In the last issue, I talked to you about "The First Sword of the SMIC Three Musketeers, Zhang Rujing", and friends who did not watch it can click the title to see it first
After Zhang Rujing founded SMIC, SMIC has developed rapidly, and in just a few years, its production capacity has become the world's third largest semiconductor foundry after TSMC and UMC.
But the stalls are too big, the steps are too fast, and SMIC is in debt, and in the past decade, SMIC has lost money year after year and has never made a profit.
Founded by SMIC in 2000
In 2007, SMIC lost $19.5 million
In 2008, SMIC lost $440 million
In 2009, SMIC lost $800 million
Such a company faces a very real problem: money, how long can it last.
Zhang Rujing has a strong "Chinese core" dream, but capital is realistic, you have to give shareholders an account for the losses in the past ten years, and it is becoming more and more difficult to ask for money from shareholders.
Zhang Rujing's conflict with the company's shareholders deepened, so he began to find new investors.
The new investors are divided into two groups, one is a blackstone-like private equity fund, they are optimistic about SMIC and want to invest.
The other group is Chinese-funded state-owned enterprises, and as the future of China's semiconductor foundry, Chinese state-owned enterprises will inevitably contribute funds.
In the end, Zhang Rujing chose the state-owned enterprise "Datang Telecom", and the reason for speculation from the outside world is that finding private equity to inject capital will deepen the dissatisfaction within the company for consecutive years of losses, after all, private equity is also pursuing profits
But the trouble of choosing state-owned enterprises is relatively small
Zhang Rujing hopes to increase the power of "shareholders of state-owned enterprises" and compete with "capital shareholders" within the company.
However, Zhang Rujing finally lost a lawsuit, SMIC and TSMC's infringement lawsuit has been fought for many years, the first time TSMC won, SMIC settled and compensated, the second time, or TSMC won, 61 of the 65 patents infringed.
TSMC asked SMIC to pay $1 billion in damages, and SMIC lost 800 million yuan a year at that time, and then lost another 1 billion yuan, where the money came from
So SMIC sought to reconcile with TSMC for the second time
Under the covert mediation of Ma Ying-jeou, the "president of the Taiwan authorities" at that time, and the mainland government, TSMC agreed to reconcile, and the two sides began negotiations on the terms of reconciliation.
Zhang Rujing flew to Hong Kong with a team of lawyers to negotiate with the deputy director of TSMC, and the settlement agreement was issued quickly, and within 24 hours, the two sides agreed to the agreement
The settlement agreement was disclosed to SMIC for a total of $200 million in cash to TSMC over four years, while SMIC handed over an 8% stake in TSMC plus a 2% stock option.
The settlement looks like it will be reduced from $1 billion to $200 million, but TSMC will be SMIC's second-largest shareholder.
Of course, TSMC has no right to appoint directors to SMIC's board of directors, and TSMC cannot manage SMIC, but is only a "passive investor" in SMIC.
However, the outside world believes that there is also an important content in this settlement agreement that Zhang Rujing must resign, Zhang Rujing has been in power at SMIC for nearly a decade, with the rapid development of SMIC, and has long become a thorn in the eye of TSMC.
However, Zhang Rujing said in the interview: "The resignation was voluntary, no one forced him, as for the reason for the resignation, he was too tired and exhausted." ”
The resignation of SMIC's first sword, Zhang Rujing, immediately plunged SMIC into a leaderless situation, and the contradictions within SMIC were even more prominent.
In the past, There was Zhang Rujing, the founding elder, who was pressed on the board of directors, and now Zhang Rujing resigned and left, and the contradictions between the different factions within the company became more and more intense and more open
Do you remember the most important decision Zhang Rujing made before leaving? Let the state-owned enterprise Datang Telecom take a stake in SMIC.
Originally, Zhang Rujing wanted to strengthen the strength of the state-owned enterprise faction in the company to oppose the capital faction, but when he resigned, everyone found that this state-owned enterprise "Datang Telecom" was not a good stubble at all.
