Qingdao state-owned equity semiconductor company Xinen Tupu 8-inch factory CIDM model goal may be in urgent need of production capacity for specific customers

A few days ago, the third semiconductor enterprise Xinen (Qingdao) Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xinen"), founded by SMIC founder Zhang Rujing, has made a new move. It is reported that Xin en officially announced the production of its 8-inch factory on August 2, and the company also held a special oath meeting for this purpose. Zhang Rujing attended and spoke to all the staff.

According to the news, Xin en accepted the customer's first film at the end of June this year and completed the first batch of products in early July. The product of this launch is power chip, and the yield can reach more than 90%. In the same period, the optical mask factory also completed the delivery of the product. The 12-inch plant previously planned for the core project will begin production in mid-August.

A relevant person from the marketing department of Xinen Company said in an interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the content companies reported by individual media a few days ago had not yet officially confirmed that "some of the information is incorrect, and the relevant announcement will be released in the near future." Please take the content of the announcement as final. However, the person recently told the media that Xin en had indeed started the production of test sheets for early customers.

The controlling shareholder of Xinen is the background of Qingdao state-owned assets.

It is understood that Xinen Company was originally established in April 2018 by Ningbo Xinen Investment Management Partnership (limited partnership) and Qingdao West Coast New area Management Committee, Qingdao International Economic Cooperation Zone Management Committee, Qingdao Aucma holding Group Co., Ltd.

The total investment of the company's industrial project is expected to be about 21.8 billion yuan, of which the total investment in the first phase is about 8.1 billion yuan, which will be used for the construction of a new 8-inch high-power and digital-analog hybrid chip production line, a 12-inch 40nm to 28nm ultra-low power consumption logic and embedded and RF-SOI advanced chip product production line, and a 180nm to 14nm mask production line.

The reason why the latest action of Xinen Company has been widely concerned and discussed by the industry and the public is that there are many factors involved, including Zhang Rujing, the star chairman of the company, the controlling shareholder of the state-owned assets of the company, the special regional and industrial advantages of Qingdao, and the concept of China's first collaborative integrated circuit manufacturing (CIDM) model.

Xinen is led by Dr. Zhang Rujing, who is known as "the father of Chinese semiconductors" and founded SMIC. It is understood that the core team members of the project are senior management and professional and technical personnel, of whom more than 60 have more than 20 years of experience in R & D, production and product design in the semiconductor industry.

As one of the two "strong core" projects in Shandong Province, core-related projects are expected to "fill the gap in the manufacturing IC industry in Shandong Province, improve the core matching rate of high-end manufacturing, and support the transformation, upgrading, innovation and development of household appliances, automobile, machinery manufacturing and other industries."

Since last year, in order to accelerate the progress of the production line construction of Xinen Company, the capital operation of Qingdao has been frequent.

In March 2020, Qingdao SASAC held the second round of online contracts for key investment projects in the spring of 2020. Qingdao Aucma Group and Shanghai Xing Orange Investment Management Co., Ltd. will jointly promote the landing of a special fund of 3 billion yuan as soon as possible. to ensure that the first phase of the core project can reach production as scheduled.

On May 25, 2020, Xinen passed a motion on Qingdao Xing Orange Collective Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) to increase capital by 2.855 billion yuan to the company, which is reported to be mainly used to speed up the projection of 8-inch factories.

Tianyan survey data show that after the equity change in November 2020, Qingdao Xing Orange set Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) withdrew from the core project, and its equity was taken over by Qingdao Aucma Yunlian Information Technology Co., Ltd.

At present, Qingdao Aucma Yunlian Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a 57.1% shareholder of Xinen, and it is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qingdao Aucma holding Group, which is a wholly-owned grandcompany of Qingdao State-owned assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

CIDM target may be in urgent need of production capacity for specific customers.

In local official media reports in Qingdao, Xinen is often seen as a key project to rewrite the status quo of Qingdao's "lack of core and lack of face" industry. "lack of core and lack of noodles" as a heart disease in Qingdao is not empty words, behind which may be two Chinese star technology companies-Haier Group and Hisense Group-located in Qingdao.

Among them, in terms of semiconductor chips, the industrial environment of Qingdao determines that it has a huge demand market. Take Haier as an example, Haier Zhijia Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Haier Group, is on the list again in the just released Fortune Global 500 companies list. According to the first annual report released by Haier Zhijia in March this year, the company achieved revenue of 209.726 billion yuan last year, including overseas business with revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan for the first time.

However, the more important significance of Xinen for Qingdao and even Shandong Province lies in its unique CIDM model. In addition to the consumer electronics giants, it can also provide special process technical services for small and medium-sized or system companies.

It is understood that the core CIDM model project will be jointly invested by IC design companies, terminal application companies and IC manufacturers, and will be integrated in the form of joint ventures. It is reported that at present, about 50 IC design partners have joined Xinen's CIDM cooperation circle.

In fact, the main goal of the CIDM model is to solve much-needed capacity problems for specific customers. Senior investors in the semiconductor field told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that Xin en's CIDM model will select customers before the plant is built, and the process will be developed specifically for these customers in the future, which can directly generate sales revenue after completion.

"the so-called CIDM model is only a concept used for hype at the initial stage of the project," the semiconductor investor said. "recently, the company should gradually play down this concept."

In addition, recent news shows that the core 8-inch factory is producing films, but the person further said that "it should not be time to communicate with customers for the time being."