Jump to content

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Citation bot (talk | contribs) at 23:24, 25 November 2022 (Alter: title. Add: website. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Whoop whoop pull up | #UCB_webform 326/2023). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation
Native name
中芯国际集成电路制造有限公司 (中芯国际)
Company typePublic; State-owned enterprise
SSE: 688981 (A share)
SEHK: 981 (H share)
IndustrySemiconductor
FoundedApril 3, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-04-03)
Cayman Islands
(legal domicile)
FounderRichard Chang Ru-gin
HeadquartersShanghai, China
Key people
Haijun Zhao (Co-CEO)
Mong-Song Liang (Co-CEO)
RevenueIncreaseUS$5.44 billion (2021)
IncreaseUS$1.7 billion (2021)
Total assetsIncreaseUS$36.1 billion (2021)
Number of employees
17,354 (2020)
Websitesmics.com

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is a partially state-owned publicly-listed Chinese pure-play semiconductor foundry company.[1][2] It is the largest contract chip maker in mainland China.

SMIC is headquartered in Shanghai[3] and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.[4] It has wafer fabrication sites throughout mainland China, offices in the United States, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong.[5] It provides integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing services from 350 nm to 7 nm[6] process technologies. State-owned civilian and military telecommunications equipment provider Datang Telecom Group as well as the China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund are major shareholders of SMIC.[7][8][9][10]

Notable customers include Qualcomm,[11][12] Broadcom,[13] and Texas Instruments.[14][11]

History

SMIC was founded on April 3, 2000, and is headquartered in Shanghai.[3] It was incorporated in the Cayman Islands as a limited liability company. It quickly built a fully-owned plant in Shanghai, acquired a Motorola plant in Tianjin, and then began to build a fully-owned plant in Beijing.[4] SMIC also became involved in two projects in Chengdu and Wuhan, which reversed a common pattern in Chinese development of government building, operating, then transferring industrial projects, such that SMIC operated the company, but the capital costs were borne by municipal government, relieving SMIC of the major cost of its fab plants.[15] SMIC however, exited the relationship with these two 'Reverse BOT' projects in favor of fully-owned and majority-owned manufacturing sites. In 2013, SMIC established a joint venture in Beijing to fabricate using 40 nm and below technologies.[citation needed]

On December 22, 2014, SilTech Shanghai, one of SMIC's indirectly wholly owned subsidiaries; JCET; and China IC Fund entered into a co-investment agreement to form a consortium regarding the proposed acquisition of STATS ChipPAC, a provider of advanced semiconductor packaging and test services incorporated in Singapore, shares of which were listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited before the acquisition. On June 18, 2015, according to the co-investment agreement, SilTech Shanghai invested US$102 million as a capital contribution for 19.6% ownership interest in Changjiang Xinke, a company incorporated in Jiangsu province, China, which is accounted as an associate of the Group.

On June 23, 2015, Huawei, Qualcomm Global Trading Pte. Ltd., IMEC International, and SMIC announced the formation[16] of the SMIC Advanced Technology Research & Development (Shanghai) Corporation, an equity joint venture company. The joint venture company's focus was to be the R&D for the next generation CMOS logic technology and was designed to build China's most advanced integrated circuit (IC) development R&D platform. SMIC Advanced Technology R&D (Shanghai) Corporation is majority owned by SMIC, while Huawei, IMEC, and Qualcomm are minority shareholders. The focus of the joint venture company is on developing 14 nm logic technology.[citation needed]

On June 24, 2016, SMIC. LFoundry Europe and Marsica entered into a sale and purchase agreement pursuant to which LFoundry Europe and Marsica agreed to sell and SMIC agreed to purchase 70% of the corporate capital of LFoundry S.r.l. for an aggregate cash consideration of EUR49 million subject to adjustment. The acquisition was completed as of July 29, 2016.

