Working for SMIC -
Working there will be a challenge to your ethics, and
your patriotism.
There's two issues going on. Both of which have made the semiconductor
press. However in light of this, I would still consider going to work
there. As they are a place of opportunity, however I offer this warning.
Ongoing Lawsuit between SMIC and TSMC
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Ongoing Threats
(commentary omitted)
Like most things, we will never know the real story.
It's locked behind closed doors, and will never be revealed for fear
of pubic shame.
A history of Animosity between the two companies.
The president of SMIC used
to run a company which was bought out by TSMC. I don't know how much
overlap he personally had in the incident. But likely that there's a
personal feud going on between the president of SMIC, and the president
of TSMC. In what amounts to almost a biography,
the LA Times curiously omits that the "Taiwanese
Chip Maker" is in fact, TSMC.
I wouldn't be surprised if TSMC by virtue of it's size, initially was
dismissive. Till they looked and saw they had a real competitor, in
the their most highly targeted market.
While SMIC finds the whole situation profoundly, uncomfortably, irritating.
Their business is being supported by not only the Chinese
Government,
but by the US government as well.
I briefly read about one of the people from out here in Boston, who
went out to work for SMIC. Before he went, he simply worked as a loan
officer, at mid level position at Fleet Bank. Not exactly very glamorous
stuff. All of a sudden after going there to China, he's negotiating
international multimillion dollar loans. He's doing stuff he'd probably
never dreamed of. Bizarre, once in a blue moon things, like his story
of having to get in a taxi and carry a suitcase with 10 million in cash,
across town.
I
read in the newspaper, about his latest project which he'd been
working on for the past six months. It seems to be going down in flames,
because there's a US government supported entity (called the Export-Import
Bank, EXIM) won't guarantee a loan to a Chinese company, because a senator
from Idaho believed it was bad for companies in the US, particularly
in his home district. I have a hunch it was protectionist thinking.
I don't quite know if I agree with the whole assessment or not. Nonetheless
something's fishy, and it's been getting my patriotic blood boiling.
Do political decisions made in the United States senate affect companies
in far-flung countries around the world?
Of course they do.
But the issue is much more complex. If they don't buy it from the United
States will they go to Europe.
updated 02.23.2004
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