The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

The secrecy of the industry is out of the need for development, and the announcement is to gather the joint efforts of upstream and downstream enterprises in the global chip industry supply chain to continue to advance on this technical route.

Xinxin Semiconductor can make samples by itself, but it is unrealistic to keep developing along this technical route.

Only when enough manufacturers participate in a technical route can it have sufficient value. In more straightforward terms, it is the technological advantages accumulated by the pioneers that are valuable.

Neon's hydrogen energy patent and Qualcomm's communication patent are the best examples of both sides.

Lin Benjian said categorically: "It depends on the degree of cooperation of Zeiss. If the degree of cooperation of Zeiss is high enough, two years is enough. If Zeiss just treats it as a perfunctory task, the progress is difficult to grasp.

In the field of lenses, Zeiss is an out-and-out giant, and we can only do it if we cooperate with Zeiss. "

After the merger of East and West Germany, Zeiss is an out-and-out giant in the field of civilian optics and corporate optics.

Zhou Xin actually wants to acquire giants in the upstream and downstream segments of the chip industry. From the perspective of cash, he can acquire Zeiss.

Even like Applied Materials, he can afford to spend money on acquisitions.

The problem is that some unspoken rules made Zhou Xin give up this idea. Zhou Xin tried to acquire Cymer in 2001.

It monopolized the advanced light source in the upstream and downstream of the chip industry chain. Later, only Cymer could produce the extreme ultraviolet light source. After ASML made a fortune, it fully acquired Cymer.

At that time, the Nasdaq bubble burst, and Cymer had other competitors in the field of light sources, such as IBM, so the market value of Cymer fell to a very cost-effective level.

Zhou Xin has already raised his cards in the secondary market. In order to complete the acquisition, he and Bush also communicated about the deal. The New York Stock Exchange has already passed the deal, and finally it was urgently issued by the business department of American before the deal was completed. stop.

The official statement of American’s business department is that Cymer’s business scope involves the American military and cannot be sold to foreign actual controllers.

Thinking of the fact that the actual controller of ASML in later generations is also a foreigner, but ASML can acquire Cymer, Zhou Xin cannot. Since then, Zhou Xin has realized the reality that when it comes to core technology, money can’t help it.

Therefore, he has not even tried to talk to Zeiss, at most it is a purely commercial merger and acquisition such as acquiring some Zeiss shares in the secondary market.

Lin Benjian sighed: "To be honest, Zeiss doesn't pay much attention to small companies like us. They began to provide lenses for lithography machines many years ago. At that time, this thing was also called circuit board exposure equipment.

Not long after ASML was established, the PAS 5500 lithography machine they launched was to use Zeiss as the lens. This product was an excellent lithography machine at that time, and because of this, it had very high requirements for the lens. High, Zeiss can only deliver single-digit lenses to ASML every year.

This has led to ASML's leading products, but because of production capacity, it can only helplessly watch Nikon occupy the vast majority of the market.

It is the same problem for us, even our current volume is smaller than that of ASML back then, it is difficult for Zeiss to fully support us. "

Starting from the overall level, the new chip is very strong, whether it is in terms of production capacity, technology or revenue can squeeze into the world's first echelon, relying on a large number of shipments of Bluetooth chips and A-series chips, even in high-end production capacity, the new chip The core is slowly climbing.

However, if the viewing angle is narrowed to the lithography machine and to the benefits that can be brought to Zeiss, then the new core can provide very little to Zeiss. In addition, as a traditional optical giant, it is difficult for Zhou Xin to provide Zeiss with substantial benefits.

Zhou Xin said: "I know what you mean, I will find a way to communicate with the shareholders behind Zeiss, put pressure from the top, let Zeiss cooperate with us in depth, and if necessary, I will even sell some shares of Xinxin Semiconductor to Zeiss.

Leave this matter to me, and I will talk to Zeiss later. "

The main supplier of lenses in the field of lithography machines has also undergone several rounds of changes. The earliest giant GCA in the field of lithography machines looked for Bausch \u0026 Lomb. The accuracy is not enough, replaced by Zeiss.

But it has already led the wolf into the room. After Nikon entered this field, it directly killed GCA.

