The co-chief executives of China’s largest chipmaker are fighting over whether to build a profitable business or focus on leading-edge technology, highlighting the problems plaguing the government’s push to build an indigenous semiconductor manufacturing sector.
Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is considering leaving the company because Beijing policymakers are prioritising the work of co-CEO Liang Mong-song to develop more advanced chip production at 14-nanometre resolution (14 billionths of a metre) and smaller.
This is taking priority over Mr Zhao’s own efforts to expand commercially viable operations using older generations of process technology, according to seven people familiar with the situation. Scores of executives are being replaced to align management more closely with Mr Liang’s goals, the people said.