The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 169
Zhou Xin's No. 1 choice is Rick Dalzell, who has been working for Wal-Mart since 1990 and has single-handedly built Wal-Mart's data warehouse strategy.Joined Amazon in 1997. After joining Amazon, he went from chief technology officer to vice president, and finally retired at Amazon.

It was too difficult for this person to be dug up, and Zhou Xin couldn't persuade him.

Had to start plan B, that is Wang Jian.Wang Jian is absolutely capable of building Alibaba Cloud from zero to one.

Although when Ali was doing cloud services, Amazon's public cloud services were already very mature, and there was a clear copy path to learn from.

Amazon has been exploring cloud-related activities since 2000. In 2008, when Alibaba determined its cloud computing strategy, a large number of American companies also entered the field of public cloud.

At least from the perspective of the future, Wang Jian's execution and ability in the process of working on Alibaba Cloud are no problem.

That's enough.

What Zhou Xin likes most is to find the successful experience in his memory and reproduce it.In his view, there is no problem with a person or plan that can be successful in this time and space with a high probability in this time and space.

Zhou Xin doesn't like to use resumes or recommendations to find people who are unsuccessful in his impression to be responsible for important strategic planning.

Zhou Xin is more willing to believe that people or projects that have been successful will still be successful under his butterfly effect, and he does not believe that it is better to find someone who is not famous enough to do it.

Wang Jian was surprised when he received the invitation, because Zhou Xin personally sent him an email.

He also praised him in the email, and was even able to say the title of his previous paper: "A Simple Method for Parallelizing the Floyd-Warshall Algorithm".This is a paper he published in the Journal of Distributed Computing four years ago.

No matter from Zhou Xin's email invitation or from the remarks of Wu Shiqiang, CEO of Xinxing Investment, the other party seems to have shown that this matter must be done by him.

You must know that Wang Jian is just a nobody in the computer field at this time, and he has only joined Microsoft Research Asia for less than a year.Later, when Ali dug him away, he was already the vice president of Microsoft Asia Research Institute.

Wang Jian was a professor of psychology before joining Microsoft, and he was also a professor of cognitive psychology with computers.He was able to enter Microsoft because of his attainments in cognitive psychology, which overlaps with artificial intelligence.

It was not until after entering Microsoft that Wang Jian gradually developed his talent and accumulation in distributed computing.Before that, no one knew that he had attainments in distributed computing.

It was hard for Wang Jian to imagine that he had to do anything.Because he was poached to start a business in Silicon Valley, Wang Jian knew that there were many more powerful tech giants in Silicon Valley than him.

But Wang Jian still came, because what Zhou Xin said in the email was very attractive.Of course, it is really tempting to use Zhou Xin's background and Zhou Xin's description of what they are going to do in the email.

"Mr. Wu, thank you very much for Mr. Zhou's kindness. I want to ask Mr. Wu, what kind of person do you think Mr. Zhou is?"

Wang Jian didn't ask technical questions or what he was going to do. It was useless to ask Wu Shiqiang about these two points. He waited to ask Zhou Xin directly after he went to American for the next offer.

Wu Shiqiang recalled the days when he followed Zhou Xin in San Francisco: "He is a very easy-going person, and he will not expect others to listen to him in everything because of his wealth and status.

I have worked in American for more than seven years. I wonder if Dr. Wang knows that I worked in a bank in San Francisco before.When I was working in the bank, I met too many big and rich customers. Because they were rich, they wanted everything in the world to run according to their own will.

Once you do not meet their expectations, they will try to find ways to make you do what they want.

The boss is much richer than all the rich people I have ever met, but he is very easy-going except that he is very principled at work.

His persistence in work will eventually prove that his persistence at that time was correct.

I remember the first investment case that my boss and I went to see was also an investment made by the boss in his own name before Xinxing Investment was established.

We invested in search engine companies, Google and Baidu, which did not see a profit model at the time.At that time, the boss pointed out that Baidu and Google are actually advertising companies. They have very good technology and very high investment value.

At that time, everyone's focus was on the portal, and the boss could see the value that others could not see.

In other respects as well, I believe that working with the boss is a pleasant and interesting journey. During this journey, he can always play the role of a light, guiding you when you lose your way.

Including emerging investments, we did not invest any money in the country after our establishment, and we waited until the Nasdaq plummeted before we started investing.The boss has long been certain that the Nasdaq bubble will burst sooner or later. "

Wu Shiqiang fell into memory. What he said just now was not because Zhou Xin was his boss, so he played a good show in front of Wang Jian, but because he really thought so.

