"It's so expensive? At this pace, wouldn't the chip factory with next-generation technology have invested more than 10 billion US dollars?"

Although Jiang Hui knew that investing in the chip industry was very money-burning, he didn't expect it to be so money-burning.

"Yes, it's not impossible to exceed $20 billion even later. This sky-high construction cost has two consequences: first, small countries or countries that are new to the IC industry no longer have the economic strength to pursue the most advanced process technology. Both Hoshima and South Korea have been fully supported by the government, and have entered the industry since decades ago, when the investment required for IC factories was not so large, and through a virtuous cycle of factory maintenance, the high profits of the old factories can be used to support the investment in new plants.

The investment is slightly insufficient, and it is lagging behind step by step, and now European IC companies are no longer able to pursue the most advanced process technology. The world's most advanced IC process technology is in the hands of only three companies: Samsung, TSMC, and Intel," said Zhu.

"The second consequence is that such a high-priced factory generally cannot fill the production capacity with its own products, and the consequence is that the cost of its own products has soared.

In order to fill the production capacity and spread the cost, all the manufacturers who have mastered the most advanced technology must OEM for other companies. This has led to the fragmentation of the IC industry into FABLESS companies that do not have factories but only design and marketing departments, and FAB companies that manufacture for other companies.

TSMC only has its own brand of IC products, and Samsung and Intel have their own brand of IC products, but they also work for other companies." Zhu Zhengfeng continued to illuminate Jiang Hui.

"Don't many companies have their own factories?", Jiang Hui only knew that Apple's chips in later generations were designed by themselves but found others to make them, and he really didn't know that there were many such situations in this industry.

"There are many design companies without IC factories, such as AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MTK, Broadcom, and so on. In addition, although the investment in cutting-edge chip factories is very huge, there are also some IC companies in the world that have a high market share in specific industries, and the process technology used in IC factories is not high, and the cost is not high. ”

"What is the level of chips in China?", since Jiang Hui plans to enter the field of core components, he naturally needs to understand what the situation in China is.

"Speaking of this question, we have to talk about the rest of the content first. The economic power of the Celestial Empire only grew explosively after joining the TO. Due to the huge amount of investment required for chip factories, the Celestial Empire actually did not have much investment before 2000, and it was inevitable that the level would be backward.

Coupled with the problem of the scientific research system, in the early days, a group of companies relied on polishing imported chips to pretend to be their own products, which caused an extremely bad impact, and the first to bear the brunt was Hanxin, so that as soon as there was news on the Internet that the Celestial Empire had made a breakthrough, some people immediately jumped out and said: Is it to polish other people's standards and mark their own standards? This situation is estimated to be difficult to change in a short period of time", Zhu Zhengfeng said.

Jiang Hui is still a little impressed by the Hanxin incident.

"Hanxin No. 1" was officially released on February 26, 2003. The grand scene of the day: the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government personally presided over the meeting, and the director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, the deputy mayor of Shanghai, the heads of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Education Commission were all present.

At the press conference, the appraisal expert group composed of a number of well-known academicians and the leaders of the "863 Program" integrated circuit special team made a unanimous assessment: "Hanxin No. 1" and its related design and application development platform have reached the international advanced level, which is an important milestone in the history of the development of chips in the Celestial Empire.

Dr. Chen, who is regarded as the inventor of "Hanxin No. 1", is naturally also honored.

He was awarded the title of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Leader by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and was specially appointed as a Changjiang Scholar by Jiaotong University in 2004. At the same time, Dr. Chen also wears many hats, including Dean of the School of Microelectronics of Jiaotong University, CEO of Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Trading Center, President of Jiaotong University Hanxin Technology Co., Ltd., General Manager of Jiaotong University Chuangqi Technology Co., Ltd., etc.

On January 17, 2006, a figure similar to the "Deep Throat" in the "Watergate" scandal in the United States publicly accused Dr. Chen of falsifying the "Hanxin No. 1" invention on the BBS of Huaqing University.

Some media with a keen sense of smell quickly intervened and carried out a difficult search and verification.

With the joint efforts of whistleblowers and the media, facts gradually surfaced. A month later, on February 18, the investigation team of the incident concluded that the "Hanxin No. 1" fraud was basically true.

At this time, everyone learned that in February 2003, the "Hanxin No. 1" launched by the team in charge of Dr. Chen was just a chip bought back from a company in the United States, and migrant workers were hired to grind off the original logo on the surface of the chip with sandpaper.

Then it was "developed" with the "Hanxin" logo, but because of its successful deception, it was identified as "a high-end integrated circuit with independent intellectual property rights", which is "a major breakthrough in China's chip technology research". Since then, with the "Hanxin" No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 came out one after another.

This can be regarded as a slap in the face of Chiguoguo in the scientific research community in the past two years.

"So what about domestic chips, let's take a look at SMIC's situation. Just last December, SMIC signed a 45nm technology license agreement with IBM, and the 300nm factory in Shanghai began production. Since its establishment, SMIC has grown into the largest chip foundry in the Celestial Empire, with the highest technical level and the fourth largest chip foundry in the world," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

"It was only at the end of last year that the 45nm technology license was obtained, and now the 300nm factory is still in production, so I can understand that the current gap between SMIC and the international advanced level is the gap between 300nm and 45nm?

"Yes, at least behind the generation, and there is another problem, that is, the same 300nm factory, SMIC's defect rate is much higher than Intel and Samsung, and the cost is also more expensive than others. However, with the domestic support and attention to chip products, this gap is expected to slowly narrow," Zhu Zhengfeng said.

"This gap is not ordinarily big, but people have accumulated decades of technology and profits, and our country's knowledge has only begun to pay attention to it in recent years, and it is normal to have a gap, I am afraid that there will be no one in China to engage in this industry at all, so it will be difficult for us to start from scratch," Jiang Hui said.

The chip industry is not so much a capital-intensive industry as a technology-intensive industry.

If you don't have key talent, even if you're rich, you don't want to catch up with everyone else.

(End of chapter)