Source: Giant Tidal WAVE
Author: Xie Zefeng
As the pinnacle industry in the global Technology sector, today's "Five Global Chip Giants" are all managed by Chinese individuals.
With the new CEO of Intel taking office, Chen Fuyang, Huang Renxun, Chen Liwu, Su Zifeng, and Wei Zhejia respectively lead.$Broadcom (AVGO.US)$、$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$、 $Intel (INTC.US)$ 、 $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ and$Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$The five major giants.
If the reference range is expanded further, including the IC design field's MediaTek,$Will Semiconductor (603501.SH)$The packaging and testing leader ASE,$JCET Group Co., Ltd. (600584.SH)$、$TongFu Microelectronics (002156.SZ)$In the foundry sector,$SMIC (00981.HK)$United Microelectronics, $HUA HONG SEMI (01347.HK)$ All of them are Chinese faces.
According to the current historical narrative of the industry, Integrated Circuits were originally invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, who founded the famous company.$Texas Instruments (TXN.US)$, Fairchild, and Intel. Since then, the entire industry has seen a west to east movement, with the semiconductor industries of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan rising successively, becoming significant players in the global Technology field.
The semiconductor industry originated in California's Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley), and then this spark began to spread to the Eastern Hemisphere, including Gyeonggi Province in South Korea, the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, Tokyo and Kyushu in Japan, Penang in Malaysia, and onto mainland China, with the whole industry moving eastward.
Beyond semiconductors, an increasing number of Chinese individuals are emerging in various technology enterprises due to their outstanding intelligence, diligent work ethic, strong adaptability, and resilience, even becoming one of the dominant forces in the global artificial intelligence sector.
The global participation of the Chinese community in the global high-tech industry has far exceeded what the Chinese populace can imagine. Whether in the relatively traditional Integrated Circuits industry or in various emerging Technology fields like artificial intelligence and robotics, it has basically turned into a full-fledged "Chinese civil war."
1. Eastern Power
On March 18, Intel's management launched a new round of major personnel changes, with Malaysian Chinese semiconductor expert Chen Liwu appointed as CEO. With this, the five industry giants of Broadcom, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, and Taiwan Semiconductor have all entered an era led by Chinese executives.
Due to missing out on the mobile and AI benefits, the former king of chips, Intel, is facing a downward trend. Last year, it suffered a massive loss of $18.8 billion, and its stock price was halved from its historical peak. Once the news of Chen Liwu's appointment as CEO was announced, Intel's stock price surged by 16%, highlighting the capital markets' attention and expectations for this Chinese entrepreneur.
Chen Liwu was born into a Chinese family in Malaysia and grew up studying in Singapore. During his time at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he majored in physics, later moving to the United States where he obtained a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's degree in business administration from the University of San Francisco.
He previously founded the venture capital company Huateng International and directly participated in investment projects including$Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (688981.SH)$、 $MEITUAN-W (03690.HK)$ DJI, Xilinx, and others, many of which have grown into semiconductor giants.
In 2004, he joined the Board of Directors, and five years later became CEO, transforming Cadence Design Systems from a traditional EDA tools provider into a system-level solution provider through acquisitions of key technologies and strengthening customer relationships.$Cadence Design Systems (CDNS.US)$As a result, Cadence achieved profitability, and its stock price skyrocketed more than 40 times during his 12-year tenure, establishing Chen Liwu's reputation.
After that, he continued to focus on investments in cutting-edge fields such as semiconductors, AI, and quantum computing. In 2022, Chen Liwu joined Intel's Board of Directors as a "semiconductor revival advisor," assisting then-CEO Pat Gelsinger, but the differences between them grew over time.
The last four CEOs of Intel successively missed out on Smart Phone chips, overlooked advanced process leaps, abandoned 5G modem chips, and failed in transforming into a foundry. The previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, was unable to turn the tide and left quietly.
Chen Liwu has successful operational experience and a wealth of industry resources and investment case reserves, possessing sufficient capability in both R&D and acquisitions. Therefore, the capital markets are quite optimistic about this "Eastern Savior" and are willing to invest real money.
Outside of Intel, the two dominating AI chip giants globally are also led by individuals of Chinese descent — NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang, who is currently in the spotlight, was born in Tainan City, Taiwan, and is originally from Qingtian County, Zhejiang, moving to the United States in the 1970s.
After experiencing a rather unhappy childhood, Jensen Huang was admitted to Oregon State University at the age of 16, majoring in electronic engineering. Later, he went on to further his studies at Stanford University.
In 1993, Jensen Huang shared a dream of entrepreneurship with his two close friends Chris Maltby and Curtis Prim at Danny's restaurant. Thirty-two years later, "Master Huang" has become a major player in the global technology scene.
