The semiconductor group shareholder meeting reached its climax. Wafer and IC design leader TSMC (2330) and MediaTek (2454) made their debut on the next (5th) and next week. This stock price warmed up ahead of schedule. TSMC tapped the monthly line, MediaTek also won a major Rose more than 3%, hitting the quarterly line. Due to the sound of semi-conductor boom in the second half of the year, including: Apple A12 processor orders weaker than expected, virtual currency demand can not be tempered and rivals Qualcomm smashing singles and other negative rumors continued, wafer The godfather Zhang Zhongmou and IC design brother Cai Ming Jie’s views on the economy in the second half of the year have become a key observation indicator for the semiconductor economy.
In June, we entered the peak season of the semiconductor group shareholder meeting, and the main event of shareholders of TSMC came on stage tomorrow. Apart from Zhang Zhongmou’s final meeting, this year’s shareholder meeting focused on the situation of TSMC in the second half of the year. Due to the recent market sentiment of Apple The A12 processor used in the iPhone's new machine became conservative under the single turn, which was a 30% reduction from last year's peak. The main reason is that the 7nm yield is much higher than the 10nm used in the A11 processor last year. Apple is not in a hurry to take the film immediately. Shrinking, the required number of wafers is relatively small.
In addition, the demand for high-end process virtual currency could not be recovered. Bitcoin was used at $8,000 and 28 nanometers was not profitable. Customers reduced orders, and two factors contributed to the original market’s expectation of a rise in TSMC’s dollar revenue in the third quarter. From 15% to 20%, it is feared that it will be reduced to 10% in the quarter.
MediaTek launched the Helio P23 chip for success in the second half of last year. In the first half of this year, the P60 chip was successfully recaptured OPPO, VIVO and other large customers in the low-end mobile phone orders, and in the second quarter, the P22 chip was again launched with strong AI function, plus China and the United States. In the aftermath of the trade war, rival Qualcomm has been in a state of beating. The market has reported that Qualcomm has regained its momentum, and the competition of Xiaolong's mobile phone chips has competed. It has retrieved some orders from customers and partially eroded the market share of MediaTek. Between Qualcomm and MediaTek In the second half of the year, whether the team can break through or not, the view of the shareholders’ meeting can be seen. 5. It is reported that Samsung will allocate bit-bits to the mainland to collect orders for mining in the second half of the year.
Bitmine, a crypto-currency excavator manufacturer, visited the supply chain in Taiwan. However, the industry has already seen changes in the tactics for chip purchase. Bitland will adopt a multi-foundry strategy. Samsung is expected to In the second half of the year, it won orders for special application chip (ASIC) for mining machines.
■ Bitcoin price weakness effect
According to industry analysts, Bitcoin prices have fallen below US$8,000. As a whole, various types of cryptocurrencies are unlikely to see a rebound in the short term, and the sales momentum of the mining machines is indeed affected. Not only are the rumors of returns coming back and forth, Bitland's slashing of foundry orders also spreads. For bitcoin and other digging machine makers, based on considerations such as cost and availability of GDDR for graphics cards, the mining ASIC will naturally be entrusted to other manufacturers. Yuan foundry OEM.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Bitland Group visited the supply chain at the end of May. He met with Chief Executive Huang Chongren on the morning of May 28, and met with Chief Executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Mr. Wei Zhejia in the afternoon. The market news originally expected that the Bit Continental will expand orders for TSMC. , will also be to the power of crystal to the investment memory design factory Aipu to buy DRAM, but the industry pointed out that the actual situation is not the case.
Bitland acquired the niche-type DRAMs needed for Jing Hao Ke and Hao Chuang in the first half of this year. The related DRAMs were mainly produced by Powerchip. Bit-Bin Continental intends to purchase DRAM directly from Powerchip, but Powerchip has already been transformed into wafers. The foundry, in order not to compete directly with the foundry customers, Powerwine explained that Bitland had to use the memory design company to order, in order to obtain the required production capacity. Bitland had originally intended to invest in Aipu of Powerchip, but because There is no consensus on the delivery date and there are no discrepancies in the specifications. Bit Continental has continued to place orders for niche-type DRAMs in the second half of the year.
■ No more centralized single foundry
In addition, the industry has also announced that Bitland will adopt a multi-wafer foundry strategy and will no longer concentrate excessively on single-wafer foundries. This will reduce the risk of insufficient production capacity for advanced processes, and may lead to better bargaining power. Right, three can also win more Samsung graphics card with GDDR capacity.
It is understood that Samsung has been very active this year in its efforts to secure cryptocurrency mining ASICs, and has cooperated with IC design service company Farahara to secure orders for mining ASICs, with Samsung's 14nm and 7nm production capacities released in the second half of the year, plus quotes. More attractive than TSMC, the industry has long been rumored that Samsung and BitContinent have been negotiating cooperation for a long time. The fastest ASIC OEM orders can be obtained in the second half of this year.
