Geopolitics and the national security concerns of some countries are threatening the globalization of the world’s chip industry and its future growth, the chairman and acting CEO of memorychip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC, 長江存儲) said on Thursday.
Chen Nanxiang (陳南翔) said in a speech at the opening ceremony of the Semicon China conference in Shanghai that this made him doubt whether the global semiconductor industry could realize an earlier forecast of US$1 trillion in sales by 2030.
“There is a lot of government intervention, and a lot of political content is added in the middle,” he said, adding that he fully agreed with the comments Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) made in March about how globalization in the chip sector was “dead.” He did not name any countries.
Photo: Reuters/Nicoco Chan
“Our industry itself is cyclical, and each practitioner has his own way of dealing with the cycle. However, the high degree of uncertainty we face is precisely due to the destruction of globalization,” he said, adding that he felt that the global industry was entering a “period of turmoil.”
Modern chipmaking involves more than 1,000 steps and requires complex intellectual property, tools and chemicals from around the world.
China, one of the largest chip markets, has been trying to build up its own manufacturing capability.
However, in recent years it has come under pressure from the US, which is keen to undercut these efforts.
YMTC is among key Chinese firms caught in the crossfire, after Washington enacted export controls last year against it and more than a dozen other players in the Chinese artificial intelligence chip sector on a trade blacklist over fears it could divert US technology to previously blacklisted Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Hikvision Digital Technology Co (海康威視).
The move barred YMTC’s suppliers from shipping US goods to it without a difficult-to-obtain license.
Chen hinted at YMTC’s own troubles during his speech, with a direct appeal to equipment suppliers in attendance.
“For YMTC that I manage, we can no longer procure parts and components for equipment we had legally bought. If it is fair, please set up some fair rules to buy back the equipment,” he said.
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