TSMC built a chip factory in Japan, the technology has been outdated for 10 years, why did Japan introduce backward technology?

This time, TSMC and Sony Group plan to invest about $8 billion to build the plant, including government subsidies. The scale of the factory, covering an area of 21.3 hectares alone, will be mainly used to produce chips for computing and control after operation, japanese media believe that this factory will become part of the plan to build a pure electric vehicle supply chain in this area, and now that the leveling of this land has begun, according to the plan, the construction of the factory will be fully started next year and is expected to be put into operation in 2024. The new semiconductor factory is surrounded by Sony's factory that makes image sensors, chip manufacturing equipment company Dongjing Electronics, and other related suppliers. Kumamoto Prefecture, where TSMC is preparing to invest in the construction of the plant, is located on the Japanese island of Kyushu, which was once a gathering place for Japan's semiconductor and automotive industries in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1967 and 1969, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC opened electronics factories in Kumamoto Prefecture, and the semiconductor chip industry here has been continuously gathered, of which Nippon Electric' Kumamoto factory was once the world's largest semiconductor factory, and NEC's chip industry ranked first in the world in the 1980s. To this day, the Kyushu area is still the most concentrated place in Japan's integrated circuit industry, with semiconductor manufacturing companies accounting for more than one-third of all of Japan, and the output value accounts for more than 40% of the whole country. Therefore, the introduction of TSMC this time, kumamoto prefecture and even Kyushu region has high hopes, the local government hopes to revitalize Kyushu silicon island, Kumamoto prefecture in order to smoothly promote the construction of the new plant, the establishment of a cross-departmental "promotion headquarters", all-round support to cooperate with the construction of the factory.

Why the local people have high hopes for the arrival of TSMC, is because today's Japanese semiconductor industry has long ceased to be the glory of the past, the world's leading companies in the past have long been left behind in the fierce international competition, Sony's sensor factory in Kumamoto is still the most advanced, but the technical level of computing chips is only the level of the previous generation, so the Japanese are eager to revitalize Kyushu's former glory by introducing TSMC.

The new TSMC-Sony joint venture will use a large-scale production base using 300-millimeter-diameter wafers to produce chips for the 22- to 28-nanometer process. You may feel strange when you see here, the Japanese are excited for half a day, it turned out to be a 28-nanometer chip, this level is not high, to know that TSMC and Samsung have long achieved mass production of 5-nanometer chips, and SMIC, Chinese mainland, has also achieved mass production of 14-nanometer chips. This is because now Japanese companies have long been defeated in the competition of the international chip market and withdrew from the production of cutting-edge computing chips, and now this 28-nanometer chip is already the most cutting-edge technology in Japan. The 28-nanometer chip technology that TSMC is preparing to mass-produce in Japan can only be regarded as its own technology from ten years ago. This 28-nanometer chip is certainly not enough to produce a processor for smartphones, but if it is used to produce automotive chips and Sony's image sensor chips, it is no problem, according to the plan, it is indeed to meet the needs of the production of Sony's image sensor chips. Of course, the Japanese media also believe that in the future, it is necessary to continue to upgrade technology to meet more advanced production needs.

However, the Japanese media believe that the main purpose of the introduction of TSMC's chip factory is not to produce smart phones, but to rapidly expand the demand for chips for pure electric vehicles. 22 to 28 nanometer chips in the automotive industry chips, is still a relatively cutting-edge technology, and compared with the cutting-edge chips used in smart phones, it does not require a special process, it is easier to reduce production costs. The Kyushu region is also known as the "Car Island" in Japan, and with Toyota and Nissan's production bases and parts suppliers concentrated in this area, the construction of this chip factory is undoubtedly more convenient to meet the chip demand for automobile production. After the epidemic, the global auto industry is facing the problem of chip shortage, Japan as the world's most important automobile producer, the automobile industry is very important to the Japanese economy, and Kyushu this place is in the center of the east Asian automotive industry, according to the Japanese media, with Kumamoto as the center of the radius of 1500 kilometers, gathered many automotive chips, power batteries, electric motors and other core parts of electric vehicle production plants, in addition to Japanese auto companies, in this area also concentrated in China's Ningde era, South Korea's LG Chem these battery factories, as well as Nidec's electric motor production base in Dalian, China, and from China's world's largest electric vehicle consumer market has the convenience of transportation, obviously, in the eyes of the Japanese, TSMC in Kyushu, the Japanese automobile industry gathering place to build a factory, is a very discerning choice, showing the two sides of the SMC and Sony to integrate the automotive industry and chip industry vision.

In addition, in the field of environmental protection and energy saving, there are many places where 22 to 28 nanometer chips can be used, and power management chips, communication chips for the Internet of Things, etc., can also support the production capacity of this new factory.

The cooperation between TSMC and Japan shows that the future popularization of electric vehicles around the world will accelerate, making all parties involved realize that this will be a huge and immeasurable market. As the response to climate change has become a global consensus and the national obligations of all countries in the world, the gradual replacement of fuel vehicles by new energy vehicles represented by electric vehicles has become the trend of the times, which means that there will be a reshuffle of the automotive industry in the world, which means that the world's fuel vehicles will be replaced again. Now because the United States has banned Huawei chips, everyone is staring at those 5-nanometer, 3-nanometer processes, high-end chips that can be used for smart phones, in fact, the 28-nanometer chips needed for electric vehicles are 10 years behind the 5-nanometer chip, behind which is a huge space that is unimaginable and far exceeds the smartphone market. Not only Japan, but also Germany is building new production plants for chips for electric vehicles in the heart of the automotive industry, as well as in the United States. The world's major automobile industry countries have been eager to try, actively preparing for the war, ready to fight in the field of electric vehicles.

At present, the United States is gradually tightening the technology blockade of Chinese enterprises, the high-end chip blocking of Huawei is just the beginning, the current chips used in electric vehicles are not in the export blockade for the time being, but with the intensification of Sino-US strategic competition, the United States will undoubtedly continue to upgrade the technology blockade against China, and there will be no trend reversal, not long ago, sk Hynix is ready to expand the chip production line in China The application was rejected by the United States, which shows that the United States has begun to turn its attention to lower-end process chips.

Now in the face of the booming Chinese electric vehicle industry, the United States definitely does not want to in the upcoming era of electric vehicles, China has become a competitor that can compete with the United States in the world, and China occupies a leading position in the world in the field of power batteries, the United States has no ability to curb it, and now it is only a chip blocking move.

Therefore, next, the United States is likely to start on the chip for electric vehicles, block Chinese electric vehicle companies, and delay the development of China's electric vehicles. This time TSMC built a factory in Japan, although it is the use of 10 years ago old technology, but this shows that Japanese car companies can easily obtain chip technology and production capacity, and will not be interfered with by political factors from the United States, which is a major innate advantage of Western electric vehicle companies such as Japan relative to Chinese opponents, it is difficult for us to escape, nor can we avoid, Chinese companies want to enter the core stage of the world's automobile industry in the era of electric vehicles, as soon as possible to achieve the complete localization of car chips, Autonomy is probably the biggest problem that must be overcome.