Datang Telecom is engaged in telecommunications equipment and technology, he and SMIC, in the upstream and downstream roles of the industrial chain, SMIC can oem the telecommunications chips he needs.
From the beginning, Datang's motivation to join SMIC was not pure, with the intention of wanting SMIC to become its appendage.
The other major shareholders have only one seat on the board, while Datang Telecom has two openings, and he is actively developing 4G business and obtaining chip foundry by controlling SMIC.
It was also a special time when Datang Telecom needed to use SMIC to strengthen its position in state-owned enterprises.
At that time, the great integration of China's state-owned enterprises had begun, and the central government was determined to streamline the number of state-owned enterprises, planning to reduce the number of state-owned enterprises to less than 100 in the future. (Subsidiaries are not counted)
If Datang Telecom wants to avoid becoming an integrated state-owned enterprise, it must improve its own value, so controlling one of China's most important chip foundry enterprises has become an important chip for Datang Telecom to avoid being integrated.
When Zhang Rujing was still in power, he did not know these calculations of Datang Telecom, and after Zhang Rujing resigned, the competition for control of SMIC became more intense.
Of course, SMIC does not want to be controlled by Datang, in order to balance Datang's internal discourse power, SMIC decided to introduce a new shareholder, the new shareholders on the one hand can expand SMIC's capital strength, on the other hand, can also dilute Datang's control of SMIC.
Jiang Shangzhou, then chairman of SMIC (the deputy secretary general of Shanghai who strongly supported Zhang Rujing in founding SMIC in 2000), used his years of political and business connections to find "China Investment Corporation" and take a stake in SMIC.
(Referred to as "CIC")
In 2011, Another state-owned enterprise-backed "CIC" invested $250 million in SMIC, acquiring an 11.6% stake, becoming the second largest shareholder.
Originally, CIC group planned to give SMIC $350 million, becoming the largest shareholder.
CIC, an investment company without industry, will not interfere with SMIC's development in the company's operations.
But Datang is an industrial enterprise, and he will constantly interfere in the development of SMIC to serve its main business.
In order to ensure that its equity is not diluted, Datang also injected $102 million into SMIC at the same time, increasing its shareholding to 19%, and Datang is still the largest shareholder of SMIC.
After this operation of Datang, the major shareholders of SMIC are as follows:
At this time, within SMIC, this intrigue between state-owned enterprises quickly spread, and here we should make it clear that SMIC does not want to have too much "state-owned enterprise color".
At the beginning, Zhang Rujing founded SMIC, a foreign-funded company, which deliberately weakened the role of state-owned enterprises in SMIC and avoided the "nature judgment" of the international community on SMIC.
If the international community judges that SMIC is a state-owned enterprise, it will be subject to a lot of high-tech technology control in the West, which will bring bad results to SMIC's escalating technological progress.
So don't let SMIC look too "red", a company that is too "red" will be blocked by Western vigilance and technology
But at this time, a helpless status quo is that SMIC is becoming more and more "red", in order to resist Datang Telecom's control of SMIC, the company has introduced the state-owned enterprise "CIC"
In this way, SMIC's first, second and third largest shareholders are all state-owned enterprises, which is not conducive to the future development of SMIC
But the difficulties are not only this one, but at the same time, the factional contradictions within SMIC's management are deepening.
Ten years ago, in 2000, Zhang Rujing led 300 Taiwanese talents to the mainland to found SMIC, and these Taiwanese were the core management team of SMIC at the beginning
When Zhang Rujing resigned, the Taiwan factional forces were hit, and with the "Datang" and "CIC", the two state-owned enterprises took shares, and the influence of the mainland management gradually expanded in SMIC.
This has created a contradiction between the "Taiwan faction" and the "mainland faction" within the center.
In 2009, Taiwan sent representative Zhang Rujing to resign, after Zhang Rujing resigned, SMIC also has a big brother Jiang Shangzhou in the board of directors to support, Jiang Shangzhou used to be the top level of the Shanghai Municipal Government, both political and business circles have to sell him face, with him in the SMIC seat, at least can support not to let the conflict erupt.