Coincidentally, AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, was also born in Tainan City, and it has been revealed that she is a cousin of Jensen Huang. After earning her PhD, she advanced from Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale to AMD, becoming one of the hottest female entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
What makes this even more remarkable is that when she took over AMD, this "thousand-year-old second" in the CPU field was plummeting like a meteor, with annual revenue dropping nearly 40%, market share halved, and stock prices below $2. Yet ten years later, "Mother Su" led AMD back from the dead and transformed it into Jensen Huang's strongest competitor—this is also a reason for the capital markets' optimistic outlook on Intel's management change.
Likewise, Broadcom's CEO, Hock Tan, was also born in the Malaysian Chinese enclave of Penang and immigrated to the United States at an early age. In 1971, the gifted Hock Tan went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue his studies.
After joining NOV Inc, he launched a super battle vehicle.Mergers and Acquisitions.He successively acquired the storage chip company LSI and Broadcom for $6.6 billion and $37 billion, respectively. Now, 'New Broadcom' has soared to become the third largest IC design company in the world.
A look at the top ten IC design companies worldwide reveals that eight are related to Chinese individuals: six, including NVIDIA, MediaTek, Marvell, Nuvoton, Realtek, and Will Semiconductor, were founded by Chinese, while AMD and Broadcom are led by Chinese executives. The landscape of the "Chinese civil war" is becoming very obvious.
2. A Confluence of Events
If you stroll down the halls of Anthropic, OpenAI, or DeepMind, you will see many AI researchers who come from China. They are extremely talented, and their ability to produce outstanding results does not surprise me.
At the recently concluded Taipei International Computer Show, Jensen Huang did not hold back his praise for the rise of AI talent in China. He even stated, "50% of AI researchers worldwide are Chinese, and you cannot stop them."
As a provider of upstream chips, Huang's remarks naturally carry commercial considerations and may also include a good deal of flattering statements. However, the fact is that with the accumulation of Chinese and Chinese companies in IC design, chip manufacturing, and packaging and testing, the advantage of professional talent has gradually spread to the AI industry.
Currently, the packaging and testing industry, which has a low technical content, is almost entirely dominated by companies from mainland China and Taiwan. Among the top 10, there are 4 companies from mainland China—JCET Group Co., Ltd., TongFu Microelectronics, Tianshui Huatian Technology, and Zhilu Packaging, with a market share rising to 28.5%, far exceeding the last remaining American company, Amkor. Along with Taiwan's ASE, UNIMICRON, King Yuan Electronics, and ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES, there are a total of eight companies from China.
In the manufacturing sector, which has the highest technical barriers, Taiwan Semiconductor enjoys a dominant position. However, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and HUA HONG SEMI are also striving to catch up, with Hefei Jinghe rising to ninth in the world. Together with United Microelectronics, World Advanced Technology, and Powerchip, Chinese companies are increasingly capturing market shares from South Korea's Samsung and America's GlobalFoundries.
To some extent, AI is a product of the transition from quantitative to qualitative changes in chip technology; it is the accumulation in the field of chips that has enabled the Chinese community to excel in the AI industry.
On February 18, Elon Musk showcased his "most powerful AI" Grok 3. At the launch event, he specifically reserved the main position for two Chinese scientists—Jimmy Ba and Wu Yuhua. Musk described himself as a "nodding machine," claiming that he had done nothing.
Looking at the founding team of x.AI, one-third are native Chinese scientists. Wu Yuhua is a native of Hangzhou, Zhang Guodong and Deepseek founder Liang Wenfeng are classmates from Zhejiang University, Yang Ge is a mathematical genius born in Hunan who studied undergraduate and master's degrees at Harvard University, and Dai Zihang graduated with a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University.
Even in OpenAI, which is unlocking the door to AGI, there are many Chinese figures in the team. The GPT-4o team includes six Chinese, all of whom graduated from top domestic universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and University of Science and Technology of China.
Among the ChatGPT R&D team, there are 9 Chinese members, accounting for more than one-tenth of the total number of people, who have contributed to the emergence of disruptive products such as the text-to-video model Sora.
According to the "2024 Silicon Valley Index" released by the Silicon Valley Joint Investment Company, 16% of the talent engaged in technology-related occupations in Silicon Valley are born in mainland China.
Additionally, there are notable figures such as Stanford University's AI Lab Director and DeepLearning.AI founder Andrew Ng, "AI mother" Fei-Fei Li, Lepton AI founder Jia Yangqing, Columbia University's Executive Vice President and computer scientist Zhou Yizhen, etc., showcasing the prominent position of Chinese people in the global Technology industry.
