Original title: The US chip industry has been “eaten back”! Another giant “downfall”: 60 billion dollars in chip sales business Source: Jinshi Data

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In recent years, due to the decline in chip manufacturing technology, many US chip giants have continued to sell their wafer factories or chip divisions. In 2008, AMD, the world's largest microprocessor supplier, sold its wafer factory; in 2014, IBM, the world's largest IT service provider, sold its chip manufacturing business. Today, Intel, the largest processor supplier in the PC sector, has also decided to sell off some of its chip divisions and manufacturing plants.

Chip manufacturing lags behind TSMC, Intel sells chip business for 60 billion dollars

According to the latest reports from Sina Technology, IntelAgree to about 90One billion dollars (about 600 million)The selling price of (100 million yuan) Nand(Flash) storage business sold to South Korea's SKHynix to focus on its processor business.

On October 20, SK Hynix also mentioned in a statement that it will pay 10.3 trillion won for the acquisition of Intel's chip business. The acquisition targets Intel's solid-state drive, Nand flash memory, and wafer businesses, as well as one of its factories in Dalian, China. It is worth mentioning that this is Intel's only major chip manufacturing plant in China.

Although Intel is an American company that develops CPUs for personal computers and servers, and is also the world's largest manufacturer in this field, many people may not know that before running the CPU business, Intel started out in the flash memory business. Currently Intel'sNANDFlash memory chip devices are mainly used for hard drives and USBDevice and camera storage.

In fact, it's not surprising that Intel is selling its flash memory division this time around. since2019The year welcomed a new CEOSince then, Intel has been planning to focus on the company's processor business and sell a number of non-core businesses.In 2019, Intel sold the smartphone cellular modem division to Apple; at the beginning of this year, the home connectivity chip division was sold to MaxLinear Inc. ; A few months ago, it said it was looking into selling the flash memory division.

Intel was once the chip company with the highest market capitalization in the world, and now its repeated sales business deserves attention. So why is Intel beginning to massively adjust its business?

In the past, Intel's chip manufacturing process was on a par with TSMC, but time has changed, and Intel's chip manufacturing process has lagged behind TSMC.Intel's 7nm-based CPU products have been slow to be mass-produced, while the 5nm chip of the foundry company TSMC has entered the mass production stage. This has caused Intel's core business, processors, to lag behind rivals in manufacturing technology. Intel's flash memory business is considering focusing on its core business.

The US chip industry has been backfired, and the world has ushered in a new round of reshuffle

Objectively, Intel's flash memory business also does not have a strong competitive advantage in the market.According to data from market research firm TrendForce, in the second quarter of this year, Samsung, Western Digital, and SK Hynix occupied the top three market shares with 31.4%, 16%, and 11.7% respectively, while Intel ranked fifth with 11.5%.

Intel's willingness to sell the flash memory business has become stronger due to the recent sharp decline in the price of flash memory products, and the large investment required for R&D and production, making it difficult to guarantee profits.

Furthermore, the US introduced a policy restricting chip sales, which also had an adverse impact on Intel's flash memory business.First, many overseas customers have begun to consciously turn to other countries to buy chip products. Earlier, the International Semiconductor Association, which represents the interests of the US semiconductor industry, warned that if the US restricts chip sales activities, it may lose money200One billion dollars (approximately 1330)(100 million yuan) business.

Second, due to the need to promote chip localization, Chinese chip manufacturers are entering the flash memory field and increasing investment, which means that international competition is becoming more and more intense, and Intel's profit prospects are becoming poor. To some extent, US policies have in turn limited the development of the domestic chip industry.

If Intel successfully sells its memory business to SK Hynix, then this means that the global flash memory chip industry will be reshuffled. Hynix will rise to the second largest flash memory chip manufacturer in the world in one fell swoop, and America's influence in this segment will be greatly damaged. This is probably just a microcosm. As the US continues to “reverse” its chip policy, America's leading position in the global chip industry may also face an impact.

Text | Zhisheng Zhi Sheng Question | Ling Ming Tu | Review by Jao Jianning | Li Zeplun