According to a report by the Chinese media “China Business News”, China’s largest foundry SMIC held an interim board of directors on the 15th. In addition to confirming the rumors at the meeting, Jiang Shangyi, the chief operating officer of Front End Semiconductors, returned to the position of vice chairman. In addition, the most surprising situation is that the current co-CEO Liang Mengsong submitted a written resignation to the board of directors at the meeting to protest that Jiang Shangyi’s return was not notified in advance, thinking that he was not respected. However, Zhou Zixue, chairman of SMIC, did not approve the resignation of Liang Mengsong on the spot.
The report pointed out that after Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor was shut down due to a broken chain of funds and was finally taken over by the Chinese government, SMIC Chairman Zhou Zixue strongly invited Jiang Shangyi, who previously served as Wuhan Hongxin CEO, to return to SMIC and serve as a deputy. The position of the chairman. However, Liang Mengsong, the current co-CEO of SMIC, did not know the matter beforehand, which made Liang Mengsong extremely dissatisfied with this, and angrily submitted a written resignation at the interim board of directors held on the 15th. The report also stated that SMIC’s announcement on the evening of the 15th stated that the interim board of directors had voted on the proposal to appoint vice chairman and executive director. However, Liang Mengsong abstained from voting on the motion for no reason.
In response to Liang Mengsong’s written resignation, the following is the full text:
Letter to the Board of Directors
Hello, chairman and directors!
I know that we will make a very important personnel appointment decision at this meeting today.
Currently, SMIC is facing various pressures from the United States, leading to serious threats to the development of advanced technology. I believe that today’s personnel proposal will inevitably affect the company’s prospects.
It has been more than three years since I was appointed as co-CEO by the board of directors in November 2017. In these more than 1,000 days, I almost never took a vacation. Even in June 2019, when I was experiencing life At the most dangerous moment, I never gave up or failed to live up to your entrustment to me.
During this period, I tried my best to complete five generations of technology development from 28nm to 7nm. This is a task that an average company takes more than ten years to accomplish. And these results are achieved by more than 2,000 engineers led by me, working hard day and night. Of course, the trust and support of the chairman and the directors in the past are also key elements of success.
I originally came to mainland China not to seek high-ranking officials, but simply to contribute to the mainland’s high-end integrated circuits. At present, 28nm, 14nm, 12nm, and n+1 technologies have all entered mass production, and the development of 7nm technology has also been completed. Risk mass production will be available in April next year. The 8 most critical and most difficult technologies of 5nm and 3nm have also been carried out in an orderly manner. Only when the EUV lithography machine arrives, we can enter the full development stage.
It seems that my short-term goal seems to have exceeded expectations and was successfully achieved.
I received a call from the chairman of the board on December 9th, last Wednesday morning: Mr. Jiang is about to become the vice chairman of the company. I was very surprised and puzzled about this, because I didn’t know anything about it beforehand. I deeply feel that I am no longer respected and distrusted. I think you should no longer need me here to continue to work hard for the company’s prospects. I can rest for a while.
After the company’s board of directors and shareholders’ meeting have approved Mr. Jiang’s nomination, I will formally submit my resignation. But the company should give a comprehensive and fair evaluation of my contribution over the past three years, and I should have the right to accept and appeal.
I solemnly tell you that I do not have the slightest intention to influence your next vote on this personnel appointment, but I think I should let everyone know my true feelings.
My statement hopes that Ms. Guo Guangli, secretary of the board of directors, can be included in the official meeting minutes of this interim board of directors.
thank you all.
So far, SMIC has not issued an official statement on Liang Mengsong’s resignation. However, once Jiang Shangyi’s return and Liang Mengsong’s dissatisfaction caused the company’s teapot storm, it was previously expected that the two major players will join hands to create SMIC’s future process development, which may be worthless. Follow up closely.
(First image source: SMIC official website)
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