But in 2009, Jiang Shangzhou suddenly died of illness, and the departure of these two SMIC elders has left, leaving the company without a prestigious big brother who can hold the field.
Without the SMIC of the big brother town field, it quickly fell into a vicious struggle of internal power.
There are contradictions between the mainland faction and the Taiwan faction, there are also contradictions within the mainland faction, contradictions and contradictions, the stability of the company has become the primary major issue, an enterprise that cannot be stabilized internally, how can we talk about moving forward?
At that time, the leader of SMIC's Taiwan faction was Wang Ningguo, who, like Zhang Rujing, was born in the mainland, grew up in Taiwan, succeeded in the United States, and then returned to the mainland to help the mainland develop the semiconductor industry.
After Zhang Rujing was forced to resign in 2009, it was this Taiwanese figure, Wang Ningguo, who succeeded Zhang Rujing as the company's president and CEO.
At that time, Jiang Shangzhou also supported Wang Ningguo, and Jiang Shangzhou's wish was to let the forces of the Taiwan faction and the mainland faction within SMIC get along with each other in a friendly manner and jointly contribute to The cause of High Technology in China.
However, when Zhang Rujing resigned and Jiang Shangzhou died, the big men who supported Wang Ningguo were gone.
In 2011, SMIC's shareholders' meeting was held as scheduled, and the general meeting will elect the members of the board of directors, at which time an unexpected but reasonable thing happened to the outside world
Wang Ningguo, the most prestigious president and CEO of SMIC, unexpectedly got 58.21% of the opposing votes at the shareholders' meeting, which made Wang Ningguo elect the president and CEO of the core.
And behind this is Datang Telecom in the "ghost"
Datang has always wanted to make its own people CEO of SMIC to control the direction of SMIC's development.
At that time, the total number of shares held by the shareholders attending the shareholders' meeting accounted for only more than 30% of the total share capital, and this 30% of the shares, Guangda Datang Telecom, owned nearly 20% of the equity.
In other words, as long as the Datang family opposes, the proportion of Datang's opposition can exceed 50%
The reason why the shareholders attending the meeting only accounted for more than 30% of the total share capital is because everyone thinks that it is natural for Wang Ningguo to continue to serve as the CEO of the company, after all, it is two former company bosses who support him.
However, Datang Telecom did not come to a surprise attack according to the usual practice, internally turned against Wang Ningguo, and if other major shareholders knew that Datang was going to do something, it was impossible not to come to the shareholders' meeting.
Datang Telecom's surprise attack internally was to force Wang Ningguo away and then support its own person, Yang Shining, as SMIC's CEO.
Datang's move forced SMIC to hold an emergency board meeting, according to the company's regulations, the CEO is appointed by the board of directors, if Datang is dissatisfied with the CEO, it must be voted by the board of directors to make the final decision.
Subsequently, at SMIC's emergency board meeting, most of the directors did not agree to dismiss Wang Ningguo.
As a result, "Wang Ningguo" and "Yang Shining", the two major factions represented by these two factions do not give in to each other, and SMIC has become a battlefield in the power struggle, which has greatly slowed down the development of SMIC in the semiconductor field.
It is not sad.
The mutual attacks of the two factions developed until they were later made public, and SMIC's internal forum became the front line of mutual attacks on the two factions of employees
The two factions of employees do not give in to each other, accusing and attacking each other.
In order to avoid internal employees attacking each other, SMIC closed the internal forum, but the two sides still did not give up, and the battlefield shifted from the internal forum to Baidu Tieba.
This further made this embarrassing struggle for power public
All of China is watching this infighting in SMIC.
A major turning point in the infighting between the two sides occurred on an internal audit document
At that time, an internal anonymous person published an internal audit document of "Yang Shining" suspected of tax evasion and tax evasion on the Internet.
