Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3225 Giants Join Forces
For Zhou Buqi, this was not a difficult choice.

Samsung itself is definitely the one who is most familiar with Samsung chips. They will release two high-end models this year, both of which use self-developed chips, which shows that the quality of this product will not be too bad. If it is too bad, they will not release it.

Another point.

The only competitor facing Estar is actually Samsung.

Apple barely counts.

If Asda's two high-end models this year also use Samsung chips, even if the effect will not be very good, they can at least be on the same level as Samsung's mobile phones, and the two sides will not have a big gap in the chip field.

If you really choose the Snapdragon 810, which has encountered a big problem, or the secondary chip Snapdragon 808, the risk will be very high.

At this time in the previous life, the global mobile phone industry could be said to have been badly screwed by Qualcomm.

Many mobile phone manufacturers that could have survived have finally breathed their last breath and completely lost their competitiveness in the industry.

Because these mobile phone manufacturers all chose Qualcomm chips, their flagship phones either used the criticized Snapdragon 810 or the inferior chip Snapdragon 808, which were basically slapped in the face by the market, causing the entire mobile phone industry to encounter a serious crisis.

Then came a wave of layoffs in the industry. Microsoft laid off thousands of people and basically gave up its mobile phone business. Panasonic, LG, HTC and other mobile phone manufacturers that could have struggled for a while also launched layoff plans and died of vomiting blood.

Lenovo is also laying off employees and has completely fallen behind the first-tier mobile phone manufacturers.

Even Xiaomi suffered its most difficult year in history.

Only Samsung has been triumphant all the way, and has been invincible in the high, medium and low-end markets. If it had not caused the "explosion gate" scandal in China, domestic mobile phone manufacturers would have been under great pressure.

Estar is different.

In the past few years of business competition, Zhou Buqi has abandoned the "life and death" competitive mentality of the early days of his entrepreneurship, and instead gradually turned to a more modern "co-opetition" model, which is an attitude of both competition and cooperation.

Coupled with his proper handling of personal relationships, he was able to make friends with heroes all over the world.

By adopting Samsung's chip solution, at least Asda will not be left behind by its competitors due to chip issues this year.

"What I'm most worried about is the supply." Zhou Buqi was also a little worried. "I heard that the annual supply of your self-developed high-end chips is very low. Astar has placed an order. Can you keep up?"

Li Zairong smiled and said: "The low supply is not due to supply-side restrictions, but demand-side restrictions. Without sufficient orders, the shipment of high-end chips is naturally low. But this year is different. Our self-developed Exynos7420 chip can get all the orders for Samsung's high-end phones. Now we have Asda as a partner, we can definitely make this chip create a shipment record."

Then, he boasted some more.

Talking about how amazing their Exynos 7420 chip is.

Like the Snapdragon 810, it is an octa-core chip, which is ahead of the hexa-core performance of the Snapdragon 808. It also has better stability and lower heat generation. Although its GPU performance is not as good as the Snapdragon 810, its power consumption will be lower.

But in fact, Zhou Buqi had heard Zhou Shaoning say this before.

The Exynos 7420 chip has a fatal weakness, which is that like the Snapdragon 808, it cannot support 4K and can only support 2K display, which is really a waste of the excellent imaging effect of Samsung's high-end screen. In other words, the level of Samsung's chips cannot support the technology required for Samsung's display panel to display at full capacity.

Looking around the world, only Snapdragon 810 can do it.

Otherwise, Samsung would not have planned to invest 500 billion US dollars to develop semiconductors in the United States.

It will be difficult for Samsung to change this situation in a short period of time.

Samsung's display screen is the best in the world, but its high-end chips are still far behind Qualcomm. This is also what Zhou Buqi relied on in the negotiation. He said, "Some colleagues at Estar are very worried. They said that if all Samsung chips are used, once your production capacity cannot keep up, or some people below you are not broad-minded, Estar may stop production due to insufficient supply."