On October 14, 2016, Ningbo Semiconductor International Corporation was jointly established by China IC Capital (the wholly owned investment fund of SMIC), Ningbo Senson Electronics Technology Co., Ltd, and Beijing Integrated Circuit Design and Testing Fund with a registered capital of RMB355 million, equal to US$52.8 million. SMIC holds 66.76% of the ownership interest. NSI will develop analog and specialty semiconductor process technology platforms in the areas of high-voltage analog, radio frequency, and optoelectronics. These developments will support customers in IC design and product development for applications in smart home, industrial, and automotive electronics, new generations of radio communications, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and other specialty systems.[17]

In 2018, SMIC had gross profits of $747 million and net profits of $149, with $3.6 billion in revenues.[11] It apparently spend around $550 million on research and development, or about 16 percent of sales.[18] On May 18, 2018, ground was broken on the manufacturing base for SMIC in Shaoxing. SMIC was building a plant that would be the first in China to use 14-nanometer production technology.[19] The company said it would increase its investment capacity by 20% in February 2019.[20]

Current[when?] co-CEOs are Zhao Haijun and Mong Song Liang. Zixue Zhou serves as chairman of the board.[21] In May 2019, it was said that SMIC's co-chiefs, Zhao Haijun and Liang Mong-song were at odds over how to focus the company.[1]

On May 24, 2019, SMIC announced it would voluntarily delist from the Nasdaq, citing low trade volumes.[22][23][24] Along with low US trading volumes, the company named the high administrative cost of maintaining the NYSE listing.;[24] it joined the exchange 14 years before.[25] On May 25, 2019, it announced it would also delist from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following Huawei blacklisting by the United States government amid the China–United States Trade War.[22]

As of June 2019, SMIC instead became available for over-the-counter trading by American investors via the OTC Markets Group OTCQX Best Market under the stock symbol "SMICY".[26]

In 2019, Qualcomm, Huawei, and imec were still minority shareholders in SMIC's R&D arm.[11]

In May 2020, in support of the country's Made in China 2025 program; the China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund invested a combined US$2 billion, gaining, respectively, 23.08% and 11.54% ownership of SMIC.[27] In July 2020 SMIC issued 1,685,620,000 shares at 27.46 yuan per share on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising 46.28 billion yuan ($6.62 billion).[28]

Litigation with TSMC

The company was the target of a lawsuit brought by TSMC, accusing SMIC of misappropriating TSMC intellectual property.[29][failed verification] The first round of litigation ended in 2005 with a $175 million settlement. A second round was opened in 2006. The liability phase of the lawsuit began on September 9, 2009, in Oakland, California,[30] and the jury found SMIC liable on 61 out of 65 claims.[31]

SMIC entered into a settlement agreement with TSMC to resolve all pending lawsuits between the parties, including the legal action filed by TSMC in California for which a verdict was returned by the jury against SMIC on November 4, 2009, and the legal action filed by SMIC in Beijing. SMIC and TSMC have entered into a settlement agreement on November 9, 2009, to settle and dismiss the California case, including all claims and defenses of SMIC yet to be decided in that case and SMIC's appeal in the Beijing case, thus concluding all pending court litigation between the parties.

Key provisions of the settlement include a mutual release of all claims that were or could have been brought in the pending lawsuits; termination of SMIC's obligation to make remaining payments under the prior settlement agreement between the parties (approximately US$40 million); payment to TSMC of an aggregate of US$200 million; and a grant to TSMC of approximately 8% of SMIC's issued share capital and a warrant which would allow TSMC to obtain total ownership of approximately 10% of SMIC's issued share capital.[32]

U.S. sanctions

See also: United States sanctions against China

In September 2020, the United States Department of Commerce declared SMIC a military end-user and required that American technology companies dealing with it obtain a license.[9] The action elicited a rebuke from China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.[33]

On 4 October 2020, SMIC stated that the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security had informed some of SMIC's suppliers that according to U.S. export control regulations they must apply for an export license in advance before supplying SMIC with some American equipment, accessories and original products.[34] In December 2020, the United States Department of Defense named SMIC as a company "owned or controlled" by the People's Liberation Army and thereby prohibited any American company or individual from investing in it.[35]

In December 2020, the United States Department of Commerce added SMIC to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List.[36][37]

Despite US sanctions intended to halt the rise of China's largest chipmaker, the company advanced its production technology by two generations. On July 21, 2022, the company established 7nm technology.[38] This technology was achieved in two years.[39]

Locations

SMIC has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong.[5] It has manufacturing facilities at the following locations:

