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With the spread of a "resignation letter" suspected to be from Liang Mengsong on the Internet and the release of SMIC's announcement this morning, SMIC has once again become the eye of the news storm.
Compared with the eye-catching superficial phenomena such as "internal strife" and "struggle" that are rampant in the headlines of self-media, I would like to comment on this matter from the perspective of an analyst who understands SMIC and the Chinese semiconductor industry, with an industrial and professional vision.
1: How do you view Liang Mengsong’s “resignation letter”?
The title of the letter is "Letter to the Board of Directors",
which mainly contains Liang's summary of his contributions in SMIC over the past few years, and does not mention the details of his resignation. SMIC's announcement this morning also "
confirmed that the company has learned of Dr. Liang Mengsong's conditional resignation intention" and "SMIC said that the company is currently actively verifying with Dr. Liang his true intention to resign."
Whether from the details or the overall situation, this letter should not mean "internal strife" or "internal fighting". Mr. Liang expressed some of his own views and expressed his willingness, and SMIC also made a pragmatic response.
But unlike some media who just "ate melons" and "watched the show", I paid more attention to another point - the leak of this letter.
This letter contains a lot of SMIC's secrets: company development plans, process progress, etc. As a chip company based on technology, in the current sensitive situation, such core and confidential information was exposed nakedly, allowing competitors to know SMIC's core secrets, which is very unfavorable to SMIC's future development!
The personnel issue that should have been discussed within the board of directors was exposed to the public. The differences between Mr. Liang and the board of directors were exposed to the media in this way, which was not only detrimental to Mr. Liang and SMIC, but also forced the board of directors and Mr. Liang to stand in opposition to each other. This not only reduced the room for subsequent "appeals" and "retentions",
but also had a huge negative impact on SMIC's image.
It is a problem that what should have been the company's core secret has made it to the media headlines.
2. Changes in the international and domestic situations have forced SMIC to “assess the situation”.
In recent years, SMIC has attracted the attention of the industry and aroused the industry's expectations. To fully analyze the development and changes of SMIC in recent years, this article alone is not enough, and we can only summarize a few things here.
After Mr. Liang joined SMIC, he made rapid progress in the R&D of advanced processes with his outstanding technical R&D capabilities and extraordinary diligence, unconditional authorization from the board of directors, full cooperation from local management, huge capital investment regardless of cost, and strong support from Huawei as an alpha and super COT (Customer Owned-Tooling) customer. Mr. Liang has made great contributions
to the breakthroughs in advanced processes. Of course, SMIC is a large platform, and Huawei is a super customer and partner. The contributions of the SMIC team and Huawei are also indelible.
However, changes in the international and domestic situation have forced SMIC to make changes.
In the context of the Sino-US technology war, the semiconductor industry has been seriously interfered with by politics, and SMIC has been included in the "blacklist" by the United States, which has seriously affected its purchase of related equipment and materials. It is well known to the outside world that 7nm EUV lithography machines are not available, but the actual situation is far more severe than what is circulated - not only lithography machines, but also other related equipment for advanced processes are also restricted. If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools. In this context, if SMIC is still obsessed with a single point of advanced technology, it is neither realistic nor scientific. The more important reason that made SMIC realize that it must change is that after September 15, HiSilicon, a core customer and important partner of SMIC's advanced technology, was sanctioned by the United States. SMIC can neither produce for HiSilicon nor cooperate with HiSilicon.
The relationship
between HiSilicon and SMIC far exceeds that of an ordinary customer and
partner
.
Under the background of the US suppression, SMIC cannot buy related advanced equipment and materials, nor can it join forces with HiSilicon, a strong ally. It can be said that both sides are in trouble. In this case, we must face reality.
Technological breakthroughs must be aimed at mass production, and product research and development should be based on market demands and customer needs. Unlike SMIC, which has gone all-in on advanced processes, China's integrated circuit design industry has flourished in recent years, especially with the skyrocketing demand for mature processes, and
SMIC must also adapt to changes.
When the external situation changes, any individual, enterprise, or industry must assess the situation and adapt accordingly. If SMIC fully supports the huge demand for mature processes by domestic design companies, solidifies advanced processes, and expands mature processes, its performance will be much better than if it goes all in on advanced processes.
It is really sad that such an incident happened again at SMIC today. I hope both parties can put the company and the overall situation first and let this matter pass smoothly.
PS
: Actually, I have witnessed all the ups and downs of SMIC over the years, and the change of several CEOs. I have come to two conclusions:
First: SMIC can operate without anyone. SMIC is a large platform that does not rely on just one or two people. Founder Zhang Rujing left, but SMIC did not collapse; Qiu Ciyun left after saving the situation, but SMIC also moved forward; on the contrary, when a company relies on one or two people, it is the most dangerous;
Second: China has a big stage, and it is not just SMIC. Yang Shining left SMIC and thrived in Changcun; Qiu Ciyun left SMIC and created another glory in Shanghai Silicon. They have also made greater contributions to the industry in their respective fields. If Liang Mengsong leaves, there will be a good platform in the future.
Therefore, breaking up is not necessarily a bad thing for both parties. Perhaps the newcomers or the new media may think this exciting news is a big deal, but in fact, SMIC’s past is much bigger than this!
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