Up to 344 billion yuan! The third phase of the National Chip Fund was launched, the largest amount in history, and the six major banks held shares

2024-05-27 15:05:11

Up to 344 billion yuan! The third phase of the National Chip Fund was launched, the largest amount in history, and the six major banks held shares

Titanium Media APP

2024-05-27 14:27Posted on the official account of Hebei Titanium Media APP

Up to 344 billion yuan! The third phase of the National Chip Fund was launched, the largest amount in history, and the six major banks held shares

(Image source: StockCake)

Boots hit the ground.

Titanium Media App reported on May 27 that according to industrial and commercial information, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase III Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Big Fund Phase III") has been officially registered and established on May 24, 2024, with a registered capital of 344 billion yuan, and its business scope is private equity investment fund management, venture capital fund management services, and private equity funds are engaged in equity investment, investment management, asset management and other activities, and enterprise management consulting.

According to shareholder information, the third phase of the big fund is composed of the Ministry of Finance (17.4419%), China Development Bank Capital Co., Ltd. (10.4651%), Shanghai Guosheng (Group) Co., Ltd. (8.7209%), China Construction Bank Co., Ltd. (6.25%), Bank of China Co., Ltd. (6.25%), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Co., Ltd. (6.25%), Agricultural Bank of China Co., Ltd. (6.25%), and Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. (5.8140%) ) and other 19 shareholders jointly hold shares.

344 billion yuan, this data far exceeded the previous market expectations. As early as September last year, Reuters reported that the third phase of the National Fund raised 300 billion yuan; In March this year, Bloomberg said that the third phase of the National Fund raised 200 billion yuan, which is expected to be launched soon. According to the latest registration cost data, the proportion exceeds expectations by 70%.

This is the largest fund project in the history of China's chip field, and it is also the latest "national team" investment project in the chip field.

The third phase of the big fund map (source: Qichacha)

Information on the beneficiary shareholders of the third phase of the big fund

According to the data, the National Fund originated from the "National Integrated Circuit Industry Development Promotion Outline" issued in June 2014, which is an investment and financing innovation to promote the development of the integrated circuit industry.

Under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance, in September 2014, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "First Phase of the Fund") was formally established, taking various forms such as equity investment, focusing on investment in the integrated circuit chip manufacturing industry, taking into account chip design, packaging and testing, equipment and materials and other industries.

The total investment scale of the first phase of the fund is 138.7 billion yuan, which was completed in 2018, leveraging 514.5 billion yuan of local funds and private equity investment and other social funds (including equity financing, corporate bonds, banks, trusts and other financial institution loans). It has a total of about 70 effective investment projects, of which chip manufacturing accounts for about 67%, chip design accounts for about 17%, packaging and testing accounts for about 10%, equipment and materials account for about 6%, and the ratio of capital leverage has reached 1:3.7.

The first phase of the investment projects includes manufacturing companies such as SMIC, Shanghai Huahong, Silan Microelectronics, Yangtze River Storage, San'an Optoelectronics, design companies such as UNISOC, ZTE Microelectronics, GigaDevice, Guoke Microelectronics, Jingjia Microelectronics, Rockchip, VeriSilicon, Huada Jiutian and other semiconductor IP and EDA companies, Changdian Technology, Huatian Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics and other packaging and testing companies, North Huachuang, China Microelectronics, Tuojing Technology and other equipment companies, Shanghai Silicon Industry and other material companies.

On October 22, 2019, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Big Fund II") was officially registered and established, with a more diversified investment direction and a registered capital of 204.15 billion yuan.

Unlike the first phase of the fund, which mainly invests in key industries such as chip manufacturing, the second phase of the fund invests in a more diversified direction, covering wafer manufacturing, integrated circuit design tools, chip design, packaging and testing, equipment, components, materials and applications. Leverage nearly 600 billion yuan of social funds. Its investment projects include manufacturing and packaging and testing companies such as SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Ruili Integration, Huatian Technology, and Tongfu Microelectronics; chip companies such as UNISOC, Geke Micro, Smartway, Zhixin Micro, Aojie Technology, Hejian Gongsoft, etc.; North Huachuang, China Micro Corporation, Shanghai Silicon Industry and other equipment and material companies.

According to previous forecast data, if the leverage ratio of 204.15 billion yuan in the second phase of the National Fund is estimated at a ratio of 1:4, it is expected to leverage 816.6 billion social funds, and the total investment amount will exceed one trillion yuan.

According to incomplete statistics, as of September 10, 2023, a total of 119.7 billion yuan has been invested in the second phase of the big fund, of which about 99.5 billion yuan has flowed to wafer manufacturing, accounting for 83.2%. and strengthened investment in upstream equipment and materials, accounting for 9.5%.

In recent years, a large number of IC-related listed companies listed on the A-share market have the help of the first and second phases of large funds, including SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, North Huachuang, China Micro Corporation, Huatian Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics and other industry leaders.

So, where will the money go for the latest "Big Fund Phase III"?

According to a previous report by Yicai, in addition to the equipment and materials that the third phase of the National Fund focused on, AI-related chips may become a new focus.

According to industrial and commercial information, the business scope of the third phase of the National Fund includes: private equity investment fund management and venture capital fund management services; Engage in equity investment, investment management, asset management and other activities with private equity funds; Business management consulting.

Huaxin Securities believes that the main investment direction of the first two phases of the national fund is concentrated in the field of equipment and materials, which has laid a solid foundation for the initial development of China's chip industry. With the vigorous development of the digital economy and AI, computing chips and memory chips will become key nodes in the industrial chain. The National Fund has always had a deep grasp of industrial trends, and has the determination to promote industrial upgrading and enhance national competitiveness. Therefore, in addition to continuing the support for semiconductor equipment and materials, the third phase of the large fund is more likely to list HBM and other high value-added DRAM memory chips as key investment objects.

AVIC Securities believes that at present, the effect of policy support has been reflected, and the independent production capacity of 8812 inches in 2022 will be 3.05 million pieces/month (equivalent to 8 inches), accounting for 12.3%, and is expected to increase to 17.0% by 2025. In addition, the capacity growth rate in the next 3 years is much higher than that of other countries. It is expected that from 2023 to 2025, the independent wafer production capacity will increase by 18.8%/19.6%/17.4% year-on-year.

The more extreme the sanctions, the stronger the rebound, the next stage, the key neck link or the key in the context of layers of blockade, the mainland IC industry independent attack will be an inevitable trend, the United States key restrictions or the focus of the third phase of investment of large funds, such as artificial intelligence chips, advanced semiconductor equipment (especially lithography machines, etc.), semiconductor materials (photoresist, etc.). In addition, despite the rapid growth of wafer fab capacity, it is still dominated by mature processes, and future policies are expected to be tilted towards advanced process fabs.

Judging from today's market, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech has a daily limit in the afternoon, with a turnover of more than 900 million yuan. Some lithography stocks have risen sharply, perhaps in response to this.

More analysis believes that the specific investment direction and goal of the third phase of the fund is to accelerate the development process of domestic semiconductors, and the focus may be on the key "neck" links and technological progress of the semiconductor industry chain such as upstream chip design, semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials, so as to promote the overall development of the domestic integrated circuit industry.

(This article was first published on Titanium Media App, author | Lin Zhijia, editor | Hu Runfeng)

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