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Originally published in Semiconductor Engineering
Most startups in the tech world are done by engineers or scientists. The idea behind Moov, a platform for buying and selling used equipment, is the brainchild of investment bankers.
In effect, Moov has built a futures platform for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, with prices updated every few minutes from all over the world.
“The basic idea is that every few years, companies upgrade their equipment,” said Steven Zhou, Moov’s CEO. “But that equipment is usable for 15, 20 or even 25 years. So what we discovered is there’s a ton of value being left on the table. If a company is no longer using equipment and it costs $1 million to buy, they’re either moving it to a landfill or an off-site warehouse. We estimate there’s about $50 billion worth of fair market value of idle and surplus equipment in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. And if you start branching out to other closely related segments, like PCBs, SMD, LEDs, photonics, solar, or whatever, there’s literally hundreds of billions of dollars worth of equipment that’s offline and that needs a channel through which it can be re-purposed or moved.”
Zhou and his partner, Maxam Yeung, started Moov in 2018, and within the first year about 150 companies had signed up. This number of participating companies is now more than 1,000, and the value of equipment listed on the platform is $830 million today and growing rapidly.
The equipment business also provides some insights into where chipmakers and VCs are investing.
“The larger sizes (300mm) are moving a little bit less than the 150mm and 200mm equipment, especially with the constant rise of the IoT and edge,” Zhou said. “We’re also seeing a shift back down to 100mm. We serve all sizes, whether it’s an etcher or a reactor, and we serve everyone from large enterprises to smaller companies and even universities and R&D facilities. The key is using market data plus software to ensure a fresh and accurate supply, o we’re working on the supply and the demand concurrently.”
Read the rest of the interview in [Semiconductor Engineering] (https://semiengineering.com/moov-used-equipment-digital-marketplace/).
While competitors typically take an average of one month (and some up to 6) to pay a seller for a tool, this refurbisher received payment 1 day after the contract was signed through Moov’s global marketplace.
A large US refurbisher had entered into a deal with an end user for a top of market tool. However, when the end user was acquired, the deal fell through leaving the refurbisher with a costly asset on their books. When the refurbisher finally turned to Moov, they had already been paying storage fees for this unused asset for 9 months. The refurbisher had tried utilizing numerous brokers to offload the tool to no avail, due in part to the specific requirements of their original buyer. The refurbisher needed this asset off of their books in the new year – so they turned to Moov’s global marketplace for used semiconductor manufacturing equipment in hopes of finding a buyer.
After months of searching for buyers, the refurbisher was able to quickly secure an international buyer through Moov’s global marketplace. The entire process from contract through arrival, uncrating, and installation took a mere 35 days. Whatsmore, the refurbisher received payment one day after contract signing thanks to Moov’s buyer verification and payment support.
Moov worked with this end user to rapidly recapitalize 11 underutilized assets in order to secure production line budget for a critical tool they needed.
A production line team at a US manufacturer needed an ICP downstream asher but only had partial funding to acquire this system. Knowing Moov’s marketplace offers the largest selection of pre-owned tools from reliable suppliers, they turned to Moov to explore their options.
After consulting with Moov’s team of experts with over $1bn in experience helping manufacturers recoup capital on idle and underutilized assets, this manufacturer identified several idle systems they could sell through Moov’s global marketplace. The manufacturer was able to rapidly sell 11 tools in order to gain the capital they needed to acquire a YES Ecoclean system.
Moov was able to work with this manufacturer to ensure that capital from the sales of their used assets went back to a specific fabrication center and production line budget — ensuring this production line team had the funding they needed to acquire their plasma resist strip/descum system.
The end-to-end process of procuring a replacement tool, deinstallation, crating, air freight, rigging and installation would typically take 6 months. Through Moov, the entire process only took 4 weeks, enabling this fabrication center to minimize revenue loss when a critical machine went down.
A high volume wafer fabrication center in the western US was already in the market for a new ion implanter. When a second tool went down, their situation shifted from “opportunistic” to “critical.” Their senior facilities manager reached out to Moov to learn how they could expedite procuring a VIISion 200 replacement through Moov’s global marketplace.
Moov’s experienced managed service team quickly identified a tool from an international supplier that matched this fabrication center’s exact requirements. Thanks to Moov’s ecosystem of aftermarket service providers, Moov was able to provide an end-to-end solution for not only procuring the tool but also deinstallation, crating, air freight, rigging and installation. This process would typically take up to 6 months, but Moov was able to provide a 4-week solution to help this fabrication center get back up and running.
Knowing this fabrication center needed to avoid any further delays, Moov proactively sourced the exact model of pump the fab needed, at a discount, from a refurbisher partner, to ensure the client was able to get their new implanter up and running smoothly.
Since the process of procuring and delivering this replacement system moved so fast, it took longer for payment to process than it did to ship and install the tool itself. Thanks to Moov’s flexible payment options, the team was able to accommodate expedited delivery while still ensuring the seller was paid in a timely fashion.
In 2022, the semiconductor industry faced challenges including slowing sales growth and tensions in the global supply chain. However, the industry also saw record levels of investment in research and development by U.S. companies and the passage of the CHIPS Act, which provides incentives for domestic chip manufacturing, bringing total business Private Investments for U.S. Semiconductor Production to over 200 billion dollars. The US CHIPS Act has already prompted new commitments to construct manufacturing facilities in the US, and it is expected to create jobs and drive economic investment. The Act provides $52 billion in funding for a range of technologies, including large-scale fabrication facilities and projects for current-generation chips, new and specialty technologies, and manufacturing equipment and material suppliers. It also includes a 25% advanced manufacturing investment tax credit. In addition to manufacturing incentives, the CHIPS Act also focuses on research and development, with $13 billion in funding to foster collaboration between government, industry, academia, and other stakeholders and to develop the pipeline of scientists and engineers necessary to fuel future innovation in the semiconductor industry. The Act establishes several programs to support R&D, including the National Semiconductor Technology Center, the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, Manufacturing USA Institutes, and the CHIPS Defense Fund. Other countries that have implemented their own chips acts include Europe, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan, with hundreds of billions of dollars added to the global investment in semiconductor manufacturing and research. Despite these efforts, significant challenges remain for the semiconductor industry, including developing a skilled workforce, maintaining leadership in chip design, and maintaining access to global markets and supply chains. To overcome these challenges, it is essential for the industry to maintain a strong partnership with local governments and other key players, to ensure that the industry is able to meet the increasing demand for semiconductors.