Zeiss has become the out-and-out monopoly of lithography machine lenses, while Nikon has personally sent GCA to the grave. Knowing this history, Zhou Xin is thinking about the joint capital injection of Xinxin Semiconductor and Zeiss to establish a new company. The new company focuses on the possibility of immersion lithography machines.

As the number one rich man in the world, Zhou Xin has many coveted assets, such as Matrix Apple, NewPay, Riot Games, etc. Even if it is just a new investment, the record of the past three years is enough to prove the strength of the new investment.

Xinxing Investment has raised three rounds of funds, and each time the amount of funds raised is about one billion US dollars. As an investment institution, the annualized income of more than 20% in three years has made Xinxing Investment a new force on Wall Street. Investment There are a large number of highlight items in the case.

Therefore, many financial institutions want to pledge the share of fundraising for emerging investments, and the distribution of this share is entirely in Zhou Xin's hands.

Therefore, he has a lot of chips to use to cooperate with the financial institutions behind Zeiss, put pressure on Zeiss from shareholders, and even promote Zeiss and Xinxin Semiconductor to jointly establish new companies or new research institutions.

The purpose of improving ZEISS' initiative is achieved through such deep interest bundling. Of course, there will be problems, that is, in the case of a joint venture company, the key patents belong to the joint venture company and cannot play the role of restraint.

In this way, the current problem can be solved, but the long-term goal cannot be solved, so Zhou Xin is in a dilemma.

The current road is a brand new road, and there is no future experience for Zhou Xin to learn from. Every decision will create a new history, and Zhou Xin knows this very well.

If it is just a purely commercial behavior, it is undoubtedly the best choice to use lures to deeply bind Zeiss. ASML can deeply bind with TSMC. If Xinxin Lithography Machine wants to have more initiative in this field, it needs to find a company that meets the current situation. Partners are nothing short of normal.

As a key part of Xinxin Technology, Xinxin Semiconductor has no shortage of application scenarios, production capacity, and various resources. What is lacking is upstream key technologies, especially when you want to overtake cars through the immersion method.

Seeing that Zhou Xin fell silent, Lin Benjian said: "I have many acquaintances at Zeiss, and they have worked for Zeiss for more than 20 years. I can chat with Zeiss.

Newman, I need to trouble you to talk to the shareholders behind Zeiss. If we work together, I believe it will be effective. "

Zhou Xin returned to China in a hurry this time, and reached an agreement with Lin Benjian on the technical route of immersion lithography machines. The resources of the entire Xinxin Semiconductor will be fully inclined to this field in the future, which is different from all other current manufacturers. way.

Lin Benjian didn't expect it to be so smooth. He thought it would take a lot of effort to convince Zhou Xin that he and other Xinxin Semiconductor colleagues had already written five papers on demonstrating the feasibility of the technical route when they were doing pre-research work and planned to publish them. , After publishing, he took the paper to persuade Zhou Xin.

Now that the boss has agreed to this technical route, let's start doing it. Lin Benjian is full of motivation. Because to put it bluntly, I was copying other people's technology before, which is not very interesting to the R\u0026D personnel. Now I am doing something that has never been done before, which is full of challenges.

"Professor, long time no see. It seems that you are very used to life in Shenhai." Zhou Xin will only stay in Shenhai for three days when he returns to China this time, and will not run around.

Therefore, he stays in Xinxin's campus almost all the time.

Hu Zhengming said: "I have been in Shenhai for three years, and three years is enough to change many habits."

Zhou Xin was a little embarrassed, he completely changed Hu Zhengming's original trajectory, and he didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for him: "Professor, compared with teaching at Berkeley, what do you think is the change here? What?"

Hu Zhengming asked: "Are you talking about life or work?"

Zhou Xin: "You can talk about it. To be honest, every time I go back to Berkeley, I will go to see my wife. I always feel a little sorry for you to come to Shenhai and live separately from my teacher's wife."

Hu Zhengming smiled and said: "I didn't see that you were sorry when you called me to help you.

The main reason is that your wife is not used to the climate here in Shenhai, so she only comes here for two weeks and then goes back. In fact, there is not much difference in life from Berkeley, because you know that I am very boring. , in addition to work or work in daily life.

