1. The leading edge of innovation in the US semiconductor industry is now facing difficulties;
Original title: The leading edge of innovation in the US semiconductor industry is now facing difficulties: the aging of professionals, the sharp reduction of new talents
Ji Weiwang News (Text / Xiaobei) Nearly 66% of US semiconductor companies (about 250,000) work in the United States, with the largest proportion of production and engineering personnel, 38%, 26%. In addition, semiconductor The industry will create five times more jobs for a wider range of industries, which means that the semiconductor industry has created more than 1 million jobs for the US in the entire economy.
The strong multiplier effect of the semiconductor employment system is partly due to the strong and growing wages of the practitioners. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average manufacturing wage in 2016 was close to $65,000, slightly higher than the national wage level, semiconductor manufacturing. The average annual salary of manufacturing jobs is $150,000, and the average annual growth rate from 2001 to 2016 is about 4.4% (Figure 1).
The innovation advantage of the US semiconductor industry is that scientists and engineers are committed to developing products that are more innovative than domestic and foreign competitors. One of the biggest challenges facing US semiconductor companies is to recruit and retain top-notch science and engineering talent. A strong talent strategy is needed to maintain its leading position in the semiconductor industry. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is actively involved in talent strategy and skills development. The best and brightest scientists and engineers in the world are guaranteed to the US semiconductor industry. Strong advantages and promote the primary factors of industrial development, thus driving the US economic development and expanding exports.
On March 16, 2018, the SIA brought together industry leaders and policy makers from the federal government to discuss the labor challenges facing the semiconductor industry and some measures to compensate for short, medium and long-term talent challenges. The following is a summary of the roundtable discussion. .
Main challenge
At present, the US SIA members, most of the US semiconductor companies, have opened more than 4,000 technical positions, many of which have been open for several months or even longer. Enterprises are facing difficulties in recruiting these positions. The round table on talent policy and The development of the workforce has been extensively and intensively discussed, for example, K-12 course education to vocational skills training, undergraduate and postgraduate education, and labor retraining.
1. Currently, high-skilled immigration laws and regulations in the United States make it difficult to hire good foreigners, and nearly 80% of electrical engineers and computer scientists and college graduates are foreigners.
World-class American universities and colleges attract the best and brightest students from all over the world. Currently, 80% of graduate students in electrical engineering and computer science in American universities are expatriates (Figure 2). These people have lived and worked in the United States after obtaining a diploma, so that they cannot contribute to the US economy. In addition, the complex regulatory environment has enabled companies to invest large amounts of capital and human resources in immigration legal services. Can be used for product development and other more meaningful investments.
2. The US semiconductor industry's labor force tends to be 'aging' and the young people's transportation is small.
A SIA member compares the statistics of the global labor force. The average age of the US labor force is 48-50 years old, while the average age of the Asia-Pacific labor force is 20-30 years old. Figure 3 is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics's 2011~ 2017 age distribution of electronic components and products manufacturing industry (orange line) and overall labor age distribution (blue line). Compared with the overall labor age distribution, semiconductor industry practitioners are older, and 35-44 The proportion of older workers has fallen by nearly 10%, while the proportion of older workers has increased significantly, and the problem of 'aging' has been significant.
2.1 Engineering and computer science students have low awareness of the semiconductor industry and brand awareness.
With the rise of 'new technology' companies such as Google and Facebook over the past two decades, current STEM students have a lower awareness of the role of semiconductors in the economy. Therefore, most students choose careers that are not related to the semiconductor industry. Sexually participate in university and college courses to increase students' awareness of the semiconductor industry. Companies' participation is usually related to their size, human resources, and profit margins. At the same time, another challenge for the company is whether graduates are Willing to work in cities without the distribution of Google, Facebook and other technology companies.
2.2 New recruits often lack the skills of 'quick work quickly'.
Industry leaders emphasize that the vast majority of students who graduate from American universities have excellent engineering and computer science skills, but lack specific industry skills and 'soft skills' to work efficiently and quickly on teams.
2.3 The US semiconductor industry lacks STEM student input and input lack of diversity.
In the STEM profession, especially in physics and engineering, women and minorities have been far below the average enrollment rate of higher education institutions in the United States. Many SIA member companies have adopted targeted diversification programs to improve their diversity of employees. The image of the match to match or exceed the diversity of available talent pools. Both large and small companies have shown that by adopting targeted cultures, training and other targeted methods to remove recruitment bias to increase the number of female and minority employees A SIA member company emphasized that recent surveys have found that its company employees are more diverse than the latest averages of research institutions.
2.4 Cultural differences between young and old employees pose challenges for semiconductors to retain talent.
SIA member companies report that they need to modify the HR system, company brand and mission to attract young engineers. For example, a company offers a promotion opportunity every six months to meet the expectations of young engineers. The company also provides regular exchanges. Opportunities for projects and jobs to create faster innovations. Some SIA member companies also indicated that they are increasing their efforts to achieve the company's social mission and to emphasize the award of ethics and sustainability awards to employees.