Processes

Quarterly Wafer revenue by process node[40] [41]
Node Q3 2021 Q3 2020 Q3 2019 Q3 2018
FinFET/28 nm 18.2% 14.6% 4.3% 7.1%
40/45 nm 13.9% 17.2% 18.5% 18.7%
55/65 nm 28.5% 25.8% 29.3% 21.0%
90 nm 3.1% 3.4% 1.3% 1.4%
0.11/0.13 μm 5.4% 4.4% 6.6% 8.7%
0.15/0.18 μm 27.9% 31.2% 35.8% 39.5%
0.25/0.35 μm 3.0% 3.4% 4.2% 3.6%

14 nm

On 14 November 2019, SMIC announced that volume production of 14 nm FinFET had begun.[42]

N+1

N+1 is the follow-on to SMIC's 14 nm process, and is targeted for inexpensive chips. The modest improvements put N+1 capabilities between 14 nm and 7 nm.[43] According to analysts, N+1 is equivalent to Samsung's 8 nm, which is slightly better than TSMC's 10 nm.[44] Risk production is planned to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020.[43]

SMIC ordered an EUV step-and-scan system from ASML Holding for $120 million in 2018.[45] The order was blocked after the US government lobbied ASML and the government of the Netherlands.[46]

N+2

In 2022, TechInsights founds SMIC has started shipping 7nm chips silently since a year before,[47][48][49] and the U.S. wants to stop selling all sub-14nm fabrication tools to China. Lam Research, KLA said they had been notified, but Applied Materials, ASML and Tokyo Electron has not received any request yet. They also expressed concern about the newest tech curbs on China, only from COVID-related Shanghai lockdown, Tokyo Electron recording a 17% drop, at 117.5 billion yen.[50] The U.S. also wants to stop ASML, however, the Chinese mainland account for 16% (or approximately $2.9bn in 2021) of the company's income (of $18.17B[51] in 2021), furthermore, if the supply chain breaks, this will also affect American chip designers.[52]

See also

Further reading

  • Shilov, Anton (13 Jul 2020), "SMIC: Advanced Process Technologies and Gov't Funding", www.eetimes.com

