Reborn Tokyo Golden Age.

Chapter 464 Fabless Semiconductors

Why is the United States chasing after Neon's semiconductors?This question seemed familiar to Sosuke Uno.

"Is it because the United States must maintain its leadership and dominance in the field of cutting-edge technology?"

Shirakawa Kaede once analyzed this issue with him, and Uno Sosuke himself recognized this statement.

"This is one of the factors, but even the United States cannot dominate the global semiconductor market.

In other words, apart from the United States, the global semiconductor market can accommodate a second or third player.

But the premise is that everyone has something to earn, or the United States can take the biggest piece of cake. "

When Bai Chuanfeng said this, the thoughts in the minds of several people from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry became clearer.

“So it’s because Neon took away too much and the United States got too little.

Doesn’t it mean that the United States is ready to kill all neon lights? "Uno Sosuke murmured to himself.

The recent series of actions in the United States have made the neon government a little confused.

Not to mention various agreements, price limits, sanctions, tariffs, import and export controls, etc. were combined together. Many people in the government thought that the United States was going to kill Neon's entire semiconductor industry with one stick.

Not to mention the struggle among the various internal factions for this matter, some with weak knees were ready to offer Neon Semiconductor with both hands, and directly knelt down and surrendered.

Of course, this matter is just some people's wishful thinking. Now the power of several big chaebols in Nihong can compete with the government.

Especially with the existence of the Keidanren Federation, the Ministry of Finance has suffered more than once in its hands.

As a conglomerate of chaebols, Keidanren can even invite anyone who wants to touch its roots to be a guest at the bottom of Tokyo Bay.

Even when he was really planning to do this, maybe Bai Chuanfeng would secretly help.

Blocking people's money is like killing their parents. What happened to government officials? Are there still few people who commit suicide inexplicably?

This is not Bai Chuanfeng's audacity, but the tacit choice of the chaebol group.

Before the bubble burst, Neon's chaebols were surprisingly powerful.The real decline came after the bubble and the stage when Koizumi came to power.

But this is a story for later. In the current era, there are really not many people who dare to touch the chaebol.

So if Neon wants to give up the semiconductor industry, the big chaebols are the first to refuse, which is why Uno Zongsuke and the others are cautious.

As for their idea that the United States wanted to completely abolish neon semiconductors, Shirakawa Kaede was also a little bit dumbfounded.

"Business competition is a process of you coming and going, not to say that in all industries, the United States cannot allow others to walk ahead of it.

The key is that Neon is going too far, and the United States cannot see the possibility of surpassing it in a short time.Even with the passage of time, this gap will become wider and wider.

Will the United States sit still and wait for its expansion in cutting-edge fields? "

Obviously, Miguo has already given his answer, and Uno Sosuke and the others' expressions have become more serious.

"In addition, the industrial model of Neon Semiconductor is also a huge pressure for the United States."

"What do you mean by Bai Chuan-san's words?" This angle made Tamura Moto and the others startled again.

The industrial model of Neon Semiconductor?What's wrong with this?

"Tamura-san, I don't know if you have discovered that Neon's semiconductor industry is very complete.

Complete enough to be in the local area of ​​Neon, it can solve all the problems in the whole chip industry chain. "

"This is a normal behavior in business development. The purpose is to keep costs as low as possible and make Neon's chips more competitive internationally.

What's wrong with this?Could it be that the United States cannot tolerate these? "Tamura Moto was very puzzled by this, which is quite normal in Neon.

Many large companies complete everything from raw materials to finished products themselves, and semiconductors are just a microcosm of this.

"If it's in Neon's home country, of course it's nothing. But for international trade, this is actually a kind of resistance.

Especially for high-tech industries such as chips, the IDM model is the vertically integrated manufacturing model.

In fact, it may not be a good thing for Neon, because it has taken away too much. "

To what extent is Neon's semiconductor industry complete?
From raw materials to silicon wafers, from photolithography machines to etching machines, from the chemical materials used in the process to the process itself.

All of these, neon semiconductor companies can achieve self-sufficiency, which means that neon has opened up the entire industry chain of chips in China.

This is the so-called IDM - vertically integrated manufacturing model. While occupying [-] to [-]% of the global market, Neon leaves no soup to others.

This directly led to the closure of a large number of wafer factories in the United States. Intel cut down seven of its wafer factories last year and laid off nearly 8000 employees.

Adding up all these losses, Intel lost at least five to six billion US dollars, and this is just Intel.

Think about Micron, Texas Instruments, and Motorola, and the situation is not much better.

Faced with this situation, it is no wonder that the U.S. government is not ruthless.

Then again, is the United States really intolerant of the development of neon semiconductors?Bai Chuanfeng didn't think so.

If the United States really had this idea, it would not have opened up its semiconductor technology to Neon in the first place.

Even now, there is no barrier to communication with each other in the academic field.

The real key is that Neon’s semiconductors do not threaten the industrial layout of the United States.

But thinking about Fujitsu and the others every time they clamored to overthrow their counterparts in the United States and turn the world's top ten semiconductor companies into neon companies from Japan, Shirakawa Kaede couldn't help but sigh.

Weakness is not an obstacle to survival, arrogance is.

