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China’s largest chipmaker secures state funds for $ 2.4 billion plant
(Bloomberg) – Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. will build a $ 2.35 billion factory with funding from the Shenzhen government, the first major project to emerge from the Chinese master plan to match the United States and become more self-reliant as the global supply of chips shrinks. Thursday, warned that the shortages could worsen this year and next and scare away Chinese companies if the country does not increase domestic capacity now. The company has agreed to a joint venture with the southern municipality in which it will develop and operate a chip manufacturing plant capable of producing silicon of 28 nanometers or larger, it said in a stock exchange filing. The partners aim to attract third-party investment, start production by 2022 and eventually produce 40,000 12-inch wafers per month. Its shares rose 3% in Hong Kong. China wants to build a coterie of tech giants able to stand side by side with Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Premier Li Keqiang pledged to increase spending and boost advanced chip research in the country’s latest five-year goals, establishing a technology plan to strive for global influence with United States. the situation could deteriorate in 2021 and 2022 if Chinese companies do not accelerate their expansion, ”said Zhang Xin, senior vice president of SMIC, at the SEMICON China conference in Shanghai. an issue that became more urgent after a worsening global semiconductor shortage during the pandemic. Washington has also blacklisted major Chinese tech companies, including the SMIC, cutting it off from US technology while severely compromising its ability to procure the chip-making equipment it needs. It is still unclear whether the Biden administration could allow U.S. companies to resume full-scale minimum wage sales, or ease the pressure on allies in Europe and elsewhere to shut down the Chinese company. contacts with the government can be essential to realize the ambitions of the country. Chinese chipmakers aim to get past the more mature 28nm nodes – now used in industries from auto manufacturing to televisions – but need billions of dollars and years of trial and error to get into semi. – more sophisticated conductors for gadgets like smartphones. China’s hopes are based on advancement in booming fields such as AI and third-generation chips: mainly made of materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride, they can operate at high frequency and in higher power and temperature environments, with broad applications in 5G, military-grade radar and electric vehicles. On Thursday, a key semiconductor industry official called on national chip giants to merge with their peers, thus creating national champions with the means to compete globally. Besides the minimum wage, other top Chinese chipmakers include state-backed memory giant Tsinghua Group, which is spending billions to expand capacity, and players such as the HiSilicon division of Huawei Technologies Co. and AI specialist Cambricon Technologies Corp. ByteDance can engrave its patriotism in Silicon: Tim Culpan “Further industry integration is needed to improve our resilience to risk. Mergers and acquisitions should be encouraged, ”said Ye Tianchun, vice director of the China Semiconductor Industry Association. on the cost because more chips can be spliced from it, but are much more difficult to manufacture. SMIC already operates factories or manufacturing plants in four cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. It will own 55% of the proposed new plant, with a public entity holding up to 23% of the capital. “Silicon wafer is a fundamental raw material in semiconductor manufacturing, but it is also one of the areas of the semiconductor supply chain in China. which has the lowest level of local production, especially 12-inch silicon wafers, ”Li Wei, executive vice president of the National Silicon Industry Group, a state-backed wafer maker, said Wednesday. second paragraph) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted source of business news.
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