Someone has been a** about these two days[Sino-US semiconductor giants have reconciled].related news.
Subsequently, many accounts rushed to interpret this information, and some even saw it as a landmark event of the failure of the Sino-US technological blockade.
A brief introduction to friends who don't know the background:
On December 24, local time, Bloomberg quoted Micron's email report that Micron revealed that it had reached a settlement with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit*** hereinafter referred to as Fujian Jinhua). "The two companies will withdraw their charges against each other globally and end all litigation between them," the email said. This means that the patent dispute between Chinese and American memory chip companies, which has lasted for 6 years, has taken a key turn, but Fujian Jinhua has not publicly responded to this matter.Micron, one of the protagonists of this dispute, has always been regarded as the "behind-the-scenes" behind the United States' suppression of China's memory chip industry in recent years.
Of course, China has not taken a heavy blow behind the scenes, and implemented a cybersecurity review of Micron's products in March this year.
Then Micron's market share in China**, revenue plummeted, so much so that it had to lay off employees to survive.
Micron, who was trampled on the ground and taught a hard lesson, knew that she was wrong**, and began to admit that she slapped herself in the face;He visited the Ministry of Commerce many times, arranged an unprecedented general manager for Micron China, and invested an additional 4.3 billion yuan in the Xi'an packaging plant.
And the mainstream voices in the comment area of the reconciliation-related news this time are also "self-reliance can lead to temporary reconciliation".
I agree with the logic of the review, it is true that only when independent research and development makes a breakthrough can we have the qualifications and strength to make people take the initiative to reconcile.
But when it comes to this matter, it's not all a cool plot of "those who offend my Chinese will be punished even if they are far away".
And if you really think that this rapprochement represents the United States giving up on jamming China's neck in the field of chips, it would be naïve.
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Full picture of the event: a lose-lose stupid thief theft
The case between Micron and Jinhua is, to be precise, an intellectual property dispute between Micron, Fujian Jinhua and Taiwan's UMC.
Let me give you a brief overview of the incident:
Nian Jinhua took the state's investment in the research and development of DRAM-related technologies and found UMC to cooperate
2. Lianhua said that it could handle the technology, and the two sides held a high-profile press conference in 17 years
3. Micron sued the released product for infringing its own technology, and even the code name was the same;
4. It happened that Trump launched a chip war and a ** war, and directly regarded Jinhua and Lianhua as "negative examples", entered the sanctions list and filed an intellectual property lawsuit
To put it simply, the theft of Micron's secrets by three former Micron employees to Taiwan Lianhua is a highly confirmed incident, but there is no evidence to prove whether it is with Fujian Jinhua.
In 20 years, Lianhua has pleaded guilty like the US Department of Justice, and it also details the specific theft process, which is also funny for me to watch:
1. When the main suspect Kenny Wang had not resigned from Micron, he directly used the company's computer to transfer more than 1,000 patent-related materials to the local area, and then uploaded them to his Google Cloud account
2. After completion, search for "clear computer data" and "clear computer use records" in Google, and finally use the well-known removal software cclean to delete the local records, but the installation of cclean and the search records ...... not cleared
3. At the press conference, F32 and F32S were directly used as codenames, which happened to be the codenames ...... Micron's internal products
4. All relevant paper materials and hardware materials were directly thrown to the assistant when the Taiwan Provincial Supervision Agency came to inspect them, and the assistant hid them in the ...... in a hurryCompany safe.
This kind of child's play belongs to the kind of ...... that can't excuse them
But because Wang also began to design chips for Jinhua in the future, he went all the way to the door to find Jinhua.
Jinhua has no choice but to exonerate himself, he can't wash off the, and this time he just "reconciled" with Micron.
Of course, there is an element of the current reconciliation that the establishment led by Senator Schumer wants to seek income for the sake of Magnesium, but it is a bit too optimistic to think that "the United States wants to seek détente" or even that "the United States is forced to want to make détente with us."
