Text/Golden Wrong Knife Channel
A 19-hour business trip could kill 23 million people, something that only Pelosi could do.
In order to curb the Splittism of the Taiwan independence elements, after Pelosi left, the People's Liberation Army launched military exercises, and almost all the six major ports in Taiwan Province were blocked, the fish caught by fishermen could not be sold, the sand and gravel used to build houses could not be transported in, and even the express delivery of ordinary people could not be landed.
But at this time, Taiwan's largest chip company, TSMC, left a harsh word: "The mainland dares to use force to cut off the supply of chips." ”
Behind Zhang Madness, TSMC earns NT$1.5 trillion a year, supplying more than half of the world's chips. The console can control China's chip supply to a certain extent.
But it was clear that Pelosi's abacus was destined to be empty. Today's Chinese chip industry is no longer what it used to be.
Zhang Rujing, the founder of SMIC, once said that although it cannot be taken lightly, "the United States is not so capable of restraining China."
As the godfather of China's chip industry, how did he rush out of a "core" road under the "encirclement and suppression" of foreign giants?
"Banned" by Taiwan,
Led 400 people to the mainland to build a factory
When the United States used its national strength to sanction Huawei, Huawei sacrificed the Kirin 710A.
This is a real Chinese core, designed by Huawei and manufactured by SMIC. SMIC is the world's fourth-largest foundry company for integrated circuits.
The founder behind him is Zhang Rujing.
Under the suppression of the United States, the biggest constraint on China's semiconductor industry is that there are no talents and resources, neither can buy the latest high-tech products, and Chinese engineers cannot even cross the threshold of the core part of well-known semiconductor companies.
How did Zhang Rujing create SMIC under the eyes of the United States?
During the founding of SMIC, Zhang Rujing had two deadly threats, first being "banned" by Taiwan.
In 2000, cross-strait relations tightened, and Taiwan's technological blockade of the mainland became even more frantic. Zhang Rujing became a thorn in Chen Shui-bian's eye and was fined $155,000 as a warning and asked to withdraw his investment within 6 months.
Zhang Rujing was not afraid at all, directly gave up his Taiwan household registration, and broke off relations with Taiwan.
The bigger threat is the old owner TSMC.
After retiring from Texas Instruments, he spent 3 years to make Shida Semiconductor rank third in Taiwan. This made TSMC's founder Zhang Zhongmou have a huge sense of crisis, and he did not hesitate to spend $5 billion to acquire Shida.
At that time, Zhang Rujing put forward conditions to Zhang Zhongmou: the third semiconductor factory was built on the mainland.
However, TSMC reneged on its promise after acquiring Shida. As a result, Zhang Rujing recruited 400 people from all over the world to build a factory in Shanghai, of which 300 were from TSMC, which also laid a "thunder" for it.
In the semiconductor industry, Zhang Rujing is a "godfather- level" factory construction master. He has worked in Texas Instruments for 20 years, and has established more than ten factories in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
The semiconductor industry is a money-burning industry, which often requires billions of dollars of investment, and Zhang Rujing's factory construction concept is "the best to build a factory when the recession is".
Coinciding with the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2001, during the low tide of semiconductors, SMIC took advantage of the trend to buy a large number of low-cost second-hand equipment, and the Motorola factory in Tianjin was poorly managed, and Zhang Rujing bought the entire factory with a low-priced share exchange.
Zhang Rujing is also a master of resource integration, using the reputation accumulated over more than 30 years to narrow the gap with Europe and the United States.
In just one year, he raised $1.4 billion in start-up capital and also purchased a batch of 0.18 micron manufacturing equipment abroad.
No technology? Zhang Rujing went to the US Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the State Department to attend the hearing, promising that "technology will only be civilian, not military." In addition, the five major churches in the United States also endorsed him, and finally got the US technology export license.
I didn't think about it, but the thunder that was buried still exploded.
Nine months after the establishment of SMIC, TSMC launched a patent litigation war for "stealing trade secrets", which lasted for 10 years.
In 2003, at the critical moment when SMIC was about to go public in Hong Kong, Zhang Zhongmou, who had been dormant for a long time, gave Zhang Rujing a fatal blow.
Reconciliation is costly. SMIC paid TSMC $200 million in cash and a 10 percent stake, bearing in mind that SMIC's annual revenue was less than $200 million.
At a more costly price, Zhang was forced to leave SMIC.
Don't use American stuff, independent innovation
In the "settlement" with TSMC, Zhang Rujing also signed a non-compete agreement: he would not be allowed to engage in chip-related work for 3 years.
For the 61-year-old engineer, this is tantamount to a paper ban.
But Zhang Rujing was calm, saying, "Don't think this is a big failure in life, don't be beaten down."
In fact, even if he is "banned" and suppressed, Zhang Rujing never admits defeat, even if he reduces his salary, he must continue to work.
The semiconductor industry still has a grudge against domestic cores, is worried that the quality is not up to standard, and does not want to take unnecessary risks under the premise of choosing mature foreign technologies.
But if no one uses it, how will China's chips develop? Zhang Rujing prefers domestic products, and often asks more questions when purchasing: "Is there a qualified domestic product substitution?" ”
Not only loves to use domestic products, Zhang Rujing avoids being blocked by technology and carries out independent model innovation.