3. Industry Migration
The history of the development of Integrated Circuits is itself a picture of migration "from West to East."
Initially starting from the United States, it went through the rise of Japan and South Korea, with Taiwan leveraging its manufacturing advantages to catch up, and now mainland Chinese companies are emerging one after another like mushrooms after rain. During this period, companies fought fiercely against each other, weaving through alliances and rivalries, creating a business saga full of ups and downs.
In 1958-1959, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce created the world's first chip prototype and solved the mass production problem. From then on, Texas Instruments (TI) and Fairchild Semiconductor established themselves as the pioneers in the global semiconductor field. A decade later, the "Fairchild Eight" fell apart, and Noyce and Moore, along with Grove, left Fairchild Semiconductor to establish the later world-renowned Intel.
In the 1960s, NEC and Hitachi obtained key chip technologies through technology licensing from American companies, laying the foundation for the significant development of Japan's chip industry. By 1970, NEC opened technology to Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi, ultimately forming a massive industrial cluster.
In 1988, Japanese companies held more than half of the global chip industry's sales share, with six of the top ten companies coming from Japan.
At that time, Japanese chip companies were at their peak. Intel, led by Andy Grove, even held a meeting where they jokingly discussed several times how Intel could gracefully declare bankruptcy. One manager laughed and said, "Perhaps tomorrow morning you will see in the newspaper that the Japanese have spent lavishly to buy the near-bankrupt Intel."
However, the glory of Japanese companies did not last long. Similar to the overall situation of the Japanese economy, the United States strongly pressured through various non-market policies and coerced it into signing the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement. Meanwhile, American companies supported South Korea's Samsung, trying to "raise wolves" to contain Japan. Ultimately, the market share of Japanese semiconductor companies rapidly shrank to less than 10% today.
While Japanese companies thrived, South Korea's Samsung began to quietly develop. In February 1983, Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chul announced the formal entry into the semiconductor industry, and the South Korean government fully committed to overcoming technological difficulties and providing research and development funds.
After nearly a decade of fierce competition, Samsung surpassed Japan's NEC in 1992, becoming the world's largest DRAM manufacturer and has maintained that position for the following 33 years. Today, Samsung and SK Hynix can almost be said to monopolize the memory market, collectively taking more than half of the market share. It can be said that the entire global memory sector looks to South Korea.
The semiconductor industry in Southeast Asia is highlighted by Malaysia, which benefits from a superior geographical location, a surplus of engineers, and lower manufacturing costs. Malaysia's role in the world semiconductor market is increasingly prominent.
As early as more than 50 years ago, Intel established a subsidiary in Penang, and today, Malaysia is the sixth largest semiconductor exporter in the world, accounting for 7% of the global chip trade total and reaching 13% in packaging and testing. In the context of increasingly intense great power competition, the role of Malaysian chip manufacturers as a central hub is becoming increasingly significant.
In 2022, one quarter of Malaysia's GDP came from the semiconductor industry. Semiconductor exports accounted for 62% of Malaysia's electronic product exports.
With the rise of AI, cloud Servers, edge computing, and Silicon Carbide are driving the demand for advanced packaging. Malaysia is experiencing another wave of "money-making trend." Intel, Texas Instruments, Bosch, Infineon have all begun a new round of investments during this period. Malaysia has announced an ambitious plan to allocate 5.3 billion dollars over the next 5-10 years to train 0.06 million local semiconductor engineers, shaping itself into a global semiconductor hub.
Under the strategic push of talent incentives, the influence of Malaysian Chinese in the global technology arena will be elevated again—of course, this is also part of the internal conflict among the Chinese in the global chip sector.
4. In conclusion
It is foreseeable that in the future, there will be more and more Chinese faces in the global AI field.
The formation of this pattern is closely related to historical population migration, industrial migration, technology transfer, and the cultural and intellectual characteristics of the Chinese community. It can even be said that the strong subjective initiative and problem-solving ability of the Chinese cultural circle determine how far the global chip industry can develop.
Huang Renxun, Su Zifeng, Chen Fuyang, Zhou Yizhen, Li Feifei are all Chinese Americans, some of whom left mainland China generations ago, which means the issue of stance always exists. Although the physical characteristics of Chinese worldwide show little difference, they ultimately represent the interests of their respective countries and companies.
The most typical example is Li Feifei, whose journey from dishwashing to entering Princeton, and eventually becoming the "Godmother of AI," has been packaged into a classic "American Dream," becoming a beacon for the U.S. to attract global talent, especially Chinese technology elites.
When national interests conflict and corporate interests show contradictions, each Chinese technology leader in different companies will make their own choices. This "Chinese civil war" in the field of technology is likely to continue to deepen.
Editor/rice
