UKRI denies pulling funding from Newport Wafer Fab over Chinese ownership concerns
- Reference: 1627034465
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/23/ukri_denies_newport_wafer_fab_fund_issue/
- Source link:
[1]The Telegraph was the first to report claims from an unnamed source that UKRI had pulled grant funding from Newport Wafer Fab earlier this week. The reason: concerns over the chip-making facility's [2]acquisition by Nexperia , which while based in the Netherlands is [3]owned by Wingtech Group - itself owned, in part at least, by the Chinese state.
UKRI, however, told The Register that the claims are incorrect, with a spokesperson setting the record straight with a simple two-word statement: "Funding continues."
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That doesn't mean it will continue indefinitely, however. Earlier this month Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged a [5]national security investigation into the takeover of the facility, which employs 450 people.
[6]
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Tensions are running high on the matter. "Given that this is an aggressive attack," Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative member for Chingford and Woodford Green, [8]brought up during a Commons debate on the topic of state-sponsored cyber-attacks this week, "why are the government allowing the UK's largest silicon chip manufacturer, Newport Wafer Fab, to be bought by a Chinese firm when they know very well what they are up to?"
"My right honourable friend makes the point about Chinese investment, or Chinese purchasing - specifically Newport Wafer Fab - and that is a decision that the government are looking to review," James Cleverly, Conservative member for Braintree and Minister for State at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, replied.
[9]
"We have considered this issue thoroughly, and will continue to monitor the situation closely," a government spokesperson confirmed to The Register . "The National Security Adviser is reviewing this case and we will not hesitate to take further action if needed. We remain committed to the semiconductor sector, and the vital role it plays in the UK’s economy."
The sale of Newport Wafer Fab to foreign investors comes as other nations, including [10]Russia , [11]India , and [12]China , work to increase their native technology capabilities. It also follows on the heels of the 2016 sale of Cambridge-based low-power computing giant Arm to [13]Japan's SoftBank - which it then turned around and [14]sold to Nvidia .
When contacted for comment, Newport Wafer Fab asked that we speak to Nexperia. Nexperia, however, declined to provide a comment on matters of funding. ®
Updated to add at 11:29 UTC on 23 July 2021:
Nexperia has been in touch to say: "Our parent company is not Chinese state-owned as has been asserted. Wingtech Technology Co. Ltd is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a vast and diverse number of public shareholders.
"The entirety of Wingtech's issued share capital is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with only one class of shares in issuance. All shares have the same rights attached to them."
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/07/20/chip-factory-sold-china-involved-taxpayer-funded-defence-project/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/uk_newport_wafer_fab_probe/
[3] https://www.nexperia.com/about/news-events/press-releases/new-ownership-opens-up-opportunities-for-nexperia.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YPrnpHwwlKkJBIhczPaFbgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/uk_newport_wafer_fab_probe/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPrnpHwwlKkJBIhczPaFbgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YPrnpHwwlKkJBIhczPaFbgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-07-20/debates/72A109F3-212C-4371-8B82-B70E49DFA1FB/Cyber-AttackMicrosoft?#contribution-77A95552-4992-4696-9A57-25FA7D52ACF3
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPrnpHwwlKkJBIhczPaFbgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/yadro_riscv/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/19/india_microprocessor_challenge_risc_v/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/06/xiangshan_risc_v/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2016/07/18/softbank_to_buy_arm_holdings_say_reports/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/nvida_arm_acquisition/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Such victimhood
This is the problem with putting all your manufacturing eggs in one basket, you're dependant.
uk.gov don't need an excuse ...
... to pull funding from the microelectronics/semiconductor sector. It's been their policy for decades. Satellites is where it's at!
Re: uk.gov don't need an excuse ...
What are satellites needed for these days? Comms? No, the worlds covered by fiber. Sat TV? Nope broadband again. weather forcasting? Maybe... is that a big market? Military, spying on Asia and wishing you weren't a nation of micromanagers perhaps?
Solar is where it's at! Payback for my farm is ~5 years, if I add 28kWh of lithium (overkill) and do an off grid its ~8 years. Free money with a rapid payback, just as long as I hire the sparkies and welders myself, rather than pay a 'specialist' solar company that triples the price. China and Korean dominate that.
Electric vehicles are next.
Superconductors in pure research, are next.
Lots of things might be the next big thing.
Nobody can set up a business in UK the way they do in Asia. Here, you simply decide to do something and do it and the office space is cheap, and the staff are cheap and the regulation is "post-liabiity", not "pre-permission of a numpty on a power-trip".