6. TSMC Wei Liu Gongzhi Let 1+1>2 people comment on Zhang Zhongmou;
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chairman Zhang Zhongmou will retire after the shareholders meeting of TSMC today and send it to two co-presidents, Liu Deyin and Wei Zhejia, and Liu Deyin will take over as chairman and Wei Zhe as president.
The outsiders believe that Liu Deyin is indifferent and complementary to Wei Zhe’s family; Zhang Zhongmou hopes that the two can play “1 plus 1 more than 2” functions in the future, but the two will also face Samsung and Intel’s singles rush. The double heads may need to run in early, Changes in the U.S.-China trade relationship, semiconductor Moore's Law come to an end, and other four major problems.
However, in the face of Samsung's heavy investment in expanding wafer foundry energy, Intel also made a big move to share wafer foundry pies, as well as China's efforts to nurture the pace of manufacturing process technology led by SMIC to accelerate the pace of process technology, and to scoop up front desk product R&D General Liang Mengsong as co-chief executive, locked TSMC's cornering action, and with dual heads, if the leaders of the two futures disagree on how to seek consensus, it is worth observing.
Judging from the general environment, the US-China trade war may seem like a ceasefire at present, but whether or not it will fluctuate in the future will be a major challenge for Liu Deyin and Wei Zhejia to take over as chairman and president in the future.
In addition, the failure of Moore's Law, the number of transistors that can accommodate the transistor no longer stays at 18 to 24 months, and it is expected that the number of transistors in the chip will still increase. However, Zhang Zhongmou estimates that it will encounter bottlenecks by 2025. TSMC has eight more. The year's buffer period is the successor to the future in seeking technical breakthroughs.
Currently, the communication products that account for more than 60% of TSMC’s revenue are affected by the weak demand of high-end mobile phones in the short term and the operating performance is affected. However, the 5G era is approaching, and there is an opportunity to see the trend forming in the next year. , Car networking, smart home, home appliances and other business opportunities will flourish, and it is expected to re-create another wave of TSMC operation peak.
At the same time, the increasing use of automotive electronics and artificial intelligence will also drive TSMC's demand for automotive and high-performance computing to increase significantly.
Liu Deyin is Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He was once General Manager of the World Bank Integrated Circuits, Deputy General Manager of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Senior Vice President of Advanced Technology, Senior Vice President of Operations, and Chief Operating Officer. Co-CEO.
Wei Zhe holds a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Yale University in the United States. He previously served as senior vice president of Chartered Semiconductor, Singapore, and deputy general manager of operations of TSMC South Plant, senior deputy general manager of mainstream technology, senior deputy general manager of business development, chief operating officer, and joint execution. long.
Nvidia is TSMC's long-standing partner. Nvidia's founder and CEO Huang Renxun praised Zhang Zhongmou as one of the world's best CEOs and is always energetic. Huang Renxun said: 'Who says that older people cannot continue to manage the company? Zhang Zhongmou is not old at the point of business management.
Senior semiconductor analyst Chen Huiming stated that Zhang Zhongmou is a rare world-class leader. 'Taiwan can find 100 as wise CEOs as Zhang Zhongmou, but none of them have the same height' because everything is highly determined. Let Zhang Zhongmou create extraordinary TSMC. .
In the heart of Zeng Fancheng, vice chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and chairman of Creative Electronics, Zhang Zhongmou is an admirer who is constantly pursuing progress and admiration. Zeng Fancheng said that for him, Zhang Zhongmou always pursues both leisure and business. Progress, let him benefit a lot.
Qunyi Jinding General Manager Zhao Yongfei praised the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Zhang Zhongmou is a very good and forward-looking CEO. Zhang Zhongmou has a long-term perspective and lays the foundation for TSMC's leading position in the industry. Although Zhang Zhongmou retires, because TSMC has a good foundation, short-term There is not much change in the industrial status within the company. Economic Daily
7. Intel, Samsung have also admitted to losing Zhang Zhongmou to create the world's first;
TSMC chairman Zhang Zhongmou once described two major rivals as Intel and Samsung Electronics as '700-pound gorillas'. Samsung and other opponents frequently perform and the advanced manufacturing process is fierce. However, last year's global foundry market ranking, TSMC is still firmly in the lead. The market share is over 50%, and Samsung (4.4%) is far ahead of No. 4. Why does Zhang Zhongmou make the gorillas lose their lives?
'The 700-pound gorilla is not so scary, but it is still quite awesome'. Zhang Zhongmou stressed that TSMC is treating its customers as partners and standing on the same front.
Samsung is investing heavily in expanding wafer foundry energy. Intel is splitting up wafer foundry pies. The mainland is trying its best to build a wafer foundry led by SMIC. Although it is firmly at the forefront, TSMC has never dared to underestimate its opponents. Counterattacks are frequently viewed. After Zhang Zhongmou retired in June this year, two co-chief executives, Liu Deyin and Wei Zhejia, took over the major challenges.
