First at 28nm, then at 14nm, what happened to SMIC International?

Tech 2023-05-17 21:46:07 Source: Network

Recently, major semiconductor giants around the world have not been feeling well. Recently, there has been news that as the impact of last year's global chip demand decline continues to expand, many chip companies have experienced a decline in their fiscal revenue in the first quarter of this year

Recently, major semiconductor giants around the world have not been feeling well. Recently, there has been news that as the impact of last year's global chip demand decline continues to expand, many chip companies have experienced a decline in their fiscal revenue in the first quarter of this year.

From the first quarter financial reports released by major enterprises, Qualcomm's revenue in the first quarter decreased by 12%, with net profit falling to 2.2 billion, while Intel suffered even worse, with revenue declining by over 36% and even a net loss of 2.8 billion US dollars. NVIDIA, AMD, Micron, and other companies are also similar, with NVIDIA slightly better, with a revenue of $1.6 billion. ADM and Micron, two siblings, lost $140 million and $200 million respectively.

TSMC, which experienced rapid revenue growth last year, also experienced a revenue decline in 2023. Although the world's largest lithography machine company, ASML, is still growing in revenue, it has not received many new orders this year, and next year's life will be difficult.

After the sharp decline in revenue, these chip companies have started to cut their spending budgets. For example, TSMC cut $8 billion, Intel cut $3 billion, and Qualcomm cut $1 billion. Not only have they reduced their spending budgets, but these chip companies have also started to close production lines and stop orders for lithography machines due to the decline in chip demand and the inability to sell chips. For example, TSMC has cut 40% of its lithography machine orders.

Amidst the chaos of global chip companies, SMIC International has received a lot of good news. Recently, there have been reports that ZTE International has not only maintained its capital expenditure for 2022, but also publicly announced that it will expand production. Recently, there is another issue worth paying attention to and contemplating, which is the sudden disappearance of the 14nm OEM information on the official website of SMIC International, only introducing chips of 28nm and above.

What exactly do these two points mean? Where did SMIC come from to support its capital expenditure during a weak chip market, and why did it suddenly change its plan?

Advance layout of SMIC International

Advance layout of SMIC International

While many chip companies around the world are focusing on advanced process areas at 14nm and below, SMIC International has discovered the growth trend of mature process chips at 28nm and above brought about by the development of intelligent vehicles. It has arranged ahead of schedule, expanded many chip wafer factories that produce 28nm and above processes, and invested heavily in technology, achieving the world's top yield rate.

Afterwards, as expected by SMIC International, the demand for chips with processes of 14nm and below continued to plummet, but the demand for chips with processes of 28nm and above did not decrease but increased, bringing about a huge market.

Afterwards, SMIC International stopped expanding when many wafer foundry companies such as TSMC entered the market for 28nm and above process chips, and focused on 14nm and below process chips, making significant progress.

Nowadays, SMIC International has not only completed the research and development task of 7nm chips, but also started the research and development of 5nm chips. It has also started small-scale production of N+1 process chips, and has achieved the expected results in terms of yield.

Advance layout of SMIC International

Why did SMIC suddenly change its plan?

Many people do not understand the change plan of SMIC International to stop the expansion of wafer foundry scale for mature processes of 28nm and above. In fact, SMIC International aims to develop advanced processes and maintain its ability to sustain profitability.

With the influx of chip foundry companies such as TSMC, although the mature process chip market has not yet been fully occupied, once the expansion plans of these chip foundry companies are completed, there will inevitably be a situation where chip supply exceeds chip demand in the mature process chip market.

In this situation, the benefits of continuing to expand the mature process chip foundry will inevitably decrease, even if SMIC International has achieved excellent yield in the field of mature process chips, it may not be worth the loss. Moreover, SMIC's productivity in the mature process chip field is already excellent enough. According to relevant data, SMIC will have an 8-inch wafer production capacity of 700000 by the end of this year.

In this situation, SMIC's vigorous development of advanced processes is clearly more conducive to future development and layout. At present, due to SMIC maintaining a low profile and not disclosing too many research and development achievements, we can only understand that SMIC has completed the research and development of 7nm chips and started the research and development task of 5nm chips. As for the research and development progress in N+1 and N+2, there is still relatively little information.

However, according to some information currently revealed, SMIC International's technological research and development in the field of advanced process technology is also making rapid progress, achieving many good successes.

Finally, SMIC's main market is still in the Chinese market, and SMIC's research and development and production focus will also undergo certain changes with the changes in the Chinese market. At present, the demand for chip foundry at 14nm and below in the Chinese market is relatively low, but this demand is constantly growing. Therefore, SMIC International's development goals have also changed, which is why SMIC International can maintain a strong growth trend. What do you think of this?

Disclaimer: The content of this article is sourced from the internet. The copyright of the text, images, and other materials belongs to the original author. The platform reprints the materials for the purpose of conveying more information. The content of the article is for reference and learning only, and should not be used for commercial purposes. If it infringes on your legitimate rights and interests, please contact us promptly and we will handle it as soon as possible! We respect copyright and are committed to protecting it. Thank you for sharing.(Email:[email protected])

Mobile advertising space rental

Tag: at First 28nm then 14nm what happened to SMIC