Text | Edited by special author Zhang Xiaoxing | Source of Qian Xia | New 1 Billion Business Reference (ID: xsy-shangyecankao) Three years ago, Wuhan Hongxin was established, threatening to invest 128 billion in research and development of chips, hoping to rival TSMC and set off a vigorous manufacturing "

Core" movement; Three years later, after burning 15.3 billion yuan, the Wuhan Hongxin project has stalled and is almost unfinished. Subcontractors and workers have no way to complain after being owed money.

The major shareholder behind the scenes has nothing to do with semiconductors, but he actually leveraged a 100 billion semiconductor project and received advance funding from the Wuhan government.

The domestic chip industry seems to have entered the Great Leap Forward stage, and the "Hongxin" incident is not an isolated case.

Chengdu GlobalFoundries, Nanjing Decoma, Guizhou Huaxintong, Shanxi Kuntong Semiconductor...many semiconductor projects have gone silent after burning huge sums of money.

Semiconductor is an industry with a long return cycle and huge capital demand, so we can only make steady progress.

After the "Hongxin" incident, the domestic "core" business was lost again.

01 The 100-billion-dollar project "Hongxin" is suspended. At the cusp of the game between China and the United States, the localization of chips has become a top priority.

Under the spotlight of chips, domestic chip speculators are ready to take advantage of the opportunity to wield the sickle.

Recently, Wuhan Hongxin, a key project in Wuhan with an investment of 128 billion yuan, was exposed to be "unfinished", and the incident aroused great concern from society.

In November 2017, Wuhan Hongxin was born.

According to reports, the project has gathered global semiconductor wafer R&D and manufacturing experts, with experience in advanced logic processes and wafer-level advanced packaging technology. In the future, it is expected to build two logic process production lines of 14 nanometers and 7 nanometers, with monthly output reaching

30,000 pieces, and the number of employees must reach at least 1,000.

You know, the only companies that can achieve mass production of 7nm chips now are TSMC and Samsung. Wuhan Hongxin immediately positioned itself in the third position in the world.

In addition, Hongxin also invited Jiang Shangyi, the right-hand man of TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou and TSMC’s “number two”, as CEO.

During his many years of tenure at TSMC, Chiang Shangyi expanded the R&D team from 400 to 7,600 people, creating a world-class R&D team, leading TSMC from a technology follower to a technology leader, and is a veritable "industry giant."

Precisely because Jiang Shangyi was in charge, many TSMC talents turned to the mainland.

Since last year, China has poached more than 100 experienced engineers and managers from TSMC, half of whom went to Wuhan.

Some domestic media quoted the "Nikkei Asian Review" as reporting that the salary package provided by Hongxin was beyond imagination and was 2 to 2.5 times the total salary and incentives of TSMC.

This time made TSMC very nervous.

With Jiang Shangyi's blessing, Hongxin purchased an EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machine worth 600 million yuan. This lithography machine can only be produced by ASML in the Netherlands. TSMC and Samsung's lithography machines also come from ASML.

EUV lithography machines are rare and expensive. It is reported that China only purchased 2 units, and Wuhan Hongxin successfully acquired 1 unit, which made it a star project in the chip industry for a while.

At the entry ceremony of ASML lithography machines at the end of 2019, the background board read "Hongxin serves the country, dreams come true in China".

In 2018 and 2019, Wuhan Hongxin was successively selected as a key provincial construction project in Hubei, with unlimited glory.

In the "Wuhan Municipal Major Projects Under Construction Plan for 2020" released by the Wuhan Municipal Development and Reform Commission in April 2020, Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Project still ranks first with a total investment of 128 billion yuan, with 153 investments completed by the end of 2019.

billion, with a planned investment of 8.7 billion yuan in 2020.