Our reporter Qin Xiao reports from Beijing
Recently, including Alphabet Amazon 、 Dell 、 IBM 、 Microsoft 、 Salesforce 、 VMware More than 100 technology semiconductor companies jointly submitted a letter urging the US Congress to pass the American Competites Act of 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the "Competition Law") as soon as possible, including US $52 billion in semiconductor subsidies. The reason is to strengthen the competitiveness of the United States in chip production and other fields.
In an interview with the China Business Daily, several insiders said that the so-called Competition Law is actually the fact that the United States suppresses its competitors in the name of competition. However, the game between the two parties in the United States makes it impossible to balance the interests of the major consortia, so it is normal for the policy to be shelved. In addition, there are many semiconductor technology companies in the United States, and the subsidy of 52 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket for them. But after all, it is a subsidy, and they still have to try to win it.
Easy to introduce and difficult to implement
On February 4 this year, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress passed the Competition Law, which clearly proposed policy support and investment promotion for the semiconductor industry and manufacturing industry.
Among them, it is planned to establish the American Chip Fund and allocate 52 billion dollars to encourage the private sector in the United States to invest in the production of semiconductors; Authorize US $45 billion to improve the US supply chain, strengthen the manufacturing industry, prevent the shortage of key items and ensure that more such products are manufactured in the US; It spent 160 billion dollars to promote scientific research and technological innovation in the United States and ensure its competitiveness and leadership in the world through economic development, diplomacy, human rights and alliances.
Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, once said that "House legislation will strengthen our investment in chips, strengthen our supply chain and change our research capabilities, as well as many other key provisions".
Although the introduction of the Competition Act has boosted the semiconductor industry in the United States, it has also triggered further openness of differences between the two parties in the United States. Finally, the Competition Law has not been implemented for nearly five months.
Today, the Competition Law is still limited to the "utopian" stage, and has not been substantively implemented, which also makes the American Semiconductor Industry Association and a group of executives who play an important role in the American semiconductor industry strongly dissatisfied, and signed a joint letter. Norfolk, president and CEO of the American Semiconductor Industry Association, said: "Our industry leaders are under pressure to build chip factories to meet the growing demand for chips. They can't wait. The bill will ensure that more chip factories will be built in the United States, not overseas."
Semiconductor Advisors, a semiconductor industry consulting company, published an article saying that the chip problem, the top priority in the minds of Americans, soon disappeared. When someone raises semiconductor problems in the Congress Hall, they will be laughed at and told that these problems no longer exist. Spending money on a seemingly nonexistent problem may not be welcome. Therefore, it seems impossible to spend 52 billion dollars to support the semiconductor industry.
At the same time, Semiconductor Advisors pointed out that the positive impact of the bill is minimal. 52 billion dollars has been divided into various parts in five years, which means that the impact on a single company is minimal. Therefore, whether there is a bill or not, the short-term or long-term impact on the industry is almost zero.
However, according to foreign media reports, the leaders of the Democratic Party in the United States Senate and House of Representatives said that the chip bill agreed by both parties is expected to be introduced in the near future.
A staff member of an American technology company told the reporter that at present, only the light asset part of the semiconductor industry chain, such as chip design, software development and brand promotion, has been retained in the United States, which is the most profitable and least polluting part. However, the semiconductor manufacturing part that needs intensive labor has been transferred to Southeast Asia. The subsidies mentioned in the US Chip Act are mainly for wafer foundries, but the construction of wafer foundries means huge capital investment, so the government is also expected to provide subsidies. However, under the stable supply and demand relationship, few companies are willing to invest 10 billion dollars to build factories. Even with subsidies, it is a drop in the bucket.
Wang Zhiwei, semiconductor analyst of Xintai Securities, said that, in fact, the United States' Competition Law is to suppress China in the name of competition. Encourage local high-tech industries such as semiconductors in the United States to move their factories back home to form a closed industrial chain, so as to reduce their dependence on other countries.
Supply chain reconfiguration?
Different from the "difficult production" of the US chip bill, the EU's policy to encourage the development of the semiconductor industry, which was issued later than the US, has been implemented earlier.
Four days after the promulgation of the American Chip Act, that is, on February 8, 2022, the European Union issued its own chip act, which said that in the short term, it would solve the supply chain instability caused by chip shortage, in the medium term, it would strengthen the semiconductor manufacturing capacity of the European Union to support the expansion and innovation of the entire supply chain, in the long term, it would open up the innovation transformation channel from the laboratory to the industry, and give play to Europe's innovation advantages, Become a global leader in the semiconductor industry. The EU Commissioner in charge of the internal market, Thierry Breton, also stressed the landmark goal proposed by the bill, that is, the EU semiconductor market share will double to 20% by 2030, and it will have cutting-edge semiconductor production capacity below 2nm.
To this end, the EU plans to invest more than 43 billion euros to establish the advantages of the European chip industry. Four months after the bill was issued, Intel The company became the first chip manufacturer to be assigned to the "cake" of the EU chip bill. Intel will receive 15% of the total bill amount, totaling 6.8 billion euros, and will be used in the wafer factory in Magdeburg planned by Intel in Germany.
In fact, not only the United States and the European Union, the chip "game" between countries is becoming more explicit. Japan has taken promoting the development of the semiconductor industry as a major national strategy, introduced the Economic Security Act, accelerated the construction of a supply chain that does not rely on other countries, ensured the stable supply of important materials such as semiconductors, and implemented four pillars for important technical facilities and equipment, including advance review of cutting-edge technology research and development, and patent disclosure. The advance review system will cover electrical, railway 14 industries including finance. Similarly, in South Korea, it is announced that in the next ten years Samsung Electronics 153 South Korean enterprises, such as SK Hynix, invested 510 trillion won (about 2.9 trillion yuan) with the goal of building South Korea into the world's largest semiconductor production base and leading the global semiconductor supply chain.
It is no surprise that countries have made such a move. According to the EU Chips Act Position Paper released by ASML, in the past 30 years, the proportion of chip production capacity in the EU, the United States, Japan and other regions has declined significantly, accompanied by a significant increase in the proportion of production capacity in mainland China and South Korea. Due to the demand for self-control in the semiconductor industry for future economic development, all regions will actively implement the supply chain control in the semiconductor industry, thus stimulating regional investment in the whole semiconductor industry chain.
Wang Zhiwei told reporters that the legislation to promote industry to become a new way of strategic competition among big countries, and the introduction of the corresponding chip bill in various countries, said that countries have strengthened their positions on integrated circuit industry policies. This will greatly promote the development of the global semiconductor industry. However, while developing their own industrial chains and maintaining their independence, countries should avoid forming local closed-loop industrial chains.
