Tang Rui, CEO of Zhongmu Technology: Overseas semiconductor executives returned to China to start a business and accelerated the domestic automobile semi-guide

Jiwei Network News, on December 24, 2021, under the guidance of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and Pudong New Area Science and Technology Commission, sponsored by China Semiconductor Investment Alliance, undertaken by Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and AijiWei, and co-organized by SAIC Motor, the "First Jiwei Automotive Semiconductor Ecology Summit" was held in Shanghai, and Tang Rui, founder and CEO of Zhongmu Technology, shared the keynote speech of "Whole Industry Chain Synergy, New Opportunities for China's Automotive Semiconductors".

Tang Rui, founder and CEO of Zhongmu Technology

The automotive industry is "stuck in the neck" of chips, and there are four major reasons behind it

Since the end of 2020, the global automotive industry has suffered from a lack of cores, and there is still no obvious trend of mitigation. Tang Rui said: "The past year, it is indeed a very magical year, you can see a lot of senior management personnel of the car factory, are chasing the sales of the chip factory, etc., which is unimaginable before." ”

Of course, Longitudinal Technology also faces the challenge of chips. As a leading provider of products and technologies for autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in China, Based on first-class parking algorithm capabilities, millimeter wave radar, superwave radar, cameras and complete system design capabilities, Zhongmu Technology establishes different business scenarios according to the different demands of end customers, deeply integrates products and chips, and develops intelligent driving application solutions that integrate driving, parking and parking. This is inseparable from a very variety of chips.

Reflecting on the crisis in the supply chain of automotive chips and the problem of card neck during the epidemic, Tang Rui pointed out that there are probably four reasons behind it:

First, the demand is rising and the delivery cycle is long. The rapid development of new energy vehicles, the sharp rise in demand for automotive electronic chips, the rise in prices, and the increase in order volume, the average delivery cycle of more than 50 weeks, which brings great challenges to supply chain management, because the Chinese market dynamics are very large.

The second is the inefficient allocation of resources. Due to the shortage of the market, many enterprises have panicked and hoarded goods, resulting in an extremely inefficient allocation of resources.

Third, the production capacity expansion cycle is long. Fab/chip original investment equipment expansion cycle is long, generally require more than 2 years of cycle.

Fourth, the distribution of production capacity is uneven. The willingness to invest in the mature process of the fab/chip original is not strong, and the chips with low added value of small chips have become bottlenecks. On the contrary, some advanced process chips are easier to invest because the return on investment of the main engine factory is better. Therefore, the lack of cores in 5nm and 7nm chips is not so serious.

How can the whole industry chain coordinate to accelerate the formation of a domestic automotive semiconductor ecosystem?

Challenges often coexist with opportunities, and domestic automotive semiconductor suppliers are developing rapidly. Tang Rui also shared with his own experience, "In the past, as a system supplier, when we exchanged technical solutions with OEMs, if we used domestic chips, it was actually a minus, but today it may become a plus." ”

"Most importantly, we have seen a large number of senior executives who have been working in the overseas semiconductor industry for many years return to China to start a business, which I think is a very important factor in the general environment, which will accelerate the rise of domestic automotive semiconductors and the formation of ecology." Tang Rui stressed.

Looking back at history, after entering 2010, when the process is developed from 40 nanometers to 28 nanometers, or even more advanced processes, it is more and more difficult for chips to have investment opportunities, and the fundamental reason is that at this time, an ecosystem that is more difficult to break has been formed. In this ecosystem, scale and product diversification have become very important factors: on the one hand, investment has become very large, and enterprises may make a chip, especially a large computing chip, which requires the scale of hundreds of people, because its integration is getting higher and higher; on the other hand, the cost of the original chip will also reach millions of dollars, millions of dollars, and THE IP will also reach astronomical figures. Therefore, if there is no massive market and no massive ecosystem support, it is actually an extremely painful process for chip research and development and creativity.

However, at today's point in time, with the de-globalization of suppliers, the sudden rise in demand agglomeration, experienced semiconductor entrepreneurial talents returning from various industries and fields, as well as the support of the national and Chinese capital markets, the ecology is taking shape.

Tang Rui said, "In this ecology, I think for China's auto industry, it is important to think about how to keep up with the development and progress of the industry through the synergy of the whole industry chain from the whole industry chain from the whole vehicle to the parts and components enterprises to the original chip factory." ”

Of course, the most important driving force is the intelligent upgrading of the industry, China's automatic driving, China's intelligent driving is at the forefront of the world, and the consumer-led industrial intelligent upgrading is the most direct factor. It is not difficult to find that Chinese consumers are now more and more demanding of intelligence, pulling OEMs to define smarter products, so we must use some more advanced algorithms, chip processes, system architecture capabilities and so on.

On the other hand, it must be recognized that the cost of research and development is very high, how to coordinate development from the vehicle to the parts and components to the original chip factory, reduce unnecessary repeated investment, and align innovation in the first time. Tang Rui pointed out that this is the fundamental reason why China's large industry of autonomous driving or automobile intelligence can finally surpass the world and be at the forefront.

(Proofreading/Jimmy)