https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3197320/tech-war-shanghai-launches-new-campus-train-personnel-semiconductor-sector-us-curbs-decrease-chinas?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepageTech war: Shanghai launches new campus to train personnel for semiconductor sector as US curbs decrease China’s chip talent pool
- The
Lingang Special Area has teamed up with Shanghai University and the
city’s Integrated Circuit Industry Association to set up the new campus
- It
marks the third such training campus set up in Shanghai, following
those established in Jiading district and in the town of Zhangjiang
The
municipal government of Shanghai, China’s largest city and
semiconductor highland, has launched a new campus to train fresh talent
for the domestic chip industry, as the country casts a wide net for
skilled personnel after Washington’s latest hi-tech restrictions.
The
Lingang Special Area, part of the Chinese metropolis’ vast free-trade
zone, joined forces with Shanghai University and the city’s Integrated
Circuit Industry Association to set up the training facility where new
talent for the semiconductor sector would be trained, according to a
statement on Tuesday by local authorities in Lingang. It
marked the third such campus set up in Shanghai, following one
established in Jiading district in late September and another in August
at Zhangjiang, a town in Pudong district that is known as the city’s own
“Silicon Valley”, where a hi-tech industrial estate is located.
These
moves have come after Shanghai rolled out a slew of generous incentives
in January, as part of the city’s policy to attract new talent and
companies that form part of the semiconductor supply chain. One the
programmes under this policy is training both senior university students
who have not studied microelectronics and veteran workers who have not
been involved in chip assembly.
A wide aerial view of the Lingang Special Area, part of Shanghai’s vast free-trade zone. Photo: Shutterstock
Shanghai’s
sharpened focus on manpower training for the semiconductor industry
reflects the urgency brought by the impact of Washington’s latest
hi-tech restrictions on the country’s chip sector.
The new campus
is expected to bolster Lingang’s hopes to transform the area into a
“world-class base for the integrated circuit industry”, similar to
Silicon Valley in California, Taiwan and Gyeonggi-do province in South
Korea, according to Lu Yu, deputy director of the hi-tech and industrial
development division of the Lingang Special Area Management Committee,
at an event on Monday to mark the launch of the new campus.
An
untapped 119.5 square kilometre area in Lingang was included in
Shanghai’s vast free-trade zone in 2019. The area has so far attracted
more than 180 companies, such as Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corp and Shanghai GTA Semiconductor, and a total
investment of more than 290 billion yuan (US$39.70 billion), Lu said.
The
latest restrictions announced by the US Department of Commerceearlier
this month cover rules that “restrict the ability of US persons to
support the development or production” of chips at “certain
China-located semiconductor fabrication ‘facilities’ without a licence”. While
specifics on implementation remain unclear, the rules may cast a shadow
over technology personnel either holding US citizenship or permanent
residency at Chinese chip companies.
China’s
semiconductor self-sufficiency drive is widely known to be hampered by
chronic shortage of talent in the industry. About 40 per cent of the
country’s chip sector professionals live in Shanghai as of August,
according to official statistics.