3. Industry integration brings talents to smaller and smaller companies.
A SIA member company emphasizes that many companies use M&A as an effective way to effectively acquire engineers and improve the competitiveness of existing technology and emerging fields. The integration of the semiconductor industry will enable more and more companies to focus only on their own technical fields. In this model, the opportunities for talents will be less and less. A small number of companies in each technology field will compete with top talents, and there are not many opportunities for young engineers to stand out.
3.1 Enterprises must ensure lean management of their business operations, especially those that live in low-margin markets.
In view of the severe international competition environment, many countries provide tax incentives and talent policies to semiconductor companies. Under this competitive landscape, enterprises compete on technical indicators and costs, which raises the requirements for lean operation, such as Reduce the cost of on-the-job training, human resources, etc.
Key opportunity
Throughout the discussion, participants felt that large-scale government-civil cooperation was needed to solve the labor problems faced by high-tech industries such as semiconductors. This is closely related to the prosperity and security of the United States. US semiconductor companies are actively importing these high-paying jobs. American education or training talent. The drivers of this recruitment behavior are diverse and vary from company to company. But one SIA member believes that intellectual property and trade secrets are key factors driving US attention to semiconductor talent recruitment.
1. The US federal government should act quickly to reform high-skilled immigrants to retain more highly skilled graduates. Roundtable participants identified high-tech immigration policy reform as the 'first change' in solving talent in the short term. World-class American universities and colleges attract the best and brightest students from around the world, and US immigration policies have hampered These people stayed in the United States after earning a diploma, so they could not contribute to the US economy. Both parties support the reform of the current green card policy for highly skilled immigrants, but this requires strong government leadership to promote.
2. The US federal government should increase financial support for the semiconductor industry for research and development and industrial development to release a signal that researchers and students are vital to the country. At the round table, it was pointed out that in the past decade, the number of companies applying for research and development funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was small. Increasing research funding in areas such as semiconductors will release an important signal for the scientific and engineering community that this is Key areas of national development. In addition to receiving research and development funding support, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) can train students to take advantage of a series of challenging projects, such as self-driving cars, to stimulate student interest. DARPA was launched in 2017. The E-Revitalization Program, which aims to invest $1.5 billion in semiconductor R&D within five years, will help solve technological developments in the semiconductor industry as well as labor issues.
3. In the long run, the federal government must take more steps to promote high-quality STEM education at the K-12 level and above. Studies have shown that students who are not interested in STEM education before secondary or secondary school are less likely to choose a career in this field. The fees charged through the US high-skilled immigration system can be funded by the K-12 STEM project, K-12 Education The main source of funding comes from various states and municipalities. The largest source of funding for federally funded K-12 education is the Ministry of Education's level 1 non-freedom grant, which gives better opportunities for excellent STEM students.
3.1 Government and enterprises should introduce more practical experience into classroom education. There is ample evidence that practice and work experience can help bring more benefits to employees and bring faster return on investment. When the federal government is committed to computer science education for everyone, such as 'disassemble mobile phones. Hands-on experiments like 'modeling of biology courses like frog anatomy' should play an important role in the curriculum. SIA members and other stakeholders are actively working to provide more practical courses for students. For example, the GLOBALFOUNDRIES Experience and Applied Learning Robot ('REAL') program is designed to bring robotics to every fourth-grade classroom, and the three-day career exploration of the SEMI Foundation, called High Tech U, for thousands of locations across the country. Tens of thousands of students offer real-world experiences. In addition, IBM's P-TECH model brings together companies and local governments to develop industry-related courses and work experience for students who are graduating and earning diplomas and bachelor degrees.
3.2 Strictly evaluate the STEM education plan and invest funds to expand the success model to achieve greater scale.
Participants identified several programs, whether the Department of Defense's Beaverworks government-funded program for MIT or the Corporate Funding Program, which has proven to be positive and has been suitable for large-scale investments to achieve greater Scale. However, there is currently no effective mechanism to raise sufficient funds to push the program to a larger scale. The new INCLUDES program developed by NSF provides initial investment in the semiconductor field, but it does not have sufficient resources to meet it. More extensive needs.
4. The US semiconductor industry should strengthen cooperation with federal government, state and local labor development programs.
Governments at all levels have investment funds for economic and labor development. When the industry is in a leading position, these resources can be better utilized. US semiconductor companies should expand cooperation with state and local entities, such as the Workforce Development Committee, to better The workforce is concentrated in the areas that are needed. Participants discussed the competency model, the internship system, the apprenticeship, etc.
4.1 The government and industry should cooperate to develop an enterprise-led apprenticeship model that is flexible enough to meet the rapid changes in advanced manufacturing such as semiconductors.
