End of April.

After the merger of microelectronics company, Shenguang Instrument recruited troops in China to expand the production capacity of Shenguang 1X-ray lithography machine and Shenguang 0.5X-ray lithography machine.

Although due to the difficulty of the process, Shenguang 1X-ray lithography machine can only be produced in 43 days.

However, the difficulty of Shenguang 0.5 X-ray lithography machine can produce about 6~8 units a month.

In April, Shenguang Instrument Co., Ltd. produced a total of 5 Shenguang 0.5X-ray lithography machines, including three at the 16 nanometer level, one at the 14 nanometer level, and one at the 12 nanometer level.

As soon as these lithography machines came out, they were immediately pulled away by various companies.

As Huawei, which has just entered the chip manufacturing industry, its subsidiary HiSilicon has separated some elite forces, and they have also recruited a heavyweight to join HiSilicon chips.

In order to develop in the vicinity, HiSilicon Chip Chicken Thief has set up its headquarters and factory in Shanmei.

Anyway, their company has just been established, unlike SMIC, Unisplendour, Huada Semiconductor, and Yangtze River Storage, which already have production bases.

In line with the idea of getting closer to the water, HiSilicon's factory is located in the Shanmei Bubian Industrial Zone.

A 16-nanometer X-ray lithography machine that has just been grabbed is being debugged intensively at this time.

However, this plant is also being renovated now, and the previous plant level here did not meet the requirements of chip manufacturing.

Zhang Rujing, who was in high spirits, was busy, supervising the construction and transformation of the plant, while looking at the lithography machine in front of him in the temporary prefabricated room.

For a chip person, especially a Huaguo chip person, the lithography machine is an eternal pain in their hearts.

"Dr. Zhang, the commissioning can only come here, your plant has not been completed, and further commissioning needs to be placed in the production line before it can be carried out." The engineer captain of Shenguang Instrument Company reminded.

Zhang Rujing thanked: "Thank you very much, our factory will be able to use it next month, and I will trouble you then." ”

"You're welcome, it's all within your part."

The engineering team of Shenguang Instrument left with the debugging equipment.

And everyone at HiSilicon chips, especially Zhang Rujing, stared at this lithography machine with bright eyes, as if looking at their own children.

The reason why Huawei invested in HiSilicon chips is mainly to prevent that TSMC may not be reliable, and once the pressure of the Chinese people is too great, it will be difficult for TSMC to withstand this pressure.

Previously, due to the immaturity of the conditions, Huawei also felt powerless to develop chip manufacturing, and the lithography machine was stuck, which was a dead knot.

Now the sudden rise of Shenguang Instrument is a rare opportunity for Huawei, and Huawei has another advantage in developing chip manufacturing, that is, in the early stage of development, the chips produced can be used by themselves, avoiding the embarrassment of not finding orders.

In many ways, Huawei's strategic vision is obvious to all, at least not as fragile as ZTE.

If you take down the chip manufacturing, you can avoid being choked by others in the future, and at the same time, you can also build a complete industrial ecology.

……

The other side.

Inside the SMIC factory in Jiangcheng.

A group of engineers are nervously debugging the production line, and the equipment is being adjusted, mainly etching machines and ion implanters.

In terms of lithography machines, the engineers of Shenguang Instruments are also watching.

Li Weiguang said with some trepidation: "Mr. Zhao, will it be too risky for us to do this?"

Zhao Jun replied desperately: "Intel is testing the 14nm process, if we do 16nm now, when we improve the 16nm process, the other party may go to 12nm, and we will always lag behind the other party by a generation." ”

It is precisely for this reason that Zhao Jun plans to directly launch the 12nm process, of course, this is also the Shenguang 1X-ray lithography machine in his hand, which gives SMIC the courage to make a desperate bet.

As a Shenguang 1X-ray lithography machine that can produce 10 nanometer and 7 nanometer chips, it is more than enough to produce 12 nanometer chips.

Now SMIC needs to solve the problem of matching equipment such as etching machines and ion implanters.

There is still a certain competitiveness in these equipment in China, such as the etching machine of Shanghai Zhongwei Semiconductor is good, and others such as ion implanters, vacuum sputtering coating machines, developer machines, etc., there is still a certain gap.

However, fortunately, the lithography machine and photoresist of Shenguang Instrument successfully broke the monopoly of ASML's high-end lithography machine.

In addition, SMIC has also accumulated some imported equipment over the years, which is the confidence of Zhao Jun to dare to take risks.

However, SMIC's internal problems are not small, especially the four major shareholders are leaning against each other, the first largest shareholder is Datang Telecom, the second largest shareholder is the big fund CIC, and the third and fourth are Shanghai Industrial and TSMC.

SMIC's management has always wanted to maintain an independent, international approach, mainly because most of SMIC's customers are overseas.

Datang Telecom, on the other hand, wants to take control of SMIC and turn it into a new pillar industry of its own.

Therefore, a battle between major shareholders and management is inevitable, and TSMC will not allow Datang Telecom to annex SMIC.

This shows how serious SMIC's internal tilting is.

And this time, Zhao Jun also went all out to invest in the research and development of 12-nanometer chips in order to suppress Datang Telecom, hoping to take advantage of the victory to suppress Datang Telecom.

……

In fact, Shenguang Instrument Group also has a stake in SMIC, part of which is 2% of the lithography machine sales contract; The other part was directly acquired by Huang Mingzhe in the rice stock market.

Ghosts are in offshore areas around the world, secretly registering tens of thousands of accounts.

Before the announcement of the Shenguang 1X-ray lithography machine, Huang Mingzhe was short ASML and long SMIC.

Taking advantage of the profits obtained from shorting ASML, the ghost is now on the United States, holding 11.63% of SMIC's shares.

However, because this part of the shares is scattered among various unrelated accounts, no one knows that Huang Mingzhe already holds 13.63% of SMIC's shares.

Other companies that buy Shenguang lithography machines also have more or less shares in the hands of Shenguang Instruments.

Among them, HiSilicon chips have the most chips, reaching 15%, and are the second largest shareholder of HiSilicon chips.

This is the strategy of the Thinking Society, Shenguang Instrument can not directly produce chips, but it must maintain influence among chip manufacturing enterprises.

This situation is different from ASML, which is jointly controlled by various chip manufacturing companies, such as Sanxin Electronics, TSMC, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Gro Ark, all of which have shares in ASML.

Obviously, the Thinking Society is stronger than ASML.

While Huang Mingzhe was pondering about self-preservation, he asked the ghost to speed up the acquisition of SMIC's shares, apparently he wanted to control SMIC.

TSMC is also worried, although Zhang Zhongmou wants to balance ASML's dominance by buying Shenguang X-ray lithography machines, the problem is that TSMC is now involuntarily.

Because TSMC's largest shareholder is a native of Mi Guo, he Zhang Zhongmou is a senior worker, once he angers Mi Guoye's father, the consequences are not something he can bear.

Through SMIC's internal announcement, TSMC already knows that the other party is developing 12nm-level chips.

And TSMC is still the same as Intel, still developing 14 nanometers, the money has been invested, and it can't be abandoned halfway now!

Zhang Zhongmou can only say, I am too difficult.