"National Team" funds will focus on Qingdao chip industry
◎Source | Qingji
The country's financial support for emerging industries is continuing to increase.
On September 24, the State Financial Regulatory Administration issued a document to expand the pilot scope of equity investment in financial asset investment companies from Shanghai to 18 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, and Qingdao, further strengthening the support of financial resources for scientific and technological innovation and helping to accelerate the implementation of projects.
AIC is a non-bank financial institution engaged in converting bank debt into equity and supporting services. In 2017, my country's five largest state-owned banks established AICs, with a total registered capital of over 100 billion yuan.
Relevant analysis points out that under the current pattern in which indirect financing dominates corporate financing in China, expanding the AIC pilot program in 18 cities with a large number of technology companies, large R&D investments, and active equity investments is of great significance for encouraging the development of venture capital and risk investment that is compatible with technology finance.
After the new policy was implemented, 18 cities stepped up efforts to launch AIC equity investment funds to support the development of emerging industries.
Among them, Qingdao's actions are particularly urgent.
Since ABC Investment launched its first AIC equity investment fund in Qingdao on October 12, in more than half a month, ICBC Investment, BOC Asset Management, CCB Investment and Bocom Investment have all established AIC equity investment funds in Qingdao . The total scale of the six funds has reached 14 billion yuan.
From the perspective of investment areas, Qingdao has placed the focus of AIC
Fund
support on the chip industry, and 3 of the 6 funds are related to integrated circuits.
For example, ICBC Investment established an AIC fund in Qingdao, which mainly invests in the integrated circuit field with a total scale of 3 billion yuan.
It is understood that the fund's first phase has a scale of 1 billion yuan, and is managed by Qingdao Chengtou Venture Capital Co., Ltd.'s wholly-owned subsidiary Chengtou Private Equity Fund Co., Ltd., which invests around the industrial chain of integrated circuit chain leaders.
Another example is the AIC Fund established in Qingdao by ABC Investment and BOC Asset Management, whose key investment industries include the new generation of information technology and integrated circuit industries.
This means that Qingdao's integrated circuit industry will receive more powerful and patient capital "national team" funding support.
In the past few years, Qingdao has always placed integrated circuits at the top of its emerging industry layout, and this year the municipal party secretary is in charge as the leader of the industrial chain.
At the press conference titled "Serve as the Vanguard and Embark on a New Journey" held in Qingdao on October 31, news came out that key enterprises such as Xin'en Semiconductor have gradually reached full production capacity.
At the same time, Qingdao's layout of key raw materials and core equipment for the integrated circuit industry is accelerating.
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Objectively speaking, Qingdao has made certain breakthroughs in the field of integrated circuits in recent years, including the highly-watched wafer manufacturing project Xin'en.
According to the white paper on the top 100 cities in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in the global integrated circuit industry in 2023 released by the World Integrated Circuit Association (WICA) in August this year, Qingdao ranked 84th on the list (Jinan ranked 81st).
In the field of packaging and testing, Qingdao and Xi'an have become representatives of northern cities.
For example, representative projects in Xi'an include Samsung Semiconductor and Micron Semiconductor. Among them, Samsung Xi'an Factory is Samsung's only overseas memory semiconductor production base. It has more than 6,000 employees and an investment of more than US$4 billion in semiconductor packaging and testing lines. It can package 200,000 12-inch wafers per month, accounting for more than 40% of Samsung's total NAND flash memory production.
Qingdao has Foxconn's Qingdao New Core, as well as two Hong Kong-funded projects: Xinhengyuan's high-end chip SIP packaging and ASB chip advanced packaging and testing projects.
Among domestic chip projects, Xi'an is a major city for Huatian Technology's layout, and is the home of Huatian Technology's integrated circuit packaging technology project; Qingdao's Wuyuan Semiconductor Project is backed by the Suanneng Group, a new generation AI chip company that has grown rapidly in recent years.
Looking at Qingdao's integrated circuit industry projects as a whole, there are three highlights.
First, memory chips have emerged as a new force. Representative projects include the Zhizhen memory chip project and the Xinhengyuan memory chip cutting, grinding, packaging and testing project.
Among them, Zhizhen Memory Chip has built 8-inch and 12-inch new generation memory chip production lines and R&D centers in two phases in the West Coast New Area. The first phase of the project started in May this year. After the project is fully completed and put into production, it will have a monthly production capacity of 4 million high-end chips, with an annual output value of 2 billion yuan.
With the development of automobile electronics and intelligence, semiconductor memory is increasingly used in the field of automotive electronics. At the same time, new memory represented by MRAM has become a breakthrough in improving the performance of memory chips, which will be a huge market.
Second, we have started to deploy around AI chips. Representative projects include new core high-end packaging and testing projects, ASB chip projects, and physical semiconductors.
Among them, the Qingdao new core high-end packaging and testing project, in which Foxconn increased its investment by 100 million yuan in March this year, is aimed at the packaging and testing needs of high-end application chips such as the fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) and artificial intelligence (AI).
The Wuyuan Semiconductor Project relies on the strength of Suanneng Group in the design of computing chips such as AI chips and RISC-V CPUs, and focuses on the development of advanced packaging technology platforms, especially advanced packaging technologies such as wafer stacking and chiplet heterogeneous bonding and system integration. On May 15, the first phase of the project was capped.
Third, many representative enterprise projects have emerged in the key equipment links.
For example, Si Rui Intelligent mainly focuses on key semiconductor front-end process equipment. Its products include atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment and ion implantation (IMP) equipment, which can be widely used in many high-tech fields such as integrated circuits, third-generation semiconductors, and new energy.
