It holds the lifeblood of Intel, Samsung and TSMC.
Speaking of mask aligner, the machines that only a few companies in the world can produce are called the flowers of modern industry. In the field of high-end mask aligner, ASML is the undisputed overlord. Why is this? Esmore is a major supplier and manufacturer of semiconductor lithography systems. More than 90% of the high-end market share is occupied by Esmore. Due to R&D costs and related technical difficulties, Nikon and Canon are gradually giving up the high-end mask aligner market.
Especially in the field of EUV (extreme ultraviolet) mask aligner, only Esmore can produce EUV mask aligner in the world. It is precisely because of the complete monopoly of the EUV lithography market that Esmore firmly holds the lifeblood of the three world-class technology giants: Intel, Samsung and TSMC. So why did Canon and Nikon give up the high-end mask aligner market? In fact, there is nothing we can do about it.
First of all, Esmore has a strong partner. In the field of lithography in the world, Zeiss in Germany is the first, Esmore is the second, and Hynix in Korea is the third. As a result, the first and the third are Esmore's partners.
Then there is Esmore's unique cooperation model. There is only one way to get priority from Esmore, and that is to buy shares in Esmore. Therefore, Intel, TSMC and Samsung invested in Esmore with 46,543.8 billion euros, 838 million euros and 503 million euros respectively.
Finally, Esmore's amazing R&D investment. Every year, Esmore spends 30% of its income on research and development, which is about 654.38+0.3 billion euros. And this is only half of Esmore's research and development expenses. You must ask, where does the other half come from? This is very interesting. The other half is produced by the three semiconductor giants Intel, TSMC and Samsung. This is amazing, not only can you get huge sums of money, but you can also form a * * * interest group, which is killing two birds with one stone.
If you think this is the best place in Esmore, you are wrong.
Only make 18 sets a year, and one set sells for 870 million!
At present, the most advanced EUV mask aligner can produce chips below 7 nanometers. What is the concept of 7 nanometers? 1 mm = 1000000 nm. So this accuracy can be imagined. It is such exquisite technology that is in the hands of one company, leading to monopoly. In addition, the mask aligner is not wanted. It is good to make 100 sets a year, but it is more difficult to make EUV mask aligner.
According to the financial report of 20 18 released by Esmore company, the global total shipments of mask aligner in 20 17 were 294 units, of which Esmore accounted for 68%, of which 1 1 EUV mask aligner were all manufactured by Esmore. The price of this 1 1 set of mask aligner exceeds 1 billion euros (equivalent to RMB 870 million). In 20 18, Esmore's annual revenue was 109 billion euros (equivalent to RMB 82.5 billion), while EUV mask aligner only produced 18 sets.
What is the concept of 870 million yuan for a machine? Let's give an easy-to-understand example, such as Boeing 737 MAX produced by Boeing Company. According to Boeing's quotation, a discounted Boeing 737-800 is quoted at $80 million (equivalent to RMB 560 million), which means that an EUV mask aligner is more than 300 million yuan more expensive than a Boeing 737!
If you want to buy a large plane, you can buy it, but you can't buy an EUV mask aligner if you want. At present, China can only buy low-end products of Esmore.
Chip manufacturing in China
Earlier, it was reported that SMIC bought an EUV mask corrector from Esmore. However, there is no large-scale procurement in China because EUV mask aligner is suitable for manufacturing processes below 7 nm, while domestic mass-produced chips are still at 14 nm and 28 nm.
However, in recent years, the domestic chip industry has developed vigorously. Take Huawei Hisilicon as an example. It burns billions of dollars for R&D every year, which not only breaks the monopoly of foreign countries, but also breaks into the international market, winning the digital camera market below $200 in the United States. Even Honeywell, one of the world's top 500 companies, has adopted Hisilicon chips.
In addition to Huawei, Spreadtrum Communications has become a new chip giant in recent years. Last year, its baseband chip shipments accounted for about 27% of the world's total, with about 700 million sets, making it the world-class giant with the third largest shipment after Qualcomm and MediaTek. The shipment of its single product SC653 1 (mobile phone chip) even surpassed that of Qualcomm and MediaTek.