If I was Boris, I would make the first £100k of money a person makes in their life as self employed, tax free. You set up a business, try to make it successful, you lower all barriers to zero, free co-working spaces, tax man helps you with the accountancy, you have webhelp, specialist marketing help available dirt cheap, and you have a window of your first £100k of sales and that's it, one shot in life to make your new thing. See what new things your people can make if you give them the chance.
You don't know what's next till it happens, all you can do is create the space for there to be a next. You won't compete against Asia, but you can compete *with* Asia.
So Boris, bless him, imagined a money island like Singapore. Yet has taken no steps to achieve that. Singapore is a faded glory, it was a port hub for a while, repacking Chinese cargo ships by destination, but China does that now. It was a money hub, a stock investing hub, now its OECD'd and customers do the numpty dance, money went to HongKong instead, now its a garden with lights show, a theme park island, an overpriced tourist destination.
He needs a different role model for the UK. I don't think he has it.
Re: uk.gov don't need an excuse ...
In Boris's view satellites seem to be where it's at. They still need their EU-free GPS system* which is why they bought a communications satellite business.
* Insert usual guff about being world-leading etc.
Reciprocity
Is China funding our companies in their country? Do these even exist?
Re: Reciprocity
You can't trade in china unless you have a chinese company, and you can't have a chinese company unless there's a large chinese stakeholder. There's a very limited pool of chinese investors who will take on those 'partnerships', and you may guess that their influence isn't limited to simple business interests.
Before we start accusing people of trying to acquire a technical advantage from this aquisition, let's look at what Newport Wafer Fab's capabilities are:
https://www.newportwaferfab.co.uk/about/facility
"Current capacity is 32,000 wafer starts per month of 0.18µm and above [...]"
0.18µm is Pentium III era technology (Coppermine, launched October 1999)
The latest technology from Intel is 10nm (0.01µm), and from Apple / TSMC is 5nm. Other chips are typically around 7nm to 8nm.
The £3.20 Raspberry Pi Pico uses a chip with a 40nm process node, or you can get the chip on its own for about 60p each in quantities of 500.
The Chinese company SMIC can produce chips on a 14nm process node.
So, while the stuff coming out of Newport may be useful to somepeople, it can in no way be described as modern technology.
But these are British chips and so better whatever the numbers say.
Anyway you can't believe numbers unless they are written on the side of a bus
Mmmm, chunky chips...
Chunky chips...
... in the Belgian style. With tons of mayonnaise and a Straffe Hendrick green ———>
Re: Chunky chips...
I raise you by sauce andalouse and Triple Westmalle.*
*Once you've gone trappist, you'll always be papissed...(?)
Re: Chunky chips...
"in the Belgian style"
Certainly not. That's in the EU.
> The latest technology from Intel is 10nm (0.01µm), and from Apple / TSMC is 5nm. Other chips are typically around 7nm to 8nm.
Since the 1990's the "nm" process name is simply a commercial name for a generation of a certain size and its technology, and does not represent any geometry of the transistor.
Intel 10nm process (which is a commercial/marketing name for 100.76 million transistors per square millimeter) is roughly the same as TSMC 7nm process (which is a commercial/marketing name for 91.2 million transistors per square millimeter) and Samsung 7nm process (which is a commercial/marketing name for 95.08 million transistors per square millimeter).
ref: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/7_nm_lithography_process or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_nm_process#7_nm_process_nodes_and_process_offerings
It's not just whether it's the latest/greatest leading/bleeding edge node.
Some analogue IP is not available on newer smaller geometries. Neither is embedded flash. (AaaAaaaaah!)
One of the nodes ramping up right now for apps in many market segments is 22nm.
Such victimhood
"Given that this is an aggressive attack," Iain Duncan Smith," Wow, such victimhood.
"China attacked our mail servers.... look here's the photos, id, rank, employment history, employment tree of their division, gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, of the people that did it and other information that somehow fell into our laps from the cloud..... we should refuse to accept Chinese money, their cooperation and their help withour crappy loss making economy!"
No doubt lots of Chinese data falls magically into your laps from the cloud.
You owe Huawei an apology, they didn't have the backdoors you claimed, they opened their code and cooperated. You made false accusations, you lied.
There is no win here trying to wage economic warfare based on lies, against the worlds biggest manufacturing economy, with nearly half the worlds population, that manufactures almost everything you use.