SMIC Dreaming of Semiconductor Independence, Recruiting Talent from Taiwan

Major Stock Incentives for Executives from SMIC and TSMC in China

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] SMIC, China's largest semiconductor foundry company under U.S. sanctions, is intensifying efforts to secure key personnel for semiconductor self-reliance.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 29th, SMIC granted Zhou Zixue, Chairman, Liang Mengsong, Co-CEO, and Zhang Sangyi, Executive Director, the rights to purchase 400,000 shares each of the company's stock at a price of 20 yuan per share.

The purchase price is about 65% lower than the market price (59 yuan per share as of the previous day's close), an unprecedented condition.

Liang Mengsong and Zhang Sangyi are former executives of Taiwan's TSMC, and this incentive benefit is aimed at attracting senior talent from Taiwan's TSMC.

Earlier, SMIC announced a large-scale stock incentive policy targeting its employees, offering stock incentives to about 4,000 employees, approximately 23% of its workforce.

Chairman Zhou said about the stock incentive policy, "It is targeted at the company's core technical personnel."

SMIC, under U.S. sanctions, is actively securing technical personnel for semiconductor technology self-reliance, especially offering incentives to attract senior talent from Taiwan's TSMC.

SMIC's revenue in the first quarter of this year increased by 12% from $981 million in the fourth quarter of last year to $1.104 billion. Its market share based on revenue also rose from 4% in the fourth quarter of last year to 5%.

Charles Shum, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, evaluated, "SMIC is competitively recruiting Taiwanese talent by offering unprecedented conditions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.