"No, absolutely not!" Lee Jae-yong vowed, "This is a good thing that benefits both parties. Samsung will never unilaterally destroy the cooperation."

Zhou Buqi said: "This needs to be reflected in the contract. If Samsung fails to supply chips as required, the penalty must be sky-high. Otherwise, I won't be able to convince my colleagues at Estar. They have been discussing this for several days, and many people are saying that if it really doesn't work, just use Snapdragon 808."

"Snapdragon 808 is much worse than Exynos 7420. You can rest assured that Samsung will not create any obstacles on the supply side! Just like the display panel, we can meet all of Estar's needs!"

Lee Zairong will not give up such a good opportunity to lead Samsung's semiconductor business to surpass Qualcomm. From a strategic perspective, the rise of the semiconductor business is even more important than the strength of the mobile phone business.

Zhou Buqi joked, "My colleague just said that the minimum penalty should be $200 billion, which is ten times the price of the order."

Li Zairong said decisively: "You can set any amount of liquidated damages. Unless we encounter force majeure such as natural disasters or man-made disasters, Samsung will definitely complete the order. Zhou, I know you are worried. For this cooperation, I would rather stop supplying Samsung with mobile phones, and I will definitely meet all the purchase orders from Estar!"

"it is good!"

Zhou Buqi was very satisfied with such generosity. It seemed that the other party was very eager to cooperate.

In order to reassure him, Lee Jae-yong continued, "Samsung's own chip factory may indeed have insufficient production capacity, but you don't have to worry. If the two sides cooperate, Samsung can immediately sign a contract with TSMC and let TSMC help manufacture Exynos 7420. TSMC's orders do not need to be shipped back to South Korea, but can be shipped directly to the mainland and handed over to your foundry."

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Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "If the news of the cooperation between Estar and Samsung is released, I believe the share price of Samsung Electronics will rise sharply for a period of time."

Lee Jae-yong also congratulated in advance, "The cooperation with Samsung will allow Asda to eliminate all worries and complete the IPO smoothly."

"There is no time to lose, so let's act now. I will send a team to Seoul to discuss the chip supply with you. The matter is urgent, and both parties must hurry up."

"no problem!"

……

Zhou Shaoning was very satisfied with this answer and said happily: "Samsung's Exynos 7420 has performance between Snapdragon 810 and Snapdragon 808. It is a better choice than Snapdragon 808. The most important thing is the external image. Exynos 7420 is a flagship chip, not a secondary chip. If the supply can be guaranteed, it is indeed the best choice."

Zhou Buqi analyzed: "This is an opportunity for Samsung chips to rise, and Lee Zairong will not miss it."

"I'm afraid that during the negotiations, they will want to sign a long contract."

"Long contract?"

"Yes, just like the supply of display panels, we signed a five-year contract. In the next five years, the Aster series will give priority to Samsung panels." Zhou Shaoning is unwilling to be locked in with Samsung chips for a long time. "Panels are fine, Samsung is the best in the world. But chips are not. The Aster series must use the top-level chips. This year is just an accident. I estimate that by next year, Qualcomm's flagship chips will be no problem."

Zhou Buqi said: "Then tie up the Samsung phone as well!"

"Hmm?" Zhou Shaoning blinked, "How to tie it up?"

Zhou Buqi said: "As long as Samsung's Galaxy series uses their own chips, Motorola's Ultra series will all use Samsung's Exynos series. If even Samsung doesn't use its own chips, why should we use them too?"

Zhou Shaoning smiled and said, "That's good."

Zhou Buqi snorted coldly, "In the long run, Qualcomm chips are still the best. But this time, turning to Samsung can be regarded as a lesson for Qualcomm, so that they can realize the horror of the world's two major mobile phone giants, Samsung and Estar, joining forces!"

Zhou Shaoning nodded. "Well, once this news gets out, Qualcomm's stock price will definitely plummet. Samsung and Estar have both terminated their cooperation with Qualcomm. This time it's their turn to come and beg us."