But on the contrary, in terms of work, I think the challenges are incomparable in Berkeley before.

At Berkeley, I only need to follow the steps to attend classes, research, and publish papers. I am too familiar with these. Here, I am faced with a company with more than 5,000 people and I need to manage it. This is a completely different concept.

You must know that even Silue Semiconductor has no more than one hundred employees, and now this number has been multiplied by fifty times.

If we count the employees of Xiaomi and Xinxin chip manufacturers, the number will exceed 10,000. What is this concept?

Before I came to Xinxin, I never thought that I had the ability to manage 10,000 people, which was an unimaginable number for me before the millennium. "

This number of people would be a lot in Internet companies, but it is actually not bad in the chip field. For example, TSMC recruited 9,000 people in one year in 2000.

The number of employees of Xinxin Technology has exceeded 10,000 in just three years. First, because of Xiaomi, the sales system laid by Xiaomi requires a large number of employees; second, because Xinxin has entered the field of chip foundry, and many Huaguo Enterprise established a joint venture, and Huaguo Enterprise became a shareholder through the production line.

In these joint ventures, the equity is in the hands of Huaguo Enterprises, but the control is in the hands of Xinxin, which also has a large number of employees.

Xinxin also has a chip manufacturing plant in Lion City. For a new company, this speed can be called rocket speed.

After listening, Zhou Xin said: "This is because the professor's previous ability has not been fully explored. Now it seems that I have dug you for a new core and activated your management ability."

Hu Zhengming said helplessly: "I'm tired, I'm getting old, and it's tiring to manage so many people.

In particular, it is necessary to fight wits and bravery with the government, or even intrigue, which also consumes energy.

Zhou Xin, you have also done scientific research. Scientific research in the field of integrated circuits is a research phenomenon. Although it is very difficult to summarize, this kind of difficulty is of a single nature. It is nothing more than encountering phenomena that I cannot understand, or new phenomena. I need to update the existing theoretical system, and there is a new frame that can include this type of phenomenon.

Business stuff is quite different, it's a complex problem with no single solution and one decision can affect countless things.

For example, we set high wages for Xinxin's employees. When we set wages, we believed that only high wages can attract talents and allow employees to build a stable enough relationship with the company.

Of course, the formulation of this salary system is also within the scope of the enterprise's tolerance.

But for employees, they may not enjoy the benefits of high wages.

Sometimes when I eat in the cafeteria, I will chat with the front-line employees. Their dissatisfaction with the status quo is generally concentrated on the housing price.

Xinxin’s high wages lead to Xinxin Park as the center, and the closer the houses are to the Xinxin Park, the more expensive it is. As a result, the housing prices in the Zhangjiang area are more than twice as expensive as those in other areas of the Pudong New Area.

Xinxin's employees have high wages, but it is still difficult to buy a house that satisfies them.

I wondered if Xinxin’s salary system might not be so high, would the surrounding houses not be so expensive? Of course, from an economic point of view, the price is determined by the relationship between supply and demand. Xinxin has provided so many jobs in this area, and the housing prices in the surrounding areas cannot be low, but they should not be so expensive. "

Zhou Xin secretly thought, this is only double the price, and after ten years, looking back, the housing prices around the Xinxin Park will be three times more expensive.

In future generations, even a small and successful entrepreneur like him can't buy a suitable house in Shenhai, so that Zhou Xin is now able to buy whatever he wants in Shenhai, but he has never bought a house, but lives in a house. In the house that the company rented for him.

Zhou Xin said: "Because the world is a complex system, it has a lot of variables and a lot of results, unlike scientific research, which separates the complex real world from the abstract world for analysis.

I never thought that Xinxin could have 10,000 employees so quickly. Thinking of this number, I feel a lot of pressure.

We have to pay salaries to 10,000 employees every month, and if the business is not doing well, we will lay off employees.

Professor, don't tell me, I just read the annual report, and I don't have any feeling for this number. I just think it's a flimsy number. Ten thousand people, oh, it's not a lot compared to other chip manufacturers.

When you come to Xinxin’s newly built campus and see so many people working in this campus, and then think that we have to be responsible for so many employees, you can feel your pressure at once. "