The documents clearly show that Yang Shining's annual salary is more than 1.8 million, but after various tax avoidance methods, the tax that needs to be paid is only 50,000
Earning 1.8 million and only paying 50,000 taxes, this exploded on the Internet
This exposure has caused SMIC's internal stench to rise to the level of the whole society, and netizens and the public have shelled SMIC executives for using various means to avoid taxes, which is really shameless.
But in fact, although it was Yang Shining's tax avoidance that was exposed, tax avoidance was actually a common situation in SMIC at that time, and many foreign executives were using unspoken rules to "avoid taxes", which was tacitly understood by internal executives.
SMIC's "special status" (the light of China's semiconductor manufacturing, the majority shareholder of state-owned enterprises, and the inextricable relationship with the government) also makes SMIC "very bold" in tax avoidance.
At this point, the stench of power inside SMIC has spread outward, and who is the winner in this power struggle?
Perhaps, there is not a single winner.
Soon Wang Ningguo submitted his resignation, and he did not want to be involved in this storm again and cause a lifetime of stink.
At this time, a key figure appeared, Zhang Wenyi became the new chairman and acting CEO.
Zhang Wenyi is a classmate of former chairman Jiang Shangzhou and former vice minister of the Ministry of Electronics Industry.
Zhang Wenyi's appointment is an important indicator, Zhang Wenyi, like Jiang Shangzhou, is a former high-ranking government official and has a certain prestige in both political and business circles.
His biggest task as chairman of SMIC is only one, that is, to balance the various factions within the company and end the stench of power infighting.
Whether you are a "Taiwan faction" or a "mainland faction", the Chinese faction is the company's greatest interest.
Originally, the power struggle initiated by Datang saw that Wang Ningguo and a group of people resigned, thinking that they would be victorious.
But in the end, after a multi-party game, the real CEO of SMIC was not Yang Shining, who was favored by Datang, but another person who parachuted in from outside.
Yang Shining saw that he had been fighting for half a day, fighting for half a day, and this position was taken by others, and he also retreated, and submitted his resignation shortly after.
SMIC's internal power struggle was provoked by Datang Telecom, and in the end, neither side benefited from the internal struggle, but it greatly undermined the unity within the company and consumed the company's development.
At this time, Zhang Wenyi recommended a person to parachute into SMIC from the outside as CEO, which can be described as a very important turning point for SMIC.
From chaos to redevelopment, and then from development to strength, behind this scene is indispensable to the credit of SMIC's second sword, Qiu Ciyun.
Qiu Ciyun was born in Taiwan in 1956 and went to the United States to study, and in 1984 he entered the most famous Bell Labs in the United States to engage in semiconductor research and development.
After leaving Bell Labs, Qiu joined TSMC as Senior Factory Director.
In 2000, Zhang Rujing founded SMIC in mainland China, and Qiu Ciyun followed Zhang Rujing to SMIC as senior vice president of operations, the most important deputy of Zhang Rujing
In 2005, Qiu Ciyun and Zhang Rujing disagreed on a number of issues such as the company's operation and management, and finally resigned and left. (Zhang Rujing wants to expand, Qiu Ciyun wants stability)
After leaving SMIC, Qiu Was invited by a fellow villager named Wang Ningguo, who later succeeded Zhang Rujing as CEO of SMIC
In 2005, Wang Ningguo also served as CEO of Huahong NEC (Chip Foundry), and Wang Ningguo invited Qiu Ciyun to Huahong as vice president of operations
But then Huahong's capital chain went wrong, and the construction funds of the 12-inch factory have been dragging on, and finally Wang Ningguo resigned, and Qiu Ciyun also resigned.
After resigning, Wang Ningguo went to SMIC, and Qiu Ciyun and Zhang Rujing disagreed, and Zhang Rujing could not return to SMIC.
Qiu Tsz-yun finally chose to go to a Malaysian chip foundry, Silterra Malaysia
Later, in 2009, Huahong NEC finally solved the capital chain problem, and the 12-inch production line was restarted.
