NEWS

According to IHS forecasts, the number of light vehicle production cuts caused by chip shortages in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to 672,000, and the production of 1.3 million vehicles will be cut in the second quarter.
The chip shortage started from the automotive industry and quickly swept through the entire manufacturing industry. A study by the leading international investment bank Goldman Sachs points out that as many as 169 industries around the world have been hit by the chip shortage to some extent, including all industries from consumer electronics, steel products, concrete production to air conditioning manufacturing, beer production, and even soap manufacturing.

The "butterfly effect" caused by the chip shortage, not only affects the current manufacturing production, but also reshapes the existing pattern of chip production model in the long run.

Chip production mainly includes design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and there are two main production models: integrated device manufacturing (IDM), and wafer foundry. Wafer foundry is divided into the Fabless and Foundry models. In the global IC industry, the IDM model is the base model of the chip industry and has been dominating the industry as well. However, in recent years, with the emergence of wafer foundry, the foundry industry has risen, and constantly "besiege" the traditional IDM model, and there are even comments that foundry has overshadowed the trend of IDM.

As the global political situation changes now, especially with the impact of the epidemic, more countries are paying great attention to supply chain security and considering how to make up the supply chain. In the future, for the purpose of strategic security, not only the chip industry uses IDM model as the base, but also most industries have IDM as the base, including masks and medical devices, so that own strategic materials that can be self controlled. In March of this year, the new CEO Pat Kissinger of Intel—the representative of the IDM model, announced that it will be revolutionized towards a "light IDM model" while insisting on continuing to use the IDM model. The new model is called IDM 2.0, with undertaking wafer foundry and packaging business as the biggest highlight, which means direct competition with TSMC and Samsung.

Huawei also intends to develop to the IDM model so as to self control the production links such as chip development, production, packaging and testing in its own hands.