Asked how to watch heavyweight opponents? Zhang Zhongmou said in an interview last October that five or six years ago he had predicted that Samsung would be a very strong competitor. But ten years ago, he did not expect Samsung to be so strong one day.
Time back to the financial tsunami in 2008, Samsung's top business decision-making meeting decided on a 'Kill Taiwan to kill Taiwan' program. A Taiwanese Samsung executive recalled, 'The topic of that day's talk is how to get rid of Taiwan!' Taiwan's DRAM industry, panel tigers, HTC, spearheaded TSMC, becoming the most powerful competitor in Taiwan's technology industry.
However, for many years, TSMC has remained at the forefront of wafer foundry and has become Samsung’s toughest enemy. TSMC’s take-up of Wucheng’s market share is not only far ahead of Samsung (about 7.4%), but also ahead of second place. The United States of America Gloffontein (about 9%), one of the world's two chips has been built by TSMC.
How does Zhang Zhongmou make TSMC stand? First, invest heavily in capital and expand the military expansion. Zhang Zhongmou once said that in the semiconductor industry competition must be the first in the world, otherwise it is easy to fail.
When he was working at Texas Instruments, he realized the survival rules of the semiconductor industry. He said, 'In the semiconductor industry, if you do not have the world competitiveness, you will not survive for a long time. The top one... I think this is the most important thing I brought to Taiwan. '.
He said that Taiwan’s DRAM is not able to survive without recognizing that it is the first place in the world. Taiwan will also be overtaken by South Korea because of the closure of its mentality. In the face of competition, 'Taiwan does not rest.'
Several months ago Zhang Zhongmou's exclusive interview with Bloomberg indicated that chip manufacturing is increasingly sophisticated and sophisticated. The cost of adopting advanced process technology is also increasing. TSMC needs annual expenditure of NT$300 million (US$10 billion) to maintain its leading position in semiconductors. Annual expenditures may increase to NT$330 billion (US$11 billion) a year. 'TSMC must build the most advanced chip factory'.
The second is focus. TSMC has only done one thing in the past 30 years. It is focused on foundry and has always been ahead of the advanced process. The opponent is no longer the UMC of the year. It is gorilla-level Intel and Samsung.
Regarding how the Taiwanese industry fights against the Samsung Group, Zhang Zhongmou once said that 'Samsung is a monster that has been created in Korea's special environment for decades'. Pulling off one of the monster's feet, removing the lungs, and taking it out of various departments, will naturally die. .
In 2013, he recalled that at the time, he said that Taiwan certainly had a way to deal with Samsung. Samsung had a lot of industries, and it was semiconductors, panels, mobile phones, televisions, and household consumer goods. All of them were done. The way the best semiconductors in Taiwan confronted Samsung Semiconductor. The best cell phone is against Samsung's cell phone department. The best panel is against the Samsung panel. It is not that Taiwan will also have a Samsung group. The example of the 'Samsung Alliance' is a useless idea.
The third is the corporate culture that TSMC has attached importance to service for a long time. When recalling the three parties fighting in 2012, TSMC’s R&D expenditure was US$1.3 billion. Samsung’s one-year R&D expenditure was US$3.0 billion. Intel’s was as much as US$5 billion. However, TSMC has an advantage. Said, 'The customer is the same partner with TSMC', TSMC and customers all add up to R & D funds, allowing the strength to exceed Intel and Samsung.
Zhang Zhongmou’s goal is to help clients succeed with success. He has shared it generously. The way he manages his business is to use his client as a partner, to emphasize his integrity, to “given me to the world, not to lose me,” and to “don’t promise to the client” , Once committed, we will do our best at all costs. ' TSMC's integrity and integrity culture, customer trust, so that no fabless semiconductor plant can be assured of the production will be transferred to TSMC, the industry will focus on product design and development and sales .
A chief executive of a large foreign company described TSMC as 'no great company, we will not be great'.
TSMC's wafer foundry model allows IC design companies to use TSMC's advanced process technology and semiconductor giants with their own fabs. The importance of the industry is self-evident.
Compared to Intel, an integrated component manufacturer with its own factory, Zhang Zhongmou believes that Intel's shortcoming is that it has no experience in the foundry industry. The company's corporate culture is very important. Foundry is a 'service' corporate culture. , meaning that it is to serve other companies, Intel's technical department has long been serving itself, which is completely different from the real foundry culture.
In spite of this, the opponents still do not give up. The Yonhap News reported that Samsung actively rushed into the foundry business. The device solution department in charge of the chip business recently announced the establishment of a wafer foundry R&D center. As the new generation of process warfare between the two sides continues to heat up, Can not help but let everyone care: 'How will TSMC win after Zhang Zhongmou's retirement?' Economic Daily