Studies have shown that internships or apprenticeships can greatly accelerate the growth of new employees. Unfortunately, US semiconductor companies have found that existing apprenticeship models are too inflexible for this fast-changing, advanced manufacturing industry. Newly established apprentices expand the federation The 'industry-approved apprenticeship' model proposed by the Task Force may have potential, but this requires adequate oversight to ensure the quality of the training. At the same time, incentives are needed for the model to drive employers' participation with government funds. Some SIA members A new industry-driven apprenticeship model is being sought to meet the needs of businesses.
4.2 States and local governments should actively cooperate with US semiconductor companies to encourage companies to build new plants and promote labor development.
A SIA member said that because the state and local governments encouraged companies to stay locally and develop locally, even if they closed the production plant, they still left the design department locally. The government's participation provided an effective way for semiconductor employment. Enterprises should also work with the Workforce Development Committee and other organizations to establish a workforce development partnership.
in conclusion
Since the invention of transistors in 1947 and commercialization in the 1950s and 1960s, the US semiconductor industry has been one of the strongest drivers of the US economy. Semiconductors are the brains that power the modern world, and the United States has maintained this market. Innovative leadership. A team of outstanding engineers and scientists has promoted this government-enterprise cooperation, which lays the foundation for future US talent and industry development. Other countries continue to learn from the successful experience of the United States, if the United States does not quickly develop relevant measures to address the above mentioned The labor challenge will gradually lose its leading position. (Proofreading / Yuechuan)
2.Tractica: The 2025 deep learning chipset market will reach $66.3 billion;
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly evolving, and its application in solving real-world problems is also rapidly developing. Over the past year, more than 60 companies of all sizes have announced some kind of deep learning chipset or intellectual property ( IP) Design. Tractica predicts that the deep learning chipset market will increase from $1.6 billion in 2017 to $66.3 billion in 2025. In terms of revenue, the ASIC market will be the largest by 2025, followed by the GPU and the central Processor (CPU). 199IT
3. Samsung will invest 15 billion US dollars in NAND flash memory this year and next year: improve quality and increase production;
Since the beginning of this year, the supply of Flash flash memory has been sufficient, and the price of SSD has been 'returned to its original shape' from last year's high level. Consumers can finally pick it up slowly.
According to Chosun Ilbo, sources in the Korean industry chain revealed that Samsung’s capital expenditure on NAND Flash flash memory is expected to be $6.4 billion this year, and will increase to $9 billion in 2019.
These investments were first used to increase the capacity of 3D flash memory, including factories in Pyeongtaek and Xi'an, China, followed by advanced technology. This week, Samsung announced mass production of the fifth-generation 3D V-NAND flash memory, using 96-layer stacking. Single Die 32GB capacity, two years ahead of the competition.
IC Insights analysis pointed out that Samsung's release signal is only the beginning. In the next few years, SK hynix, Micron, Intel, Toshiba, Western Digital / SanDisk, Yangtze River Storage / Wuhan Xinxin, etc. all expressed their desire to expand flash memory capacity in the future. There is an overshoot risk that the supply cannot stop the car.
4. Damaged by Samsung M&A US fund asked South Korean government to pay US$770 million
In the afternoon of July 14th, Beijing time, US militant investment agency Elliott Management said this week that it sought compensation from the South Korean government for at least 770 million US dollars. The former Korean government intervened in the acquisition of Samsung products and the first woolen fabric in 2015.
Elliott said in a statement on Friday that it had submitted the matter to arbitration and asked the South Korean government to compensate for the loss in order to protect the Korean government's reputation among international investors. Elliott said that so far, the two sides are unable to resolve their differences.
Elliott said in the statement: 'Like all major economies, South Korea has no doubt that it does not want to be seen as hostile to foreign investors, especially considering that other economies in the Asia Pacific region are quickly becoming attractive investment destinations. '
The South Korean government also issued a separate statement saying that it has received this notice.
Elliott previously opposed the merger of Samsung's business, but failed in the proxy fight. The merger consolidated the control of the Samsung founder family to the group. After receiving support from the Korean National Pension Service (NPS), Samsung was weak. The advantage won the vote. Elliott said that the government had unfairly intervened in the course of the transaction, leading to a large-scale corruption scandal in the country.
NPS and Samsung stood together in the merger due to pressure from the president's office. Elliot was holding about 7% of Samsung's property. The company said that the company suffered because the former Korean government intervened in the acquisition. Huge loss.
Elliot said on Friday: 'Unfortunately, the former government is hostile to foreign investment, rather than embracing these investments, promoting domestic innovation and maintaining economic growth.'
Mason Capital Management, another Samsung investor, also submitted a statement to the South Korean government stating that the company lost about $175 million due to the actions of the former government.
Elliot encourages the Korean government to continue to fulfill its obligations to foreign investors, including paying damages, preventing future breaches, and taking measures to protect the founder family at the expense of investors. (Qiu Yue) Sina Technology