Boardroom Drama Shakes China's Biggest Chipmaker SMIC

choi

Kathrin Hille 席佳琳 and Yuan Yang 杨缘, Boardroom Drama Shakes China's Biggest Chipmaker SMIC; Industry's dependence on Taiwanese talent highlighted by co-CEO's threat to resign. Financial Times, Jan 20, 2021.
https://www.ft.com/content/729a56ca-d187-411b-ae6e-6da55f5f8236

Quote:

(a) "the episode [Liang Mong-song, 68, threatened to quit as co-chief executive of SMIC] highlighted how China’s strategy of building a self-sufficient, world-class semiconductor manufacturing industry is heavily dependent on engineers and executives poached from Taiwanese competitors.

"Taiwanese talent has been the lifeblood of China's chip sector since Richard Chang [张汝京], an industry executive brought up in Taiwan, founded SMIC in 2000 and hired a team of engineers from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.

"Mark Li [李克强], a Hong Kong-based analyst at investment bank Bernstein, estimates that 'easily hundreds, maybe thousands, and if you include semiconductor design, maybe even tens of thousands' of Taiwanese staff now work in China’s chip industry.

(b) "He [Mr Liang] has also significantly accelerated SMIC's technological prowess, taking mass production of chips from 28 nanometres to under 10nm in just over three years. That represents a significant leap in the miniaturisation of semiconductor technology that took rivals much longer to master.

"People who know Mr Liang attribute this success to his almost obsessive dedication to technology. * * * 'He is very strict on the technology, very rigorous. His requirements are very high,' said Charles Hsu, chairman of Taiwanese semiconductor company eMemory and a friend of Mr Liang. 'He is like: "This is the requirement. You need to meet this. There is no negotiation." ' * * *

"As the US tries to block China's development of advanced chip manufacturing through sanctions and export bans, that kind of expertise is more important than ever.

"In response, China has focused on expanding manufacturing capacity for older chip technologies and reducing its dependence on foreign software and machinery. Last month, SMIC unveiled a joint venture with two Chinese state funds that will invest $7.6bn in a new fabrication plant for more mature chips, which the company classifies as 28nm or older [which is Zhao's elective path, see next].

"But that pivot represented a setback for Mr Liang. He has had frequent disagreements over strategy with his Chinese co-chief executive Zhao Haijun 赵海军, given that Mr Liang’s remit has been to help SMIC catch up technologically with its rivals.

Note:
(a) 粱孟松 (1952- ; PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from University of California, Berkeley, 1984; Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE); 10/2017- SMIC)

(b) eMemory Technology Inc's official website: "力旺電子為全球最大的邏輯製程非揮發性記憶體 (Logic-Based Non-Volatile Memory，Logic NVM) 技術開發及矽智財供應廠商。"
(i) Its founder and now 董事長 is 徐清祥博士, PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1987.  
(ii) non-volatile memory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-volatile_memory
("is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory [which are static and dynamic random-access memory (RAM)] needs constant power in order to retain data. Examples of non-volatile memory include flash memory * * * most types of magnetic computer storage devices (eg hard disk drives, floppy disks")
(iii) What I fail to find out is what "logic" is in memory. And everything I find in the Web about "logic nonvlatile memory" is written ny Charles Hsu and his employees. So, even if eMemory is the largest of this technology in the world, I do not know how much success it means, as the technology hs no competitor or alternative.

(c)
(i) The FT report does not say anything new.
(ii) So far FTchinese.com FT中文网 has not translated this report.