TSMC founder Chang Chung-Mou pointed out in a public speech on the 21st that Intel (Intel) was unwilling to invest in TSMC back then, but now it is going into wafer manufacturing, which is quite ironic for him! Zhang Zhongmou analysis, Taiwan’s professional and dedicated talent is the United States can not compare; as for mainland China, 20 years has subsidized tens of billions of dollars, but still 5 years behind TSMC; and TSMC’s biggest rival in wafer manufacturing is South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
TSMC founder Chang Chung-Mou gave a speech on the 21st to “cherish the advantages of Taiwan’s semiconductor wafer manufacturing”.
When introducing the history of semiconductor development, Chang mentioned that one of the biggest events in 2021 is the announcement by chip giant Intel to cross over to foundry services. “It’s quite ironic to me!” Intel recently announced that it will spend $20 billion to build two fabs in Arizona, U.S., and accept orders for wafer foundry.
Zhang Zhongmou recalls that when TSMC was just about to raise capital in 1985, Intel was supposed to be the dominant player and thought that TSMC would not do much. Because he was acquainted with Intel executives, he approached Intel for investment at the beginning. Zhang Zhongmou admitted that the timing was not right and the economy was bad, and was rejected by Intel.
Intel announced to put into wafer manufacturing Zhang Zhongmou: quite ironic
Zhang Zhongmou: “Anyway, he did look down on it a bit. They never thought that the foundry business model became so important, and they never thought that one day they would have to do wafer manufacturing.”
In the world set off a car electronic chip drought, causing the United States and Japan car manufacturers were once rumored to stop work. In mid-February this year to Intel’s former chief executive Bob Swan. Swan (Bob Swan) led by a number of semiconductor industry executives, had a joint letter to the U.S. President Joe Biden, calling on the U.S. government should invest heavily in the semiconductor industry, restart the “chip national manufacturing” plan. U.S. President Joe Biden also signed an executive order in February, expecting to enhance chip production, out of the global semiconductor shortage dilemma, is expected to require $ 37 billion in funding.
Taiwan engineers professional, dedicated U.S. can not compare
Zhang Zhongmou analysis, the United States in the wafer manufacturing has the advantage of land and water and electricity, Taiwan semiconductor has the advantage of talent. The key is that Taiwan has a large number of dedicated, excellent engineers, mechanics, operators willing to join the manufacturing industry.
Zhang Zhongmou: “The United States is definitely not as dedicated as Taiwan, at least the engineers are. What I want now is that engineers, mechanics, and operators who are both excellent and dedicated are important. And to have them willing to invest in manufacturing, the U.S. manufacturing industry is not red, it stopped decades ago.”
Second, Taiwan dispatch personnel in the local business, management capabilities, in Taiwan first-class, to foreign countries may not be first-class. And the United States large-scale manufacturing personnel mobilization ability is not, the unit cost is significantly higher than Taiwan.
Third, Taiwan’s high-speed rail and highway traffic is convenient, suitable for large-scale manufacturing personnel mobility. TSMC three manufacturing centers Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, thousands of engineers do not have to move to move. “TSMC has dormitories, they go home on weekends, do not have to move, their assignment (work assignment) is often a year, this if in Arizona (Arizona) how you want to do.”
Zhang Zhongmou said, even if the U.S. federal and state governments to offer subsidies, but short-term subsidies can not make up for the long-term competitive disadvantage.
TSMC’s plan to build a 5-nanometer advanced wafer fab in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin attended the U.S. Semiconductor Summit online meeting in April this year, saying, “TSMC’s Arizona plant is one of the largest foreign direct investment cases in U.S. history, and the company is confident that it will successfully complete the plan in cooperation with the U.S. government.”
Zhang Zhongmou: China’s semiconductor manufacturing lags TSMC by 5 years
In the United States launched sanctions against ZTE, Huawei, including TSMC and South Korea Samsung Electronics can no longer manufacture chips for Huawei. China has launched a semiconductor investment frenzy from the central government to local governments, and according to an analysis by China Economic Weekly, the number of chip-related companies in China increased by 58,000 from January to October 2020. However, Zhang Zhongmou determined that China is still not a rival in wafer manufacturing.
Zhang Zhongmou: “After 20 years of tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, semiconductor manufacturing is more than five years behind TSMC. Logic semiconductor design is one or two years behind the United States and Taiwan, and the mainland is still not a rival.”
According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, SMIC is currently the most advanced 14nm process. Currently SMIC to produce more advanced chips such as 7nm, in addition to the constraints of the research and development cycle, greater limitations from the United States under sanctions, unable to introduce the most advanced EUV lithography machine.
Lyon Securities analyst Mingxiao Hou (Sebastian Hou) was interviewed recently and pointed out that it is difficult for the United States to cut off its dependence on Taiwan’s semiconductors, and mentioned that SMIC’s technology is far from TSMC’s 9-year gap.
TSMC’s biggest competitor Samsung Electronics
The United States semiconductor manufacturing industry is just about to catch up, China still can not catch up, TSMC has no rival? Zhang Zhongmou named, “in the field of wafer manufacturing, Samsung Electronics is TSMC strong competitors.” Zhang Zhongmou pointed out that because South Korea’s advantages in wafer manufacturing are similar to Taiwan’s, both have the convenience of personnel transfer.
As seen in TSMC’s first quarterly earnings announcement, TSMC’s 5nm shipments accounted for 14% of wafer sales, with 5nm contributing 35%, 16nm 14% and 28nm 11%. The 5/7-nanometer process alone contributes 49%.
According to TrendForce’s Semiconductor Research Division, the top 3 global market shares are TSMC, Samsung, and UMC.
Samsung Electronics (Samsung) in 2020 announced that it will spend $116 billion to invest in its foundry business, Samsung expects 3-nanometer wafers will be in mass production from 2022, catching up with TSMC, the leading foundry.
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