Zhang Wenyi, the chairman of Huahong at the time, called Qiu Ciyun and persuaded him not to work in the Malaysian foundry anymore, Malaysia has no future, you are a big talent, or come to the mainland, come to the mainland to do it.
This "Zhang Wenyi" mentioned above is an old classmate of Jiang Shangzhou, Jiang Shangzhou as the chairman of SMIC, Zhang Wenyi as the chairman of Huahong, and after Jiang Shangzhou's death, the chairman of SMIC is looking for Zhang Wenyi to be the chairman.
It can be seen that the semiconductor industry is a circle, and it is actually a group of people who come and go, and everyone is an old acquaintance.
So you don't wonder why when Zhang Wenyi became the chairman of SMIC, he would push Qiu Ciyun to be the CEO of SMIC in the board of directors, Qiu Ciyun and Zhang Wenyi are also old acquaintances, and this line is buried here.
Qiu Ciyun accepted Zhang Wenyi's invitation to return to Huahong from the Malaysian foundry, and later after SMIC ended the foul-smelling power infighting, Zhang Wenyi invited Qiu Ciyun again to be SMIC's CEO.
Qiu Ciyun was one of the first veteran employees to start SMIC, and left SMIC in 2005 due to disagreements with Zhang Rujing, and then went around and returned to SMIC.
For SMIC, he has a deep affection.
The SMIC that Qiu Ciyun took over was the SMIC after the internal power struggle, and although neither faction of the struggle won in the end, the contradiction between the mainland faction and the Taiwan faction was still there.
Before Qiu Ciyun took office, the mainland faction began to increase as a representative of the two major state-owned enterprises, and the Taiwan faction obviously felt a sense of panic and crisis.
However, Qiu Ciyun himself is a Taiwanese and comes from a technical background, which has stabilized the hearts and minds of a group of Taiwanese factions within the enterprise, blocked the wave of resignation of the Taiwan faction that broke out due to the resignation of Wang Ningguo, and led the enterprise to a benign development path of relatively balanced factions and a sharp reduction in infighting.
Stability is the foundation of all development, and Qiu Ciyun has achieved stability very well.
The burden of Qiu Ciyun after taking office, in addition to balancing the forces of all parties in the company and strengthening the unity and stability of the company, there is also external pressure.
In 2011, semiconductors were a sluggish year, and even the chip foundry leaders UMC and TSMC lost money for three consecutive quarters, and revenue continued to decline, not to mention the SMIC that had just eased up from infighting.
SMIC has never been profitable in 9 years since its inception
The sluggishness of the industrial environment has made it worse to become another dark cloud hanging over Qiu Ciyun's head
We should know that a process chip is usually divided into three steps
1, R & D, 2, trial production, 3, mass production
Any chip, you light research and development, but also only took the first step, the important thing is mass production, the important thing is the yield.
Let's take an example, the same 14nm process chip, SMIC's yield is only 50%, but TSMC's yield is 98%, only this yield, SMIC's 14-nanometer chip manufacturing cost, is TSMC's twice.
Because the yield is insufficient, the cost of mass production of chips is twice that of your opponents, so how can you compete?
Even if SMIC has cheap land on the mainland and various policy subsidies, it will not be able to share this cost.
Chip manufacturing is a very special industry, for the threshold of capital investment, very high, belongs to heavy assets, heavy capital investment.
Each generation of wafer technology is a billion or even tens of billions of dollars of investment, and the newer the generation, the greater the requirements for technology and capital.
Therefore, as a chip foundry company, you must have a large enough sales volume to be able to amortize the huge capital investment in the early stage and obtain profits.
Otherwise, you keep losing money
Founded in 2000, SMIC expanded aggressively under the leadership of Zhang Rujing, and was later called blind expansion, with increasing production capacity, but all at a loss.
In addition to losing money, the bank's loans are repaid every year, and the equipment production line also generates a large amount of depreciation every year.
