As the first manufacturer to invest in the construction of a wafer factory in Malaysia, Hynix Semiconductor has been warmly welcomed by the government and has been given great tax reduction and exemption policies and land purchase preferences.
Hynix honestly occupied a four-square-kilometer piece of land in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur to build the Hynix High-Tech Industrial Park.
In the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur
Such a large piece of land is worth US$650 million, and Hynix only spent US$150 million to acquire it, which is a bargain price.
Hynix Industrial Park is about 37 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur city center and is located in the Banting area. It is a contiguous emerging industrial zone with complete transportation facilities and supporting enterprises.
It is less than 8 kilometers away from the famous Malacca coast to the west and only 13.5 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the east. The geographical location is very advantageous.
After more than a year of construction, the industrial park has taken shape.
Currently, two eight-inch wafer fabs have been put into production, with a monthly production capacity of up to 60,000 wafers, all of which are OEM orders for international application chips.
Looking from afar
The huge blue and white factory building and the office building area standing tall at the front of the factory area show the different style of a modern high-tech enterprise.
Big money, big investment, high output, representing international cutting-edge technology.
This is how it is advertised. In fact, these two eight-inch production lines were taken from the acquired Toshiba Semiconductor. Not counting the cost of land and factory buildings, the total cost of all equipment does not exceed 875 million US dollars.
Compared with building a new production line, it is nothing more than cabbage price.
Wang Yaocheng is keen on acquiring bankrupt wafer fabs, among which the eight-inch wafer production line is the primary target.
Since the development of Atlantic Jinko, including Hynix Semiconductor, it has a total of 13 eight-inch wafer production lines, including six old lines and seven new production lines.
in it
Including an eight-inch wafer fab of Fujitsu Co., Ltd., three eight-inch wafer production lines of Hynix Semiconductor, and two eight-inch wafer production lines of the acquired Toshiba Semiconductor, a total of six old lines.
Because the technical equipment is relatively backward, it is mainly used in the production of mid- to low-end application chips, which are bulk products that are widely demanded in the international market.
Eight-inch wafers undergo costly technical upgrades and add high-precision equipment to produce high-end application chips.
However, a high-precision photolithography machine costs tens of millions of dollars, and a high-performance evaporation machine costs millions of dollars. It costs a lot to modify the production line. Even the wealthy Atlantic Jinko is reluctant to invest such a huge sum of money.
Therefore, the ability to produce 0.13 micron process technology CPU chips that represent the world's top level is in seven new production lines.
There are about 42 eight-inch wafer production lines in the world. Atlantic Jinko controls 13 of them, which is about one-third less, but its production capacity accounts for half of the world's share.
Even 20 years later, the eight-inch wafer line will still not lag behind.
Moreover, with the rapid expansion of market demand, original semiconductor manufacturers have eliminated outdated equipment, and the existing eight-inch wafer production lines have become increasingly popular.
Many application chip products in lighting, communications, automobiles, televisions, audio, etc. do not require overly advanced process technology, but are very price sensitive.
"What? Lianrui's creditors rejected our offer and are unwilling to sell it to us. I need a reason."
Wang Yaocheng looked at the gentle middle-aged man in front of him with an unkind expression. This man was named Tao Lexing, a Chinese-American.
He is a master of mergers and acquisitions trained by Mr. Huo Jiaguang. He has a doctorate from Princeton University Business School. He once worked as a senior partner at Lehman Brothers. He is currently the executive vice president of Caribbean Corporation, in charge of corporate mergers, acquisitions and integration.
"Boss, this is not a crime of war."
Tao Lexing smiled bitterly and said: "Although Taiwan is currently open to mainland Chinese people for tourism and family visits, and the restrictive policies on Taiwanese businessmen are gradually loosened, obstacles still exist, and we are highly wary of northern capital, including our Hong Kong capital.
"
"We have unimpeded travel in the United States and Europe, why are there so many difficulties in Taiwan?"
"Boss, over the past few years, Taiwan has been full of chaos and demons. Brother A-Bian, who is now in charge, is not easy to deal with. What's more, the creditors of Lianrui Company hate us to the core. The fact that we are in bankruptcy today is mostly due to us. In my heart,
The resistance is very serious, and those who have a choice may really be unwilling to cooperate with us.”
Wang Yaocheng smiled contemptuously: "Haha, does anyone step in?"
"It's TSMC's Zhang Zhongmou. They also proposed an overall acquisition plan, but there is no offer yet."
"TSMC?"
Wang Yaocheng chewed on these three words thoughtfully, feeling a little unexpected but also reasonable.
TSMC is the leading Taiwan-funded chip manufacturer and a company strongly supported by the Taiwan government. Its full name is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The list of major shareholders includes the Dutch company Philips and the Executive Yuan, and its background is quite deep.
Thinking of Philips's investment in the Korean-owned LG Group, this potential European competitor emerged.
As a world-famous old electronics giant, the Dutch company Philips provides a wide variety of electronic products, from radar to aviation communication and navigation equipment, from household appliances to lighting, covering everything.
Philips needs a wide variety of application chips in huge quantities, which are related to the company's core competitiveness.
Due to high production costs, Philips has withdrawn from the field of chip production. However, Micron, LG Group and TSMC have plans to use stock participation to control certain chip production capabilities and ensure their own needs.
From this perspective, the water behind TSMC's insertion is very deep.
Thinking of this, Wang Yaocheng said; "Know yourself and the enemy and you will never be in danger. Lian Rui's incident reminds us that our competitors are never idle and will do everything possible to cause us trouble. We must collect more relevant information.
Make more plans to avoid being caught unawares."
"Boss, we can actually intervene from another aspect."
"How do you say this?"
Tao Lexing explained: “We intervened in Lianrui’s acquisition with the aim of acquiring their production capacity at the lowest price. Due to non-commercial reasons, it seems that this path is not feasible now.
That is, if we can afford a certain bridge price, we can ask American capital to acquire and resell it to us."
Wang Yaocheng thought about it and said, "As a backup plan, you can contact relevant parties to prepare for intervention. The specific transaction needs to be discussed in depth before being decided."
"I know, boss, I'll go down and prepare."
"Okay, let's go."
Watching Tao Lexing leave, Wang Yaocheng fell into deep thought, how to break this game?
Whether in the field of advanced wafer production or LCD screen production, Taiwanese manufacturers are densely clustered, forming an emerging force that cannot be ignored in the world market.
If they want to dominate the world market in these two fields, Taiwanese manufacturers have a problem that cannot be bypassed.
Compilation or full-scale suppression involves huge costs of tens of billions of dollars, and is not something that can be accomplished easily.
Which one to go and which one to follow needs to be carefully considered.