Lead
"The global chip competition has become a competition for whose subsidies are more, China's chip production capacity was originally the first in the world, and now it has the strong support of national policies, what are other countries waiting for if they don't subsidize?"
Recently, the person in charge of the semiconductor industry alliance bluntly said that in order to catch up with China's chip production capacity, countries do not hesitate to concentrate on "sprinkling money", and the "EU Chip Law" plans to invest 43 billion euros.
Although the Biden administration in the United States has blocked the supply chain, it has increased investment in chip production capacity of 7nm process and below to make up for the lack of high-end chips in the United States, not to mention Germany's 9.9 billion euro subsidy to Intel, so that Intel chips are expected to gain more than 11% of the global market share in the next five years.
But with the increase in subsidies for chips in countries around the world, who will have the last laugh?
The scarcity of chip production capacity has triggered a subsidy race.
At present, the global economy has just been affected by the new crown epidemic, and countries have issued relief funds to residents, but at this time, governments are competing to decide to invest funds in the field of chips, the reason is nothing more than that countries have realized the consequences of the scarcity of chip production capacity.
In addition, under the epidemic, the global economy is in a mess, technology blockades, industrial tug-of-war continues, trade and cooperation between them are becoming increasingly tense, and the global industrial chain has become less reliable.
In recent years, China's chip industry has developed rapidly and become a major producer of chips in the world, but with the continuous progress of the mainland economy, the demand for chips has gradually increased.
Behind this is a series of measures taken by the Trump administration to suppress Chinese technology companies, from Huawei to ZTE to SMIC, the United States has imposed strict sanctions on them, which makes mainland technology companies deeply worried and do not know what will happen next.
Although on the one hand, the blockade measures taken by the United States may bring some trouble to the mainland's chip industry, but it also forces the mainland to increase investment in chip production capacity and accelerate the replenishment and elimination of the United States' technological blockade of China's chip industry.
The reason why the mainland was able to establish such a huge chip industry in a short period of time is precisely the brilliant achievements made by the mainland government and enterprises in the cooperation, especially after the outbreak of the epidemic, the mainland accelerated the promotion of the chip industry, and built a large-scale chip production base in only a few years, realizing that SMIC's production capacity exceeded TSMC, which shocked all countries in the world.
It is not only the United States that is catching up with China's chip production capacity, but European countries have also increased their investment in chip production capacity, among which the European Union has the largest subsidies for the chip industry and launched the "EU Chips Act".
According to the bill, the EU intends to provide 43 billion euros of subsidies to chip and semiconductor manufacturers, covering semiconductor production, materials, equipment, packaging and testing, and application systems, so as to pave the way for the development of the European chip industry.
Prior to this, Germany also proposed a subsidy policy of 9.9 billion euros to Intel, so that Intel could increase its global market share from 36.4% to 47.5%, occupy the dominant position in the chip market, and move towards independence.
Outside the European Union, India and Saudi Arabia, two countries that are not rich, have also joined the subsidy race of the chip industry, and have said that they will invest billions of dollars to expand chip production capacity, but they have joined the chip production team just in terms of investment, which makes the competition in the global chip industry particularly exciting.
Who can have the last laugh.
Chip production capacity is scarce, which has led to the European Union and other countries to subsidize chip production capacity, however, everything is not absolute, not the larger the production capacity, the better, if the chip overcapacity, it may lead to market distortions, the profitability of the chip industry is reduced, as a result, may be the semiconductor industry overrun risk, which is the most worrying consequence of the European Union.
To this end, the EU has regulated the subsidies of the chip industry through the EU Chips Act, requiring chip companies to submit their own capacity plans to the EU when applying for subsidies, and if the risk of excess is found to be too high, the EU has the right to refuse to subsidize it, so as to avoid the risk of excess through subsidies.
However, the EU's move has sparked dissatisfaction with the outside world, believing that the EU's move is an intervention in the development of the international market, which will lead to the reintegration of the global industrial chain, which in turn will affect the global economic order.
However, the EU also believes that if there is overcapacity in chips, it will have a significant impact on the European economy, so the control measures are taken to maintain the economic security of its own country.
To a certain extent, the EU's concerns are not unreasonable, although chip overcapacity will lead to market distortions, but this is only because of the result of fierce competition among global countries, not because the demand for chips is not large, if all countries in the world can take advantage of this opportunity to increase investment in chip production capacity, in order to meet the huge global demand for chips, it does not mean that all countries in the world have enough chip supply, without worrying about the risk of chip overcapacity?
However, if all countries do this, it will not only lead to chip overcapacity, but also trigger chain changes in the global chip industry, and more seriously, if chip overcapacity, it will also reconfigure the global industrial chain and promote changes in the global economic order.
According to the previously disclosed quotation of Zhonghong optoelectronic lithography machine, as well as the price comparison of high-end lithography machine in the international public quotation, it can be found that the price level of high-end lithography machine produced in China has been much lower than the price level of international counterparts, which can not only reduce the cost of chip manufacturing in the mainland, but also effectively help the mainland to occupy the development opportunity in the chip industry.
Although the price of high-end lithography machines produced in the mainland is lower than that of international counterparts, the lithography machines used in the mainland chip industry are generally imported from abroad, which means that the mainland does not have its own high-end lithography machine technology in the chip industry, and if it cannot overcome this technical bottleneck, the development of the mainland in the chip field will be greatly restricted.
In addition, the mainland is very weak in high-end chip preparation equipment and chip materials, which leads to the lack of competitiveness in the high-end field of the chip industry.
Although the mainland's chip industry can be independent in the field of mass production, it is very weak in the high-end field and does not have comprehensive competitiveness, so the mainland still has a long way to go in the chip industry.
Move forward on the road of independent development.
The progress made by the mainland in the chip industry is real and undeniable, but on the international stage, the mainland's chip industry is still in a disadvantaged position.
This is not only because the development of the mainland's chip industry started late, but also because the development of the mainland's chip industry has been limited by technology.
However, as the world's second largest economy, the road to independent development of the chip industry has been clearly visible, although the mainland still has many technical difficulties to overcome in the chip industry, but the mainland has not only achieved technological breakthroughs in technology research and hardware, at the same time, software is also the weak link in the mainland chip industry, with the continuous deepening of the mainland's scientific and technological research, the mainland software technology has also taken a solid step on the road of exploration and development.
In recent years, SMIC has achieved mass production of 7nm process, which has opened the process of replacing Huawei in the world, which shows that the mainland has a certain right to speak in the chip industry, which is an important progress in the independent development of the chip industry in the mainland, but this does not mean that the mainland has embarked on the road to victory, and the road ahead will still be full of challenges, requiring the mainland to continue to work hard in technological research and achievement transformation.
epilogue
Behind the rise in chip production capacity, not only to catch up with China, but also to ensure the country's economic security, it is precisely because chip production capacity is so related to national security that it can win the subsidy support of many governments around the world.
In this race for global chip subsidies, governments have different goals, but they all share a common goal: to maintain their own economic security.
Although the chip industry is the focus of global competition, but this is only the beginning, with the deep development of the global industry, the competition between countries will become more and more fierce, therefore, countries should be thoughtful, through cooperation to seek a win-win situation, in cooperation to achieve self-protection, so as to maintain their own economic security.
At the same time, while strengthening exchanges and cooperation among countries, it is also necessary to strengthen the discussion and formulation of international rules, establish a more open and transparent international cooperation mechanism, jointly safeguard the international economic order, jointly respond to various challenges facing global economic development, and jointly create a bright future of peace, security and prosperity.