SMIC has never been profitable in 9 years
This is the big problem that Qiu Ciyun really has to face after he took office at SMIC and calmed down internal contradictions.
Qiu is determined to revolutionize SMIC's overall strategy
In the Zhang Rujing era, SMIC's strategy was to expand and expand, catch up and catch up.
Invest a lot of money to expand the production line, develop the next generation of wafer technology, and vow to make the Chinese their strongest chip foundry in the shortest possible time.
But that path has proven to be a failure, and no shareholder can tolerate a company that never makes a profit.
Qiu Ciyun has been the CEO of three chip foundries, and he knows very well where the fundamental problem of SMIC lies:
The ambition is too big, the steps are too fast, so after he came to power, he completely overthrew the previous Zhang Rujing's set.
In his own words: let go of ambition, slow down, steady and steady
This is very important, and this is the fundamental way for SMIC to stabilize after experiencing huge internal and external troubles.
The so-called "a thousand gold is easy to get, one will be difficult to find", Qiu Ciyun is that good general, and the strategy he uses is:
1, pay attention to the application of more mature technology, temporarily do not pursue the most advanced process
2, abandon the blind expansion strategy at the beginning of Zhang Rujing's creation, and maintain a good yield of high production capacity
3, focus on the domestic market, relying on the development of the domestic market
There is no best strategy in the world, only the strategy that suits you best
After Qiu Ciyun formulated the overall strategy, SMIC embarked on a completely different path from the Zhang Rujing era
The chart above is SMIC's revenue distribution, which can be seen that during Qiu Ciyun's tenure, the proportion of revenue from China has become higher and higher.
In 2009 ( Zhang Rujing era ) , only 20% of SMIC's revenue came from China and nearly 60% came from North America.
After Qiu Ciyun took over from CPM, SMIC's strategy changed dramatically, and revenue from China increased rapidly, and in the year before Qiu Ciyun's resignation in 2016, SMIC had up to 50% of its revenue from China, and only 29% from North America.
Qiu Ciyun finally made SMIC make money! And it's always making money!
In 2015, 820 professional investment managers and senior analysts around the world voted for the "Asian High-Tech Companies Management Ranking".
Qiu Ciyun ranked third among the best CEOs in the semiconductor industry ( the first place is the management of TSMC )
At that time, this professional award to Qiu Ciyun's evaluation quoted Zhuge Liang's "Table of Teachers", praising him for "being appointed to the army and the rebellion, and was ordered to be in danger."
It was he who led SMIC from the "era of expansion" to the "ZTE era", setting a record of three consecutive years of profitability and thirteen consecutive quarters of profitability.
He completely changed SMIC's image as an "old loser" in the eyes of the world.
When Mr. Qiu took office, SMIC had a market capitalization of HK$11.8 billion, and when he won the Best CEO Award in July 2015, SMIC had a market capitalization of HK$31.7 billion.
The market capitalization has grown nearly 3 times, and the compound annual rate in four years is as high as 28%
Qiu Ciyun not only saved SMIC and stabilized SMIC, but also matured SMIC, which we can see from the following picture.
SMIC has been CEO for 4 terms before and after, and only during Qiu Ciyun's tenure, SMIC's stock price has absolutely risen or fallen, and the other three CEOs have fallen to varying degrees during their tenure.
This is the strength of Qiu Ciyun, we often say what is the most important thing to fight the world?
Is it a general who fights bravely in front of the battle, or a military division that gives advice in the tent?
You ask a hundred people and ninety people will tell you that none of them are, the most important thing is to ensure the supply of grain and grass in the rear of the army, and to stabilize the army's morale
Is it difficult to fight the world, or is it difficult to defend the world?
Is it difficult to attack the world, or is it difficult to stabilize the world?
Qiu Ciyun allowed SMIC to stabilize after experiencing internal power struggles and bad external booms, not only stabilizing, but also making continuous profits.
