DRAM chip is dynamic random access memory, that is, we say memory chip, DRAM chip is mainly used in computers, mobile phones and some consumer electronics, it is the largest chip in the memory chip market, 2018 DRAM market size has exceeded 100 billion US dollars.
According to relevant statistics, the global DRAM market reached 56.8 billion US dollars in 2017, an increase of 38.0% over 2016. At present, the DRAM market is monopolized by South Korea's Samsung, Hynix and the United States, accounting for more than 80% of the share, and at its peak, the three of them monopolized 95% of the global DRAM market share.
However, earlier, Japan had occupied a dominant position in the field of DRAM chips, but under the joint efforts of the United States and South Korea, Japan's DRAM industry was completely destroyed. Let's take a look at this history.
In 1966, IBM researchers, Dr. Robert Dennard, invented the semiconductor transistor DRAM memory and patented it in 1968. Then, in 1970, Intel in the United States, relying on mass production DRAM was very successful, it can be said that the United States was the earliest hegemon of the DRAM market.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, Japan gathered the strength of the whole country to tackle the whole industrial chain of ultra-large scale integrated circuit technology, Japan invested 32 billion yen, Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Toshiba five major enterprises jointly raised 40 billion yen, a total of 236 million US dollars into the national scientific research institution - "VLSI Technology Research Institute".
In addition to the successful development of the lithography machine, VLSI also successfully developed the extremely versatile VLSI - 256K memory DRAM in 1980, two years before the United States. This also laid the foundation for Japan to defeat the United States and seize the throne of the DRAM market.
Japan's successful catch-up with the United States in semiconductor technology, including transistors and chips, has brought huge competitive pressure to the U.S. semiconductor industry. In this context, the United States began to move "crooked ideas." In 1985, the United States launched a Section 301 lawsuit against the dumping of Japanese electronic products, and in the same year, the "Plaza Accord" directed by the United States led to a sharp appreciation of the yen. Under strong pressure from the United States, Japan and the United States signed the Japan-U.S. Semiconductor Assurance Agreement in 1986, the implementation of which meant that Japanese DRAM manufacturers were completely under the surveillance of the U.S. and Japanese governments.
However, even in this case, in 1987, Japan accounted for 80% of the global DRAM market, and six of the world's top ten chip manufacturers were Japanese companies, so it can be said that Japan was proud of its moments and realized the "semiconductor championship dream".
In 1989, the United States even formed a joint venture of seven chip companies to manufacture dynamic random access memory chips (DRAM), which aimed to break Japan's dominance in the memory market, and in 1990, the joint venture declared bankruptcy.
In this case, the United States began to support the new chip force - South Korea, South Korea's chip industry has been given strong market support by the United States, under the encouragement of South Korea, South Korea began to import production lines from Japan and even recruit talents on a large scale.
In addition, the United States is also accelerating technological upgrading, relying on 1G research and development, in 1993 the United States with its added value than the memory chip is 10 times higher microprocessor (CPU) technology, from the development trend to overwhelm Japan, in the semiconductor market share to regain the championship.
Under the joint suppression of the United States and South Korea, the Japanese semiconductor industry has fallen into a situation of "tigers at the front door (CPU of the United States) and wolves at the back door (DRAM of South Korea)". Japan's share of the world chip market has fallen all the way, from more than half to less than 10%.
In this case, Japanese semiconductor companies began to save themselves, Hitachi and NEC's DRAM business began to integrate, and in 1999, Erbida was established. In 2003, Erbida continued to integrate into Mitsubishi Electric's DRAM business unit.
Since then, the DRAM businesses of the three Japanese semiconductor manufacturers, which ranked second, fifth and eighth respectively in IC Insights' 1993 ranking of the world's top ten semiconductor manufacturers, have come together. At its peak, Elpida occupied the 3rd place in the market share of DRAM.
The United States and South Korea have always regarded Erbida as a thorn in the flesh in the eye, if Erbida goes out of business, then the United States and South Korea can monopolize the DRAM market and obtain pricing power.
In 2008, Erbida's global share of DRAM was about 15% in the second quarter (April-June) of 2008. At one point, South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, which was close to second place, accounted for 19.5%, which made the United States and South Korea a little panicked, and when the financial crisis broke out in 2008, the United States and South Korea saw an opportunity.
In 2008, the financial crisis broke out, DRAM price avalanche, February 28, 2012, IC Insights data shows that in 2008, the price of DRAM particles plummeted from $2.57 in 2007 to $1.83, a drop of nearly 30%. In 2009, it dropped further to $1.74. Samsung made a jaw-dropping decision: Samsung Electronics last year's profits were used to expand production capacity, deliberately expanding the loss of the industry, and the South Korean government also came up with a large amount of money to subsidize memory, and the price of DRAM soon fell below the cost of materials, and most players could not survive.
At this time, Erbida began to draw salaries from the bottom of the pot, let go, in 2009 chose to manufacture DRAM for mobile devices, at the beginning, Erbida executives were full of confidence in this, thinking that they could survive the crisis.
At this time, under the control of the United States, the yen began to appreciate sharply, and the Japanese government passed the amendment to the Industrial Regeneration Law in 2009, providing a total of 130 billion yen of aid to Erbida, but in 2011, the Japanese Policy Investment Bank suddenly issued an ultimatum for Erbida to raise 100 billion to 200 billion funds at the end of February 2012, otherwise it would be cut off.
The strong impact of South Korean DRAM companies, the sharp appreciation of the yen, and the sudden loan cut by the Japanese government eventually led to Erbida's failure to get out of the predicament.
On February 28, 2012, Erbida declared bankruptcy, at this time, Erbida's market share also surpassed magnesium, occupying the third position in the world, as long as Japan is willing to provide financial support, Erbida will never fall. After the bankruptcy, magnesium in the United States acquired Erbida, and South Korea's Samsung, Hynix and the United States magnesium monopolized the DRAM market.
After Erbida declared bankruptcy, the DRAM spot price immediately reacted with a sharp rise, and the data showed that the latest quotation on the evening of February 28, 2012, the DDR3 2Gb 256Mx8 1600Mhz brand granule quotation soared by 16.3% to $1.06. And this made Erbida's opponents South Korea's Samsung and Hynix make a lot of money.
72-year-old Yukio Sakamoto is the former head of Erbida, he has created the glory of Erbida, Erbida's bankruptcy is the regret of his life, in 2019, in the face of China's Purple Light invited out of the mountain, to help China conquer DRAM technology, Sakamoto when he joined Purple Light, said that he did not want to end this life as a loser's dog (負け犬のまま life を終わらせたくない)
At the beginning, Sakamoto was mainly responsible for recruiting Japanese chip technology talents, because Japan's chip industry was weak, and many chip technicians did not have a platform to play technology, and Unigroup wanted to recruit this part of the experienced and technical talents for China's use. Yukio Sakamoto has his own resources and contacts in the Japanese semiconductor industry, and he will help Unigroup recruit about 100 technicians in Japan.
In 2020, Yukio Sakamoto took over the Unigroup DRAM business. He has said that aiming at China's huge domestic demand, Tsinghua Unigroup strives to mass-produce DRAM chips in 2022.
If China can conquer DRAM technology, then the United States and South Korea will once again lose the pricing power of DRAM, China will no longer need to buy DRAM chips at a high price, in 2018, China imported more than 90 billion US dollars of memory chips, of which Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Electronics are three worlds, and the share of domestic manufacturers is -0%.
With the joint efforts of Yukio Sakamoto and Unigroup, the DRAM market will be surging in the near future, and it is hoped that in the near future, China will no longer be pinched and stuck on DRAM chips.