Micron is certainly right to lose a lot in this incident, butFujian Jinhua is even more bloodless
In May 2018, the factory in Jinhua, Fujian Province was built. In October of that year, it was added to the Entity List by the United States.
The raw materials and equipment** of the new plant were completely interrupted. Hundreds of Taiwanese experts and engineers returned to Taiwan.
The factory was directly scrapped, and the initial investment of $3 billion was completely wasted.
The whole thing to say is completely certain.
That is: the high walls of the small courtyard will not change, and the chip sanctions and ** war will not change.
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The high wall of the small courtyard has left a hole in Hong Kong
China's road to chip self-development seems to have been blocked by the United States
Actually, no, at least for now, there is still a hole left in Hong Kong.
In fact, Hong Kong once had Asia's largest chip industry chain. For example, Philips, Motorola and other leaders in the electronics industry in the past have set up Asia-Pacific R&D centers and production plants in Hong Kong.
After Tung Chee-hwa took office, he proposed a "Silicon Port" plan to build six chip factories in Hong Kong, hoping to cooperate with Taiwan's semiconductor engineer Chang Rujing to transplant Taiwan's experience in the development of science parks to Hong Kong.
At that time, Zhang Rujing, the "godfather of semiconductors", was also very optimistic about Hong Kong, he had just left TSMC at that time and intended to build a chip factory in Hong Kong.
It's a pity that some Hong Kong people drove Zhang Rujing away on the grounds of "speculating in real estate and land".
As a result, as everyone knows, Zhang Rujing came to the mainland to found SMIC, which has become the largest chip manufacturer in China.
The past cannot be traced, Hong Kong has indeed missed too many industrial opportunities in the historical development because finance and real estate are too profitable, but Hong Kong has not really fallen behind in chip-related business.
At the moment of intensifying geopolitical conflicts, not only will we be worried about the bottleneck, but foreign domestic companies are also worried about losing the Chinese market.
Therefore, they are considering setting up a chip design base in Hong Kong, in case of a first-class chain break, there are alternatives to continue to supply at any time.
And Hong Kong has the ability to expand the chip industry.
What are the three most needed qualities for a chip R&D center?
1. Funding
2. Talents
3. ** chain
Is there a shortage of funds in Hong Kong?Just kidding, this is the city with the highest concentration of capital in the world, and the financing channels are mature, and the most important thing is money.
The second point is talent.
First of all, there is no shortage of talents in the field of microelectronics in Hong Kong universities, coupled with a sound legal system, intellectual property protection, and foreign employees are willing to reside in Hong Kong.
Taking HKUST as an example, it has trained many design talents in Hong Kong over the years, and some graduates have left Hong Kong due to lack of development opportunities in the past.
In addition, in the past two years, Hong Kong has been vigorously attracting mainland semiconductor researchers to develop in Hong Kong.
So it depends on the last item - can Hong Kong solve the ** chain problem?
Let's start with the conclusion: Hong Kong can completely bypass the ** chain blockade of the United States.
Hong Kong has long been the world's largest semiconductor import and export centre, accounting for 71% of Hong Kong's total exports (HK$2,819.8 billion) in 202085% (about HK$2,026 billion).
Accounting for almost 20% of the world's semiconductor output, it is a real semiconductor porter.
So why can Hong Kong become a global semiconductor logistics hub?
1. Hong Kong has the status of a separate customs territory, and the import and export goods are basically duty-free.
2. The flexible and efficient service measures of the customs are also one of the key points to attract semiconductor manufacturers.
3. Hong Kong companies are not subject to foreign exchange control, and the flow of funds is free, which can avoid exchange losses.
These conditions make Hong Kong the most suitable place to establish a global trading platform for electronic components and integrated circuits.
In summary, Hong Kong's conditions are very good, and it can even be said that it is the most suitable city in China to develop the chip industry.
But it depends on the determination of the Hong Kong government and the support of the mainland, don't get up early in the morning every time and end up in a late meeting.
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