Neon has always existed as a vassal. Can it turn its back on customers and let Laomi drink soup with it?

Whimsical, arrogant!
This is Bai Chuanfeng's perception of the neon semiconductor industry at this time.

After listening to his explanation, Uno Zongyou and the others realized the problem.

Being at the top of an industry is not a good thing, at least for Neon.

"Does this mean that Nihong will abandon its martial arts and give up all its investment in the semiconductor field?"

Sugiyama Kazuo couldn't help asking back, after all, it sounds unacceptable.

"That's not necessary, but you may need to decide what to choose or what to give up."

In fact, Bai Chuanfeng also hinted at this sentence in the internal meeting of the Federation of Economic Affairs, if he wants to change the state of the big stick, he must be willing.

After all, Neon is Miguo's loyal dog. After confirming that there is no threat, Miguo doesn't mind giving it some sweets.

This is different from the confrontation between different camps, there is no need to fight to the death.

Even when necessary, neon can become a model for the shining lighthouse of the United States in East Asia.

Although it doesn't look good on the face, at least it has benefits.

Let's talk about Mu Qiang in his childhood, for this little thing, it's just a matter of sprinkling water.

"However, the above are all personal opinions. You just have to listen to it. Don't take it seriously."

At the end, Bai Chuanfeng didn't forget to give himself a buff.

These are all jokes, I won’t recognize them outside this door.

But even though he said this, several people across from him were thinking seriously.

"So this time, SIC contacted Beimi's capital for this reason?" Suddenly Uno Zongyou turned to another question.

"Cough~" Bai Chuanfeng coughed lightly, "SIC's foundation is too thin to handle the IDM model, so we can only use the vertical division of labor model."

Semiconductor companies that handle everything from design to manufacturing, packaging and testing, and sales of their own brand ICs are dominated by the IDM model.

Typical representatives are the six major semiconductor companies of Neon, NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, etc., as well as the early Intel.

They have strong capital and can directly launch many asset-heavy projects.

But SIC can’t do it. A production line with a mainstream manufacturing process costs at least a few hundred million dollars.

Where did SIC, which was just established in 80, get the capital to do this.

Therefore, the vertical division of labor mode is the best choice for SIC, which only does chip design and does not have a chip processing factory.

In this way, the operation risk of SIC is reduced invisibly, and the only possible loss is the failure of tape-out.

However, compared with the loss of hundreds of millions of yen and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, there is no doubt that the former is more in line with the situation of SIC at that time.

Even now that SIC has become the third largest processor design company in the world, Bai Chuanfeng still has no plans to follow the IDM model.

In the entire chip industry chain, SIC only took away the front-end design profits and patent licensing fees.

As for the profits of the back-end processing, packaging, testing and other links, SIC has left it to other supporting companies.

Some of these companies are in Neon, some are in BeiMi, and there are even companies in Ouzhou.

For example, for the chips supplied by SIC in Beimi, most of the production process is entrusted to local companies.

Upon closer inspection, this is extremely close to the model of many fabless semiconductor companies in later generations.

Split the entire production process into several parts and disperse them around the world, a proper global management method.

This approach of SIC has won the appreciation of Beimi. Otherwise, why do you think that SIC can sell chips in Beimi safely.

When Intel wanted to sanction SIC, many Beimi companies began to lobby Congress in turn without Bai Chuanfeng asking.

SIC has created many jobs for Beimi and brought profits to many companies in the chip industry.

If SIC is lost, a large number of workers will lose their jobs and many businesses will close down.

Look, although not choosing the IDM model lost part of the profits, SIC also gained more room for maneuvering.

Don't underestimate SIC at this time, as the world's third largest processor design company.

There are still millions of chips supplied to BeiMi every year, and the industry profits surrounding these chips are not a small number.

Apparently, several members of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry also understand the deep meaning of SIC's vertical division of labor, which is to deeply bind the Beimi market.

For the United States, one is a company that is closely related to itself and can create value.The other is the company that eats all the meat and doesn't even keep the soup for itself.

How to choose these two together is too simple.

Even up to this moment, Bai Chuanfeng still felt uneasy, and planned to introduce Mi Zi to add an insurance policy for himself.

Uno Zongyou and the others thought they had seen Bai Chuanfeng's ultimate goal clearly, and they also approved of this approach.

However, regarding Neon itself, several people from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry found it a bit difficult to deal with.

The ship is in trouble to turn around, and it is too late to persuade several giants to transform.

Besides, as chaebols, they may not be willing to give up the part of the profits that are already in their hands.

"No matter what the future holds, Shirakawa-san, if SIC has any needs, please don't hesitate.

When necessary, Neon can be the strong backing of SIC. "

Tian Chuangyuan's eyes full of deep meaning also made Bai Chuanfeng quite emotional.

"Bai Chuan remembered Tamura-san's kindness."

The meaning of the other party's words was actually a hint to Bai Chuanfeng.

If SIC encounters a hostile takeover by US capital in the future, the Neon government will protect it.

After all, it is Neon's only seedling in the processor field, and SIC is also registered with the government.

Besides, looking at the current situation, the future prospects of Neon's semiconductor companies are indeed uncertain.

If the worst happens, at least SIC will survive.

From this point of view, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry does not treat SIC well.

(End of this chapter)