In the semiconductor industry, there are 3 models, such as Huawei HiSilicon, which only does design; Like TSMC, it only does OEM; There are also all-round players like Samsung and Texas Instruments, who do both design and independent production.
The all-rounder who wants to do it, after all, does not have to be subject to people, which is also a model that China needs most.
How full the ideal is, how bone-like the reality is. "All-rounders" often require thousands of design engineers, which is a difficult point.
To this end, Zhang Rujing proposed the "China localization" strategy in Qingdao Xinen: the introduction of 30 to 40 design companies cross-shareholding, disguised to obtain a design team of 3,000-4,000 people.
The production line is built with second-hand equipment from Japan, South Korea and Europe, and the technology is not beautified, and there is no need to worry about US technical sanctions.
In August last year, Qingdao Xinen 8-inch factory was successfully put into operation, with a yield rate of more than 90%.
Suppressed by TSMC,
How does Zhang Rujing support the "Chinese core"?
Many people think of Zhang Rujing as a business loser.
When he was suppressed by TSMC, he was "kicked" out by SMIC, which he founded, and for 30 years, he has been in a start-up, far inferior to TSMC Zhang Zhongmou in terms of business achievements.
But what everyone does not know is that in the more than 20 years since bidding farewell to SMIC, Zhang Rujing and time racing, at the age when they should have retired, focused on Local Entrepreneurship in China and created several firsts.
He started a business five times Chinese mainland, and the biggest feature is that he will do what is needed in the market.
"To Chinese mainland build a factory" is the obsession of Zhang Rujing's father and son. After Zhang Rujing retired from Texas Instruments, the first stop of entrepreneurship was in Wuxi, but he was limited by the current situation and returned to Taiwan after 2 months of busy work.
Before the evacuation, Zhang Rujing was left with cutting-edge technology in China, and he made the line width of the integrated circuit to 0.5 microns, which was only about 1/200 of the thickness of a human hair.
Not only cutting-edge technology, Zhang Rujing's every venture is almost filling the weak links in China's semiconductor industry chain.
Want to develop chips, can not be separated from silicon wafers, the larger the size of the cut more chips, the lower the cost, this is China's weakness.
After leaving SMIC, Xinsheng Company, founded by Zhang Rujing, spent 2 years pulling out China's first 300mm monocrystalline silicon ingot, and achieved large-scale production of 300mm semiconductor silicon wafers as early as 2018.
In China, the semiconductor industry has a talent gap of 300,000-400,000 per year, the training cycle is very long, and it is not uncommon for high-paying people to be hired.
Zhang Rujing respects talents, and almost everyone who has worked with Zhang Rujing will mention that there are hundreds of people in the company, and he can remember everyone's name.
He led the establishment of the School of Micro-nano Technology of Qingdao University, serving as honorary dean for life, with the purpose of solving the gap in semiconductor talents.
These 4 times of entrepreneurship, Zhang Rujing is very indifferent: "Taiwan entrepreneurship is a fate meeting, the establishment of SMIC is to fill the gap factory that does not have advanced integrated circuit foundry in the mainland, investment is for transition, and Xinsheng is because there is no complete silicon wafer industry in the mainland." ”
Now that Zhang Rujing is over 70 years old, he set off again and started his fifth venture, joining Shanghai Jita Semiconductor.
Chips have long become "fat meat" in the eyes of many people, and some people play patriotic cards, but in fact, they harm the country.
Even the national team has planted a heel, Andream Group's former chairman Zhao Weiguo, who once held high the patriotic banner and strengthened the chip industry, in 5 years, led the acquisition of 16 companies such as Spreadtrum Communications and Ruidike, and even issued a bold statement: the acquisition of TSMC. In every M&A transaction, some can reach billions of dollars, which is not arrogant.
These mergers and acquisitions have exposed the investment nature of businessmen and dragged Tsinghua Unigroup into a quagmire of debt.
"China Core" needs not to be a businessman who shouts slogans, but an entrepreneur who works in a down-to-earth manner.
Epilogue:
As the world's largest chip factory, TSMC evaporated 300 billion yuan in half a year.
The most important reason is that it is subject to the United States. TSMC's largest shareholder is Citibank, accounting for 20.5%, more than all the shareholders in Taiwan combined. Even the core positions such as the board of directors are mostly Americans. Among the chips manufactured by the FOUNDRy, the United States accounts for 60%, and the semiconductor equipment needed must also be imported from the United States.
TSMC, which is sinking deeper and deeper, lowers the bottom line again and again. After cutting off cooperation with Huawei, he went to the United States to build a factory, but it was listed as an "unsafe company", with a loss of 60 billion yuan and handed over core data.
TSMC's backbone is getting more and more curved, but Chinese mainland there are also semiconductor people such as Zhang Rujing, Jiang Shangzhou, and Liang Mengsong who are conscientious. In Zhang Rujing's view, the gap between lithography machine equipment manufacturers is large, but there are advantages in the third generation of semiconductor materials and stronger packaging.
What countless Chinese people have seen is that it is only a matter of time before China's chip industry can stand up.
The image comes from the internet, please contact to delete the infringement
The author of this article | Stars & Jingxu