On September 27, the Qingdao Integrated Circuit Advanced Equipment Park and SIRUI Intelligent Semiconductor Advanced Equipment R&D and Manufacturing Center project was topped off. The project plans to build complete machine manufacturing production lines for high-end equipment such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and ion implantation machines (IMP), which can drive social fixed asset investment of approximately 1.5 billion yuan.
Another example is the Kexin Microelectronics Chip Design Headquarters project that was launched in Qingdao Free Trade Zone in April this year, with a total investment of 900 million yuan, mainly building a power semiconductor product R&D center and a testing center; the Hefei Bestlan Wet Process Equipment Headquarters R&D and Production Base project, with a total investment of 600 million yuan, mainly produces wet process pumps and pump components.
On October 25, the commissioning ceremony of Qingdao Pingxin CMP Polishing Material R&D and Production Base Project was held. The project mainly builds a R&D and production base for CMP polishing materials and precision polishing head assembly for semiconductor chip manufacturing, which can provide supporting services for chain leader enterprises nearby.
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The rise of Qingdao's integrated circuit industry has benefited greatly from the support of state-owned assets.
Among them, the most well-known case is that Haifa Group, Qingdao Urban Investment, Huatong Group and others jointly raised 5 billion yuan to support strategic investment in Xin'en.
Qingdao Urban Investment Group, as the largest government investment platform in Qingdao, is most closely tied to Qingdao's integrated circuit industry.
It is understood that Qingdao Urban Investment has completed a total of 641 investment projects in the field of integrated circuits, with fund investment exceeding 30 billion yuan, leveraging financial and social capital investment and financing of more than 60 billion yuan. Among them, 54 local Qingdao projects were invested in and cultivated, covering equipment, materials, manufacturing, packaging and testing and other fields. It has introduced several semiconductor projects to Qingdao, including storage chip design company Huaxin Zhicun, packaging and testing company Tairuis Microelectronics, and third-generation semiconductor materials company Juneng Chuangxin.
In addition, it is worth noting that Qingdao Urban Investment is also the largest shareholder of Ningbo chip unicorn company Rongxin Semiconductor.
Rongxin Semiconductor was established in April 2021. It was developed based on the acquisition of the unfinished Dehuai Semiconductor project. It is known as China's first 12-inch integrated circuit manufacturer with mature process characteristics. It has a layout of 90nm-40nm process image sensors, display drivers, power devices, power management, code-type flash memory and other products. It currently has factories in Ningbo and Huai'an.
But what is somewhat surprising is that this project, in which Qingdao state-owned assets have invested heavily, has not yet been linked to Qingdao's integrated circuit industry.
From a national perspective, Qingdao-based integrated circuit industry companies such as Chenxin Technology, Sirui Intelligent, and Gaoce Holdings have also attracted a lot of investment from local state-owned assets.
For example, Si Rui Intelligent completed B and B+ rounds of financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan this year. Investors include Shanghai State-owned Assets Shanghai Jinpu and Beijing State-owned Assets Beijing Huakong.
Gaoce shares are backed by investment from Xi'an State-owned Assets Shanmei Fund.
However, looking at the investment projects of the first and second phases of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, there are few Qingdao companies.
This actually reflects the shortcomings of Qingdao's integrated circuit industry, which started late and has not yet formed a systematic layout. In the whole country, Qingdao's integrated circuit industry's technological innovation level and industry leadership level are still not high.
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At present, all parts of the country are still increasing their investment in the integrated circuit industry.
Among them, Shanghai has established an integrated circuit industry mother fund with a total scale of 45.01 billion yuan, which will focus on integrated circuit design, manufacturing and packaging and testing, equipment materials and components.
Beijing’s state-owned capital platform Zhongguancun Development Group invested 8.5 billion yuan to establish the Beijing Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Limited Partnership).
Wuxi established a special mother fund (limited partnership) for the integrated circuit industry with a total investment of 5 billion yuan. Wuxi Zhanxin Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. serves as the executive partner.
In comparison, the scale of Qingdao’s previous integrated circuit industry fund was not large.
Judging from the capital support for the integrated circuit industry chain, Qingdao is not focused enough and its layout is not prominent enough.
For example, Guangdong Semiconductor Fund's investment areas are highly focused on the semiconductor industry, including automotive chips, semiconductor materials and equipment, compound semiconductors, etc.
Relevant information shows that the scale of the first phase of the fund is 20 billion yuan. The parent and child funds have invested in 102 projects with an investment amount of more than 9 billion yuan, covering 45 chip design companies, 19 manufacturing and packaging and testing companies, and 38 equipment and material companies, including Guangdong Xin Semiconductor and Guangzhou Zengxin Project.
For Qingdao, if it wants to further expand and strengthen its integrated circuit industry, the first thing it needs to do is to increase the introduction of large-scale funds worth tens of billions of yuan and carry out full-cycle cultivation of industrial development.
More importantly, Qingdao should also focus on advantageous and cutting-edge industries such as smart home appliances, new energy vehicles, and marine Internet of Things, use application scenarios as a breakthrough point, and specifically cultivate and introduce a number of integrated circuit industry projects, especially in the field of mature process chips and related equipment projects. These projects often have high technical maturity and large market demand, and can be quickly transformed on-site.
At the 2024 World Intelligent Connected Vehicle Conference held in October, Chenxin Technology, a company headquartered in the West Coast New Area and a subsidiary of China Information and Communications Technology Group Corporation specializing in wireless communication SoC chip design, unveiled its latest new generation C-V2X dedicated communication chip CX1920.
At present, Chenxin Technology's C-V2X chips and solutions have been widely used in seven national-level vehicle networking pilot zones, supporting more than 50 intelligent connected demonstration zones across the country, and its market share ranks among the top.
Note: The cover image is from the Douban movie "Dune 2" stills
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