Under the guidance of the opening strategy, technology giant Intel is rapidly expanding its chip foundry capacity through multiple acquisitions and plans to build its own factories on a large scale.
On February 15, Intel announced that it would buy Israeli semiconductor foundry gaota semiconductor (hereinafter referred to as gaota) for us $5.4 billion. According to the agreement, Intel will buy the tower for $53 per share in cash, but the company's last transaction is $33 per share, with a premium of up to 60%. It is reported that the transaction is expected to be completed within 12 months.
It is worth noting that high tower semiconductors will frequently sound and layout the Chinese market. Intel previously competed with TSMC and was in a weak position in the manufacturing process. After this transaction, what is Intel's deployment for the Chinese market? Can we alleviate the lack of core and what impact does it have on the industrial pattern and industrial chain?
expand the global OEM layout
Behind the big acquisition is Intel's ambition to expand to more chip OEM fields.
At the time of the decline of the original deep layout PC market, Intel began to increase the opening-up of wafer foundry, open its own chip foundry to all chip enterprises, and gradually wanted to turn its former competitors such as Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and NVIDIA into customers of its own wafer foundry business. Last year, Intel launched idm2 0 strategy, accelerate the degree of openness, and transform the business into a combination of "Intel factory + third-party capacity + OEM services".
"After pat Kissinger returned as CEO, Intel returned to the technical route and completely abandoned the toothpaste squeezing strategy that had lasted for a long time. The company's development strategy has also become more open. The expansion of wafer foundry capacity and the completion of the industrial chain are its focus." According to people familiar with the matter.
Recently, Intel announced the establishment of a $1 billion foundry services (IFS) innovation fund to make strategic investments in start-ups in the field of chip foundry. As pat Kissinger launched idm2 in March last year 0 strategy, which is a clear signal for Intel to reopen its wafer foundry service.
From the perspective of global chip sales, the huge growth force shown by the analog semiconductor market has attracted many OEM enterprises. Recently, according to the data released by the American Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the global semiconductor market sales in 2021 totaled US $555.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26.2%, a record high.
With the expansion of customers and the continuous growth of market demand, Intel is facing a huge gap in production capacity and chip supply. The acquisition of a mature chip company tower will help it rapidly expand its production capacity, supplement the industrial chain in the analog semiconductor and other markets with the largest demand and the fastest growth rate, and radiate to more chip OEM fields at the same time.
aiming at the top ten of wafer foundry?
In terms of market segmentation, as a product commonly used in the fields of automobile, consumer goods and computer, analog semiconductor has the highest average annual growth rate, reaching 33.1% in 2021. In addition, logic chips and memory products also increased by 30.8% and 30.9% over the previous year. Many giants such as adeno and Adi are accelerating the capacity expansion of analog semiconductor.
As the ninth largest wafer foundry in the world, tower semiconductor mainly focuses on analog chip production. At present, its market value is US $3.594 billion. It has expertise in professional technologies such as RF, power supply and industrial sensors, and carries out cross regional OEM business in mobile, automobile and power supply markets.
"Unlike digital chips, analog chips pursue advanced processes. Most of the processes are concentrated below 28nm. By acquiring mature enterprises, we can control the industrial chain. At present, the semiconductor consumption of analog chips for new energy vehicles is increasing rapidly. After Intel's acquisition, it can successfully fill a certain gap and open up more markets in the fields of automobiles and power chips." Ali MVP Ma Chao said that in addition, gaota semiconductor has many years of experience in RF, industrial sensors and other fields, which can form a good complementarity with Intel's long-term desktop and cloud computing fields. At present, only a few enterprises in the world can independently complete all processes of chip design, manufacturing and packaging and testing, including Intel, which will greatly improve its industrial chain and increase the chips to compete with TSMC and Samsung.
In addition to acquisitions, Intel itself is also building large-scale wafer factories. It is reported that last month, Intel announced a new wafer factory investment plan. It will build a new chip production base with an initial investment of US $20 billion in Ohio, which is expected to start production in 2025. The base will accommodate eight chip manufacturers.
Intel's continuous expansion of production capacity in the OEM battlefield and joint attack with the tower will affect the market pattern to a certain extent. According to Jibang consulting data, TSMC ranked first with a market share of 53.1% and tower semiconductor ranked ninth with a market share of 1.4% in the third quarter of last year.
After the acquisition, Intel is expected to enter the top ten of wafer foundry. With the release of production capacity of new factories in the next few years, its competition with leading enterprises such as TSMC and Samsung will be more intense.
can't resist the temptation of the Chinese market?
According to the financial report of gaota, in the third quarter of 2021, the operating revenue was US $387 million and the net profit was US $39 million. Intel bought the tower for $5.4 billion, equivalent to $53 per share. But the tower's last deal was $33 A share, with a premium of 60%, a high premium acquisition.
In this regard, the industry believes that in addition to the OEM capacity of the high tower, Intel is also concerned about the layout of its business in China.
Ma Chao said: "China has been making great efforts in Chinese mainland in recent years, and the Chinese market is showing great potential in the semiconductor industry."
According to the data released by SIA, China is the world's largest semiconductor market in 2021, with semiconductor market sales of US $192.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%. China's huge market has attracted more and more semiconductor manufacturers to layout and build factories in China. At the same time, China's local chip manufacturers are also accelerating their breakthrough.
Yi Xianjing, deputy general manager of Dixian information, told the reporter of Securities Daily, "With the improvement of the industry boom, many semiconductor companies now have abundant cash flow. Taking advantage of the fact that the valuation of some chip factories has not yet risen, it is a very cost-effective business to take the opportunity to expand their position through mergers and acquisitions, which is one of the reasons why mergers and acquisitions have occurred frequently in the global semiconductor industry recently. In the next few years, the market pattern will be fine tuned. The scale of Chinese chip manufacturers is also growing rapidly Development, and embark on the road of independent listing. With the improvement of the threshold and stricter supervision, the phenomenon of integration will increase. "
\u3000\u3000 "On the whole, Intel's acquisition of the tower is an epitome of the global shortage of chip supply. At present, the latest 4nm process technology is basically close to the physical limit, and there is little room for further improvement. Therefore, Intel is no longer persistent in catching up with TSMC in the process, but finds another way to develop in an all-round way on OEM chips with different architectures and specifications. Intel From professional to large and comprehensive mode, which in itself means that the imbalance in the chip field is intensifying, and the whole industrial chain will be stuck as long as there is no link. Therefore, Intel, AMD and NVIDIA have been buying in the past two years. Chinese manufacturers can also seize the opportunity to find suitable targets. " Ma Chao said.
