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When Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Joe Biden, and European Commission President Urissula von der Laing each set out plans to spend billions of dollars to reduce dependence on foreign-made computer chips, the global supply chain seems to be going to Reshape.
But analysts and Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip maker, don’t expect the South Korean group to be replaced anytime soon.
A senior Samsung executive told the Financial Times at a factory south of Seoul: “In the foreseeable future, I believe we can maintain or even not increase its market share.”
The United States, China and Europe related to the pandemic are vying to increase investment in this field Car chip shortage Intensified the fear of foreign manufacturers relying on key technologies.
Biden proposed a $50 billion plan Committed to chip manufacturing and research, Xi Jinping is committed to spending More than $1tn The high-tech industry, especially the semiconductor field.
But analysts say Samsung’s leadership It is unlikely to be challenged immediately.
Bain & Company partner Velu Sinha said: “If there is a new foundry to be put into operation in 2025, then by the end of this year, you are actually making a breakthrough.” “So, in the next two Within three years, anything will happen and the possibility of changing the portfolio is extremely small.”
Samsung has dominated the production of Dram and Nand chips for decades. The former can store graphics, mobile and server chips for a short period of time, while the latter allows files and data to be stored without power.
But the company’s warnings to challengers are not based solely on past performance. Samsung also believes that its position is safe due to advances in its manufacturing technology and increasingly expensive chips.
“The current migration speed is accelerating. For established companies like Samsung, it is even extremely difficult to continue this research and investment.” “For any other supplier, this will not be easier. “
Since 1974-Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul and his son Li Jianxi Get rid of the suspicion of the management team, and funded the company’s first investment in semiconductors-a large number of engineers have been focused on a difficult task: figuring out how to store more data on a smaller chip. The company compressed 16 billion units onto its thumbnail-sized Dram chip, a big improvement from the 64 million bits in the 1990s.
The complexity and scale involved in producing cutting-edge chips pose a serious challenge to any company or government that tries to cannibalize Samsung’s leading position.
In the intestines of an unremarkable tower of the company’s Hwaseong campus south of Seoul, a robotic arm hanging from the ceiling picked up a plastic container containing a stack of wafers-silicon flakes extracted from sand-and Blow to the next destination. In about three months, the wafer will undergo a series of automated steps, including etching, cleaning and circuit diagram drawing. Some of these processes will be repeated hundreds of times.
By the end of 2020, Samsung accounted for 15% of the total global production capacity of these wafers. This puts the company ahead of the world’s largest Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). The largest processor chip manufacturerAnd memory chip competitors Micron (Micron) and SK Hynix (SK Hynix).
Samsung also pointed out that its leadership in intellectual property and engineering experience can prove that it can defend its position.
The most important of these is the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography in the manufacture of DRAM chips. EUV is a gradual transformation of deep ultraviolet lithography technology, which means that more and more sophisticated circuits can be used on the chip. The result is greater power and energy efficiency.
Samsung, TSMC and Intel use EUV technology Manufacture the most advanced advanced processor chips. But the South Korean company said it used its joint R&D center in processor chips and memory to be ahead of its competitors in launching Dram chip technology.
The expenditures of Asia’s largest chip makers have also dwarfed the commitments of Washington, Brussels and even Beijing.
IC Insights, a market research organization, said that Samsung spent $93.2 billion on the semiconductor business in the past three years, twice the sum of all semiconductor suppliers in China.
“Can governments such as the European Union, the United States and China do this?.. Catch up [semiconductor] A technology competition with Samsung and TSMC? Consider how far they are. . . Governments will need to spend at least US$30 billion a year for at least five years to have any reasonable chance of success. “IC Insights said.
South Korean policymakers are also formulating tax relief plans and provide other incentives for their chip manufacturers. Analysts expect Samsung to announce an increase in capital expenditures for its processor chip business this month, including investments in the United States.
Nevertheless, Chinese challengers are slowly Get income.
Dan Wang, a technical analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Shanghai, pointed out that Yangzi Storage Technology Company and Changxin Storage Technology Company monopolized 3% of its Nand and Dram markets, respectively.
Both companies employ a large number of South Korean engineers, these engineers constitute the vast majority of talents in the global memory chip field. Today, most people in the industry hope that YMTC will become an important player in the world within three to five years. “Wang wrote in a report.
Sinha of Bain & Company said that China’s chip industry is slowly showing signs of getting rid of “Western origin” technology. But he warned that he does not expect global industry operators to change in the next 3-5 years.
He said: “Alternatives are emerging, and these alternatives will enable China’s ecosystem to continue to enrich and develop.”
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