Heavyweight! The "big reconciliation" of the storage industry, pointing out the future market direction?

According to relevant reports, a spokesperson for American memory manufacturer Micron Technology stated in a media email statement on December 24th that a global settlement agreement has been reached with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. The two companies will withdraw their lawsuits against each other globally and end all lawsuits between the two parties.

Looking back at the origin of the event, in 2016, Lianhua Electronics (Liandian) in Taiwan signed a technology cooperation agreement with Fujian Jinhua to assist Fujian Jinhua in developing 32 nanometer DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) related process technology. The results were jointly owned by both parties. After the completion of technical research and development, it will be transferred to Fujian Jinhua for mass production. Afterwards, three senior executives of Micron were transferred to Liandian, leading to a technology property case.

In September 2017, Meguiar charged in Taiwan, China, China, that Unicom had stolen trade secrets, that employees who had changed jobs from Meguiar had stolen trade secrets from Meguiar, and that they were suspected of leaking Meguiar's technology to Unicom. In December of the same year, Micron sued Fujian Jinhua and Liandian in the United States, claiming that Liandian had stolen intellectual property rights, including storage chip technology, through Micron's Taiwan employees and delivered them to Fujian Jinhua. At the same time, Fujian Jinhua has also filed a counterclaim against Meiguang for alleged infringement of a series of products sold in China by Meiguang.

In November 2021, United Power was the first to reach a settlement agreement with Micron, and both parties will withdraw their lawsuits. At the same time, United Power will pay Micron a one-time confidential settlement fee. Prior to this, the US Department of Commerce had included Fujian Jinhua in the export control "physical list" on the grounds of national security.

To this day, Meiguang and Fujian Jinhua have also reached a settlement, ending all previous lawsuits. By reaching this settlement, Micron will have the opportunity to resume business in the Chinese market. In June this year, Micron announced an increase in investment in China, with plans to invest over 4.3 billion yuan in its packaging and testing plant in Xi'an in the coming years. Meghtra, the CEO of Micron, also visited China in November to express his willingness to expand investment in the Chinese market. Currently, memory is hitting bottom and rebounding, a new cycle is beginning, and new opportunities such as AI and automotive electronics will also bring broader market demand. Meiguang's decision to reconcile at this time is a rational choice to embrace a larger market.

The reconciliation between the two companies also means that Fujian Jinhua is expected to embark on a new journey. From a more macro perspective, it can also be considered the first step in breaking the ice of the "chip war" between China and the United States. However, does this mean that the United States will abandon its wrong suppression policy? I'm afraid this powerful inertia cannot be changed today. The only thing that can be certain is that after years of development, China's storage industry has gained a foothold in the international market and established a good reputation in the hearts of local consumers. Traditional storage giants can no longer ignore the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises.

From the reconciliation between Meiguang and Jinhua, it can be seen that the industrial chain still needs to avoid some erroneous disputes in order to move towards a win-win situation. In a market landscape of fair competition and diverse choices, local storage manufacturers will undoubtedly open up the market with excellent product strength and win the favor of more individual and corporate users. The rise of local storage industry is not only driven by the determination to enhance technological hard power, but also by the independent choice of a huge market. Some external factors that impose intervention cannot stop the flourishing of local storage industry.