Yang Lan talks with Wei Shaojun and Zhao Weiguo: How should China's chip industry develop?

In 2018, global chip sales were approximately $468.8 billion, of which China imported $312 billion, accounting for two-thirds. This means that two out of every three chips produced in the world are shipped to China.

About half of the chips imported into China are installed in complete machines and exported to all parts of the region. Professor Wei Shaojun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with Yang Lan in NetEase Technology's "To the Forward", that China produced about $37 billion worth of chips last year, so the imported chips actually used only accounted for 40% of the import value, which is an important sign of China's integration into globalization.

In this regard, Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, also pointed out in an interview that on the one hand, China is an irreplaceable part of the global information industry, and on the other hand, it also shows that China is heavily dependent on imported chips.

Zhao Weiguo further pointed out that the $312 billion chip imports are both an opportunity and a crisis for Chinese integrated circuit companies. Chinese chip companies have broad development prospects, but because this is related to the security of the 20 trillion electronic information industry, China is still stuck.

How should China's chip industry develop in a complex international trade environment? Wei Shaojun and Zhao Weiguo gave their own suggestions.

Wei Shaojun believes that under the current environment, the development of China's chip industry needs "strategic determination" and cannot be led by others. On the one hand, we must vigorously develop our own chip industry, and on the other hand, we must continue to open up and cooperate. The integrated circuit industry chain is long and complex, and it is not necessary to do all the links by ourselves. For some links, it is enough to master the core technology.

Wei Shaojun also stressed that the history of closing the country to the outside world proves that self-isolation means backwardness and regression. Only by integrating into globalization, making more friends, and opening up cooperation can the road become wider and wider. He also refuted the view that "walking one's own road and leaving others with no way to go" which is regarded as a god.

Zhao Weiguo also expressed a similar view. He said: "First, we should do our best. Second, we should hug and fight with others as tightly as possible. Don't even think about getting rid of me!"

Can the development of China's chips rely on capital operations? Zhao Weiguo responded to this question: "Entering a new field is like crossing a river. We have to buy the bridgehead before we can enter the real battlefield."

According to him, in the early stages of its development, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired a complete team, technology and even market through mergers and acquisitions, mainly to save time and improve efficiency by paying more money.

At present, Tsinghua Unigroup has ranked among the top three in the world in the field of communication chips. Special chips such as 5G have been launched one after another. Tsinghua Unigroup is catching up in the field of storage chips. Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, announced that it will mass-produce 64-layer 256GbTLC 3D NAND flash memory based on Xtacking architecture in September this year.

Regarding the importance of the integrated circuit industry, Wei Shaojun believes that this industry will continue to develop for decades or even hundreds of years. If there is a Chinese company with a market value of more than 100 billion US dollars, revenue of at least more than 30 billion US dollars, and 3 to 5 companies with revenue of more than 10 billion US dollars, then China's integrated circuit industry can be considered among the top three in the world.

Zhao Weiguo also said that in such an important industry, China is still in the stage where the "War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" has just ended and the War of Liberation has just begun. "I am afraid that this war will not be won in three years, but will take five, ten or even longer." He said.

The chip industry has high technical barriers, long R&D cycles, and even longer investment return cycles. Wei Shaojun said that if China wants to become a chip power, it must first guard against arrogance and impatience. No matter how good the product technology is, how many people praise it, or what rewards it has received, it will not be recognized. What is recognized is how much it has sold in the market. In the market, heroes cannot be judged by deception, but by real talent and knowledge.

Zhao Weiguo believes that the first thing to do is to solve the problem of talent gap and insufficient investment. Local governments are enthusiastic about attracting investment, and some companies rely solely on government subsidies and investors to survive, which has caused a great dispersion of resources and manpower.

It is understood that there is a shortage of 300,000 chip professionals in my country. In this regard, Wei Shaojun said that the training cycle of chip talents is too long, and it is difficult for college graduates to be employed by enterprises. The industry often solves the problem of talent vacancies through unreasonable poaching. The wages of these people have been raised, but the overall quality has not kept up.

Wei Shaojun suggested that first of all, a group of people who are not engaged in integrated circuits should be encouraged to transition to the integrated circuit business, and that companies should increase on-the-job training to improve the technical level of employees so that they can meet current needs.