References

  1. ^ a b Hille, Kathrin (9 May 2019). "Co-chiefs of China's top chipmaker SMIC fighting over strategy". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 05-09-2019)
  2. ^ "Either Huawei Doesn't Need U.S. Tech Or It Does. Which Is It?". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 05-24-2019)
  3. ^ a b "SMIC". Nikkei Asian Review. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  4. ^ a b "SMIC". Nasdaq. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  5. ^ a b "SMIC - Contact Us". SMIC website. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  6. ^ "China's Top Chipmaker Achieves Breakthrough Despite US Curbs". Bloomberg.com. 21 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. p. 70. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-09-06.
  8. ^ Sheng, Wei (May 18, 2020). "SMIC gets $2 billion from China's state-backed funds". TechNode. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Strumpf, Dan (2020-09-26). "U.S. Sets Export Controls on China's Top Chip Maker". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  10. ^ Whalen, Jeanne (September 26, 2020). "U.S. restricts tech exports to China's biggest semiconductor manufacturer in escalation of trade tensions". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d "China's biggest chipmaker has applied for 'voluntary delisting' from the New York Stock Exchange amid the trade war and Trump's crackdown on Chinese tech (SMI)". Connecticut Post. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 05-25-2019)
  12. ^ "SMIC Receives Supplier Award from Qualcomm". SMIC press release. 14 December 2011. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  13. ^ "Broadcom 2010 Annual Report". p. 20. Archived from the original on 11 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  14. ^ "SMIC Earns Texas Instruments' Supplier Excellence Award for 2010". SMIC press release. 14 April 2011. Archived from the original on 29 October 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  15. ^ "Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation: 'Reverse BOT'". Harvard Business School. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 01-2009)
  16. ^ Mozur, Paul (23 June 2015). "Qualcomm in Venture With Chinese Chip Maker". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 06-23-2015)
  17. ^ "SMIC 2017 Attachment" (PDF). SMIC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2017-05-15. (published 2018)
  18. ^ "China's ability to make computer chips still 'years behind' industry leaders". Financial Times. 22 January 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 01-21-2019)
  19. ^ "Zhejiang province committed to Yangtze River Delta integration". Zhejian China. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 05-23-2019)
  20. ^ "China's top chipmaker SMIC to boost capex 20% despite downturn". Nikkei Asian Review. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26. (published 02-15-2019)
  21. ^ "Company Overview of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2020-09-06. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  22. ^ a b "Chinese chip giant SMIC to delist from NYSE following Huawei ban". Cnet. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  23. ^ "China's largest chipmaker is delisting from the Nasdaq – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  24. ^ a b "China's biggest chip maker to delist from NYSE as US targets tech". South China Morning Post. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  25. ^ "Trump's Huawei Ban: A Bane for Apple?". Fortune. 25 May 2019. Archived from the original on 6 September 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  26. ^ "OTC Markets Group Welcomes Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation to OTCQX". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2020-05-30. (published 06-14-2019)
  27. ^ Sheng, Wei (18 May 2020). "SMIC gets $2 billion from China's state-backed funds". technode.com. TN Media. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  28. ^ Kharpal, Arjun (15 Jul 2020), "Shares of China's biggest chipmaker SMIC surge nearly 202% in Shanghai debut", www.cnbc.com, archived from the original on 16 July 2020, retrieved 16 July 2020
  29. ^ "TSMC v. SMIC, 161 Cal.App. 4th 581, 74 Cal.Rptr.3d 328 (March 27, 2008)" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-10-09. [dead link]
  30. ^ Lammers, David (2009-09-10). "TSMC vs. SMIC Trial Commences in Oakland". semiconductor.net. Semiconductor International. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  31. ^ Longstreth, Andrew (2009-11-05). "Jeffrey Chanin of Keker & Van Nest". AmLaw Litigation Daily. Press Release. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  32. ^ "SMIC Settles All Pending Lawsuits with TSMC: Anticipates No Disruption to Customers". SMIC press release. 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2012-01-06.[permanent dead link]
  33. ^ "China in response to possible SMIC sanctions says U.S. bullying firms". Reuters. 2020-09-28. Archived from the original on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  34. ^ SMIC. "Further news about U.S. export restrictions" (PDF). HKEX News. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  35. ^ Alper, Alexandra; Pamuk, Humeyra (2020-12-03). "Trump administration adds China's SMIC and CNOOC to Defense blacklist". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  36. ^ Alper, Alexandra; Shepardson, David; Pamuk, Humeyra (2020-12-18). "U.S. blacklists dozens of Chinese firms including SMIC". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  37. ^ "Commerce Adds China's SMIC to the Entity List, Restricting Access to Key Enabling U.S. Technology". U.S. Department of Commerce. December 18, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  38. ^ "China's Top Chipmaker Achieves Breakthrough Despite US Curbs". Bloomberg.com. 2022-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  39. ^ "China's top chipmaker SMIC just achieved an Intel-like breakthrough". August 30, 2022.
  40. ^ "SMIC Q3 2021 Earnings Release" (PDF). SMIC.
  41. ^ "SMIC Q3 2019 Earnings Release" (PDF). SMIC.
  42. ^ Shilov, Anton. "SMIC Begins Volume Production of 14 nm FinFET Chips: China's First FinFET Line". www.anandtech.com. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  43. ^ a b Shilov, Anton (23 March 2020). "SMIC Details Its N+1 Process Technology: 7nm Performance in China". AnandTech. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  44. ^ "China Speeds up Advanced Chip Development". 22 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  45. ^ "SMIC to move FinFET process to volume production by year-end 2019". DIGITIMES. Archived from the original on 2019-08-18. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  46. ^ "Trump administration pressed Dutch hard to cancel China chip-equipment sale: sources". Reuters.
  47. ^ "China's Top Chipmaker Achieves Breakthrough Despite US Curbs". Bloomberg News.
  48. ^ "China's SMIC Is Shipping 7nm Foundry ASICs".
  49. ^ "China's SMIC Beats Sanctions to Make 7nm Chips – TechInsights". 22 July 2022.
  50. ^ "Tokyo Electron 'concerned' about U.S. tech curbs on China".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  51. ^ https://www.asml.com/-/media/asml/files/investors/financial-results/a-results/2021/asml-annual-report-us-gaap-2021-unsvf2.pdf?rev=dc3209ddcdd045589fa34b43e30e6cbf
  52. ^ "U.S. Wants ASML to Stop Selling Chipmaking Tools to China". 5 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semiconductor_Manufacturing_International_Corporation&oldid=1123835846"