That's what he does best
His second sword is crucial in the history of SMIC's development, and many people in the industry agree that although Qiu Ciyun is low-key, steady and steady, there are few stories on his body, but if there is no Qiu Ciyun, there is no SMIC that can still be held today.
However, flowers are not red, and life is always a philosophical problem of "red roses and white roses"
If you hold the red rose in your hand for a long time, you will miss the white rose
In the same way, if a white rose is held for a long time, it will miss the red rose
The same goes for SMIC
Qiu Ciyun stabilized SMIC, let SMIC turn losses into profits, and annual revenue rose year after year, but Qiu Ciyun's strategy of "stabilizing the country" has become more and more criticized
Because to stabilize the country, SMIC no longer blindly invests, this point is clear at a glance at the following figure (click to stretch to see the big picture)
Here's a comparison of SMIC's annual external capital expenditures with TSMC::
For most of Qiu's tenure, SMIC's external capital expenditure never exceeded 20 percent of TSMC's.
In 2011, SMIC's capital expenditure was only 14% of that of TSMC.
In 2012, compared with TSMC, capital expenditure was only 6% of others!
In 2013 and 2014, only 8% of people were
2015 picked up a little, but only 16%
What does capital expenditure represent? It represents the purchase of new equipment, the construction of new production lines and, most importantly, the development of new technologies.
But Qiu Ciyun's investment in this is very small compared with TSMC, which directly causes a result
That is, the technical gap between SMIC and TSMC is getting bigger and bigger
We must know that SMIC is not an ordinary enterprise, let's put it bluntly, he is a company with political tasks, and he and Huawei shoulder the "task" of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
This determines that SMIC can not only focus on making money, even in the eyes of many people, SMIC can not make money, but also to get the latest chip foundry technology out
This is the contradiction facing SMIC, and it is also a huge contradiction facing Qiu Ciyun
SMIC has been profitable for many years, but when the technical gap with TSMC is getting bigger and bigger, everyone thinks that the outside world will scold SMIC?
On the left side of SMIC is the huge responsibility of national semiconductor manufacturing, and on the right shoulders the huge pressure of the board of directors to demand profitability
How do you want him to choose?
Business operations and national strategies are actually in conflict with each other, if you want the national strategy, don't make a profit, if you want to make a profit, you have to abandon the national strategy.
How do you want SMIC to choose?
SMIC can't spend a lot of money on the most advanced technology, constantly failing to live up to the expectations of society, the expectations of the country, society, and even the top level of SMIC, giving Qiu Ciyun more and more pressure.
SMIC can't just think about making money without thinking about national responsibility
SMIC, it's time to catch up with TSMC
The first step for SMIC to catch up with TSMC is to let the excellent stability general go first
It's a little sad to say, but it's still the same sentence, there is no best strategy, only the most suitable strategy
In 2011, Qiu and his team, in the midst of a crisis, supported SMIC, which was about to dump, and brought SMIC into a stable profit model for the next seven years
But when a plan was proposed in 2015, it was "Made in China in 2025"
China must enter a manufacturing powerhouse! After the goal of this big country is clearly defined, SMIC will not be able to continue to defend the city
If there is no chip industry, how can we talk about strong manufacturing?
In 2017, when Trump took office as US president, the Sino-US technology cold war suddenly emerged, and the national responsibility on SMIC's left shoulder was suddenly heavy
In this context, do you think qiu Ciyun, the sword of defending the city, can continue to work at SMIC?
Qiu Ciyun and SMIC have no contradictions, and SMIC is also very grateful to Qiu Ciyun.
However, times are different.
Opponents on the other side of the Pacific, come badly...
On May 10, 2017, Qiu Ciyun resigned as CEO of SMIC for personal reasons
Five months later, SMIC brought in an extremely sharp sword from South Korea's Samsung
This will be a sword that can fight with the chip foundry leader TSMC
In 2017, SMIC officially began to catch up with TSMC
Like friends can pay attention to me, long articles are not easy to write, raise your hand to praise and forward to encourage, I will continue to bring you the story of "SMIC's third sword"