An article entitled “The Mainland has employed a large number of chip talents from Taiwan with its generous salaries and wealth” has become popular on the Internet. Since the establishment of a $22 billion sound module industry development fund in China in 2014, nearly 1,000 such people have traveled to the mainland. It points out that the big increase of salary; eight free returns to home each year and a high subsidized apartment are an ideal job that cannot reject for a Taiwan chip engineer.
Taiwan sound module talent: 3 years working in the mainland is equal to 10 years working in the island
From the fermentation of the ZTE event to the D-round financing of AI Speech China, the chip industry in mainland China has developed rapidly. However, there is nothing happens at one blink at all. Talents are indispensable for the rapid development of the chip industry. “If you stay in Taiwan, then you will not have any chance. It is for hope to come to mainland China,” said a Taiwanese engineer working in mainland China.
Since 2014, it has become a key part of actively developing sound module industry in mainland China so as to reduce dependence on overseas companies to attract semiconductor talents from Taiwan. Compared with the recruitment of talents from Korea, Japan, and even European and American countries, Taiwanese engineers can better adapt to the environment of the mainland and devote to working faster and better because of the same culture and language. Although the Taiwanese authorities have revised the relevant regulations to retain talents and promised to relax the tax control on employee stock ownership in order to help enterprises retain talents, the effect is very little. Mainland companies not only offer salaries three times higher than that of Taiwan but also have a list of engineers in their hands. Many Taiwanese engineers cannot resist the temptation of high salaries, high benefits and high positions offered by mainland chip manufacturers such as SMI International Company. Many Taiwanese engineers even have said frankly that “three years’ earning in mainland China is equivalent to ten years’ earning in Taiwan”.
According to the statistical analysis of H&L Management Consultants data from Taipei Recruitment Company, it is estimated that more than 300 senior engineers from Taiwan have gone to Chinese mainland sound module manufacturers so far this year.
An engineer who did not want to be named said that his mainland employer offered him a new three-bedroom apartment with a 40% discount on the condition that he worked for more than five years at the company and raised his salary by 50%. He also said: “the mainland companies dare to burn money, and the resources of Taiwan Company are limited.”
On July 10, 2018, Luo Wen, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, went to ZOL, Beijing to conduct an on-the-spot investigation of AI sound module.
After reviewing the AI sound modules, algorithm development, application situation, existing problems and relevant opinions and suggestions reflected by enterprises, he went to Shenzhen without a single-halt to investigate some AI and sound module enterprises, and attended the Symposium on the development of AI chip industry.
At the Symposium on the development of the AI chip industry, Luo Wen responded and affirmed the situation of AI sound module enterprises in Beijing and Shenzhen.
Luo Wen pointed out that AI sound module is the strategic commanding point of the development of the information technology industry. It’s market prospects are broad, the technological path has not yet been determined, and the industrial ecology is forming, which provides us with a rare opportunity to achieve innovative development. This survey adheres to the problem orientation, focuses on understanding the situation and identifying key issues, and puts forward targeted and operational measures and suggestions, providing an important basis for the next precise implementation of the policy. At the Symposium on the Development of Artificial Intelligence Chip Industry in Shenzhen, Luo Wen put forward four aspects to promote the development of Shenzhen Artificial Intelligence Sound module Industry.
Firstly, docking the national strategy. The state has issued a series of plans in the field of artificial intelligence. Enterprises should actively integrate product planning with national strategy according to the requirements of national planning and deployment.
Secondly, highlight the integration of applications. Shenzhen city should give full play to the advantages of whole machine application and Internet industry development, promote the deep integration of AI sound module manufacturers and industry application fields, speed up the landing of AI algorithms, computing power and data in application scenarios, and promote the coordinated development of products.
Thirdly, increase R & D efforts. Artificial intelligence industry is still in its early stage of development. We should focus on in-depth learning technology and increase the research and development of algorithm improvement and chip structure optimization for image recognition, speech recognition, automatic driving, and other application scenarios.
Fourthly, strengthen financial support. The government should continue to increase its support to the industry of AI sound modules. Enterprises should earnestly study the relevant supporting policies and accelerate the pace of development.
An expert in the field of sound modules once said unilaterally, “In the field of AI sound modules, the gap between China and foreign countries is not as big as that of traditional sound modules. At present, the development of AI sound modules is still in the era of jungle competition and contention among hundreds of schools of thought, and there is no monopoly giant like Intel that is difficult to shake. So a great many of start-ups are accelerating their R&D, hoping to seize the commanding heights of the future and becoming a new Intel in the AI era.
