全球半导体产业重心继续向中国转移

HONG KONG — After Intel and Foxconn said they would build advanced factories in America, it might have seemed as if the United States were gaining high-end manufacturing momentum.

香港——在英特尔(Intel)和富士康(Foxconn)宣布将在美国修建先进的工厂后，也许看上去美国似乎在高端制造业势头强劲。

But on Friday, the California-based chip maker GlobalFoundries announced a $10 billion project in China, showing how the center of gravity continues to shift across the Pacific.

但周五，总部设在加利福尼亚州的芯片制造商GlobalFoundries宣布了一个投资额达100亿美元(约合700亿元人民币)的项目，投资的目的地是中国。这表明，重心继续在向太平洋对岸转移。

The new advanced semiconductor factory, in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, is only the most recent in an array of investments, often by major multinationals, into China with the support of the Chinese government. The projects have become markedly more sophisticated, making more modern microchips, memory chips or flat-panel displays.

该公司计划在中国腹地的成都新建一座先进的半导体工厂。这只是最近在中国政府的支持下进入中国的一系列投资中距今最近的一笔。这些投资的主体通常是大型跨国企业。相关项目已明显变得更加高级，生产的产品则是更先进的微芯片、记忆芯片或平板显示器。

The reason for the shift is in part the Chinese government. In 2013 Beijing announced a major initiative to expand the country’s ability to produce microchips, which act as the brains of everything from guided missiles to smartphones. Also driving the companies, according to analysts, are new guidelines urging Chinese electronics makers to buy chips made in China.

重心转移的原因部分在于中国政府。2013年，北京宣布了一个旨在增强中国微芯片生产能力的重大行动。微芯片是从制导导弹到智能手机在内的一切物品的大脑。据分析人士称，号召中国电子器件制造商购买中国制造的芯片的新指导方针，也在推动相关公司的决策。

Since China has begun focusing on semiconductors, the provenance of advanced chips has become an increasingly fraught political issue. The United States government has blocked several Chinese deals for American and European chip companies during the past two years, and a commission created by former President Barack Obama said China’s chip policies posed a risk to American companies.

因为中国已经开始把重点放在半导体上，先进芯片的出处成了一个越来越令人担忧的政治问题。过去两年，美国政府叫停了中国向美国和欧洲芯片公司发出的交易要约，而前总统贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)成立的一个委员会则称，中国的芯片政策对美国公司构成了危险。

The election of President Trump has further increased pressure on companies, several of which have announced plans to build facilities in America. In Intel’s case, it was a recommitment to an earlier plan the company had announced.

特朗普总统当选导致相关公司面临的压力进一步增加，其中几家已经宣布了在美国建厂的计划。以英特尔为例，该公司再次承诺实施其早前宣布的一个计划。

Leading China’s charge have been both the central and provincial governments, which have been spending billions of dollars on investments and subsidies. The government has said China will spend about $100 billion to bring chip factories and research facilities to China.

领导中国这场攻势的，既有中央政府，也有省一级政府。它们在投资和补贴上花了数十亿美元。政府称中国将投资大约1000亿美元，用于把芯片工厂和研究设施引入中国。

“Almost all of the large semiconductor enterprises in the United States have received investment offers from Chinese state actors,” according to a report from the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank based in Germany. The report added that China’s newest industrial policy, Made in China 2025, had named semiconductors as a crucial area to improve.

“美国几乎所有大型半导体企业都收到过中国代表政府机构的主体发出的投资要约，”总部设在德国的智库墨卡托中国研究中心(Mercator Institute for China Studies)发布的一份报告称。该报告还接着表示，中国最新的工业政策《中国制造2025》将半导体列为了需要提升的关键领域。

Although analysts remain unsure of how quickly China might be able to close a huge gap with companies from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States, the funds have been slowly attracting new plants. A semiconductor industry group said in a recent report that it was tracking the production of more than 20 semiconductor manufacturing plants in China.

尽管分析人士仍不确定中国大概能在多长时间内消除与日本、韩国、台湾和美国公司之间的巨大差距，但资金一直在慢慢吸引新的工厂。一个半导体行业组织在最近的一份报告中称，自己正在追踪中国逾20家半导体制造厂的生产情况。

“Such spending momentum will drive China to the top-tier bracket for fab equipment and is paving the way to establish China’s position on the global semiconductor stage,” according to a recent report by SEMI, a global microelectronics industry association, referring to tools used to fabricate chips.

“这种花钱势头将推动中国获得顶级微芯片制造设备，并且正在为建立中国在全球半导体舞台上的地位铺平道路，”全球微电子行业协会SEMI最近发布的一份报告说。它指的是用来制造芯片的工具。

The GlobalFoundries project is being built in cooperation with the Chengdu municipal government. GlobalFoundries declined to specify the amount of the investment, but several documents on government websites put the total project around $10 billion.

GlobalFoundries的项目已经开建了，与它合作的是成都市政府。GlobalFoundries拒绝透露具体的投资金额，但政府网站上的几份文件称，该项目总投资100亿美元左右。

Jason Gorss, a GlobalFoundries spokesman, declined to provide financial details but said in an email that “industry analysts estimate that the total cost of an advanced semiconductor fab is on the order of $10B and this fab will be in that range.” It is not clear how much investment is being provided by the company and how much by the Chengdu government.

GlobalFoundries的发言人贾森·戈尔斯(Jason Gorss)拒绝提供财务细节，但在一封电子邮件中称“行业分析人士估计，修建一座先进的半导体制造厂的成本约为100亿美元，这座制造厂将在这个范围内”。目前尚不清楚该公司和成都市政府分别负担多少投资。

Although the semiconductors produced at the plant will be a generation behind the most cutting-edge chip technology, they are based on a special design that is likely to make them useful in sensors for mobile devices, cars and other gadgets that are increasingly being connected to computer networks.

尽管该工厂生产的半导体将落后最尖端的芯片技术整整一代，但它们是基于一个特殊的设计。这种设计可能会让它们能够用于移动设备、汽车和其他日渐和计算机网络相连的器械的传感器中。

GlobalFoundries is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and owned by Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates. The company has semiconductor plants across the world, including two former IBM plants in the United States that it uses to make chips for the American military.

GlobalFoundries的总部设在加利福尼亚州的圣克拉拉，为阿拉伯联合酋长国的成员国之一阿布扎比所有。该公司的半导体工厂遍布全球，包括美国境内的两座用来为美国军方生产芯片的工厂。这两家工厂原本属于IBM。

Although Intel and Foxconn have said they have plans to build in America, the factories being built in China greatly outnumber them.

虽然英特尔和富士康均表示计划在美国建厂，但中国境内的在建工厂在数量上远远超过了它们。

In late 2015, a leading chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, said it would build a production facility in China despite longtime concerns from Taiwan’s government about insulating the industry from Chinese competition and potential intellectual property theft. Late last year, another major chip maker from Taiwan, United Microelectronics, said it would build a factory on the east coast of China.

尽管台湾政府长期对让该行业摆脱中国的竞争和潜在的知识产权盗窃感到担忧，但2015年年底，领先的芯片制造商台湾积体电路制造股份有限公司表示将在中国修建一个生产工厂。去年年底，台湾另一家主要的芯片制造商联华电子宣布，将在中国东部沿海地区修建一座工厂。

Other companies have taken different approaches. The American chip maker AMD has licensed technology to a Chinese joint venture, also in Chengdu. IBM has licensed chip technology to a separate local partner.

其他公司则采取了不同的方式。美国芯片制造商AMD把技术授权给了一家同样位于成都的中国合资企业。IBM则把芯片技术授权给了当地另外一个合作伙伴。