強強聯手? 清華紫光成功收購武漢新芯!

China created the country's largest chip maker last week, taking a giant step forward towards Beijing's plan of becoming less reliant on foreign technology.

上週，中國境內最大的芯片製造商誕生了，這使得中國政府距離減少對國外科技依賴的目標又前進了一大步。

Under Beijing's direction, Tsinghua Unigroup, China's largest chip designer, acquired a majority stake in XMC, one of the China's leading chip maker and backed by the national semiconductor fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. A new holding company was created for XMC called Yangtze River Storage Technology, which has a registered capital of 18.9 billion yuan ($2.8 billion).

據華爾街日報報道，在政府的授意下，中國大陸最大的芯片設計商清華紫光集團完成了對行業領先的芯片製造商、由國家集成電路產業投資基金扶持的武漢新芯多數股權的收購，成立名爲"武漢長江存儲科技有限公司"的新控股公司，註冊資金高達189億人民幣（28億美元）。

Yangtze combines Tsinghua Unigroup's investment power and XMC's engineering team, said Roger Sheng, a Shanghai-based research director for semiconductors at Gartner IT , adding that the merger is the first case between two Chinese companies in the semiconductor industry.

武漢長江存儲科技有限公司整合了清華紫光的投資能力和武漢新芯的技術團隊。高德納諮詢（全球最具權威的IT研究與顧問諮詢公司）上海公司總監Roger Sheng表示，兩個中國本土企業合併在半導體制造業尚屬首例。

China imports around $200 billion of chips a year, which is the biggest trade deficit in the global semiconductor market, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. The creation of Yangtze would indeed benefit the country in the long run, but it will first have a negative impact on the smaller domestic players, said Sheng.

根據新華社的報道，中國每年進口芯片的費用高達200億美元，是全球半導體市場中最大的貿易逆差。Roger Sheng表示，從長遠來看，武漢長江存儲科技有限公司的成立有利於中國在該行業的發展，不過首當其衝受到影響的是中國國內規模較小的芯片製造商。

"Currently, I think other Chinese companies that want to invest in the memory business are most impacted because the new company will get the most resources and support from the Chinese government," he said. "The other companies or regional governments can't get as big an investment as Yangtze. Global chip makers are safe for at least a few years, with Yangtze needing at least two to three years to get commercialization capability, unless Tsinghua Unigroup can acquire companies with current mainstream 3D NAND (a next-generation flash memory chip) or DRAM (computer memory chips)."

Roger Sheng說道："我認爲想要投資存儲行業的國內企業受到的衝擊應該最嚴重，因爲武漢長江存儲將會壟斷大部分的資源，而且它還有政府的支持。其他製造商或是地方企業不可能獲得像長江存儲那麼大的投資。全球性的芯片製造商暫時不會受到大的影響，因爲武漢長江存儲至少需要兩到三年的時間培養商業化的能力，除非清華紫光可以併購擁有目前主流的3D NAND閃存技術和DRAM存儲技術的企業。"

XMC, however, is developing today's leading-edge 3D NAND chips to be test-ready by the end of this year, said Hui He, a senior analyst for China's semiconductor market at IHS Technology.

不過，IHS公司半導體行業的資深分析師何慧卻表示，目前武漢新芯已經在研製高水平3D NAND閃存芯片，即將在今年年末投入測試。

After the proven product ramp-up period, "all global memory vendors will be affected," said Gartner's Sheng. "Chinese companies could own the market with proven product manufacturing capabilities. It will definitely impact existing market players through cheaper and volume product supply."

Roger Sheng表示："在爬坡量產過後，全球的存儲芯片供應商都會受到影響。屆時，中國企業將擁有過硬的產品生產能力，有能力向市場提供更多，更便宜的產品。毫無疑問，目前半導體芯片市場的主要製造商一定會受到衝擊。"