The days when he followed Zhou Xin to see Internet companies everywhere in San Francisco was a rare and pleasant time in his life.

There is no clear job content, you can get in touch with different companies and people, and you can hear the operating logic of Internet companies from Zhou Xin. Such days are much happier than Wu Shiqiang's business in a bank.

"Newman, the Internet winter is finally coming to an end.

The news I got from the Ministry of Finance is that the Fed’s interest rate hike is over. After this rate hike is over, there will be no seventh rate hike. "

When Wu Shiqiang was working as a lobbyist to persuade Wang Jian, Bill Gates went to dinner and chat with Zhou Xin after attending an event in San Francisco, he said with relief.

"In the past year, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates six times, raising the federal benchmark interest rate from 6% to 4.75%.

For risk assets, there is nothing more bearish than this. "Bill Gates complained: "In addition, Microsoft was sued by the damn federal officials. With the superposition of the two, Microsoft's life is really difficult. "

Around the turn of the millennium, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes began on June 1999, 6, and the previous five hikes were carried out at a pace of 30 basis points each.

The last time, that is, the second day after the service of "Game of Genting" was launched, the interest rate was raised by 50 basis points at one time.

Raising interest rates will cause capital to flow back, and the liquidity in the market will dry up, which will cause the blown bubble to lose its wind and continue to blow it even bigger.

The Fed's rate hike is the most important reason why the Nasdaq bubble burst.

Zhou Xin thought, if it wasn't for the Fed raising interest rates, where would he have the opportunity to acquire so many high-quality assets.

Zhou Xin not only acquired most of the shares of Nvidia and ARM, but Xinxing Investment also bought a large number of stocks of high-quality technology companies during this period.

Like Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Apple, etc.

Especially for Apple, since the Nasdaq bubble burst, its market value has dropped from $160 billion to $40 billion.

Zhou Xin started buying Apple shares from the secondary market when Apple fell to $60 billion.

In the process of succession, Apple, which was supposed to fall to $30 billion in time and space, stopped falling when it fell to $40 billion.

Because in the U.S. stock market, when investors purchase 5% of a listed company’s stock, they need to raise a placard and submit a 13D application form to disclose their ownership and intention.

In some special cases, investors need to submit a 5G application form when the purchase ratio exceeds 13%.

These two forms are the reporting formats that the American Securities and Exchange Commission needs to provide. Among them, the 13D application form symbolizes that investors try to influence the management, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, capital structure and other aspects of the company.

The 13G application form is aimed at investors who do not seek to actively influence the management of a business.For example, institutional investors, investors holding less than 10% of the shares, pension funds, etc.

Jobs had already returned to Apple in 1997 and led Apple out of the financial crisis with the iMac.

This is just out of the crisis, and it is far from a revival. The current Apple is far from the Apple that wrestled with Microsoft on the personal operating system.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Xin had the opportunity to acquire Apple shares at such a low price.

Originally, Zhou Xin also planned to submit the 13G application form, because he actually didn't intend to interfere too much with Apple's management.

In addition to exerting influence on Apple's future mobile phone chip foundry, it helps SMIC become one of the suppliers in the fruit chain.

What he wanted to achieve was as simple as that.

Because in his prediction, with the Matrix mobile phone in front, Apple is unlikely to have the same impact as in the previous life.

But he thinks that Apple's valuation is too cheap, and it is estimated that it is impossible to stop buying only 5.00% of the shares from the secondary market, and it will pass the 10% line no matter what.

So Zhou Xin chose the 13D application form. After Wall Street learned of Zhou Xin’s acquisition of Apple, some investment institutions that originally planned to sell Apple’s stock hesitated, and they planned to wait and see for a while.

Because of this, Apple's market value is far from the original lowest point.

There are very few non-tradable shares in the Apple market, because Apple was listed as early as 1980, and both founders left Apple.Apple has experienced a decade-long underestimation in the middle.Insider ownership (that is, shares that are not publicly traded) has fallen to a very low level.

Apple's tradable shares in the secondary market account for 99.5% of the total share capital.

In other words, as long as Zhou Xin thinks about it, he can easily realize a relative control of Apple. As for absolute control, it depends on whether he will encounter resistance from investors.

He plans to slowly buy Apple shares from the secondary market this year. As for whether he can achieve absolute control, it depends on the feedback from the capital market.

If the pricing is too high, that's not necessary either.

Because the success of Apple in later generations is the result of American's years of technology accumulation, which is concentrated on Apple and exploded.

If Zhou Xin achieves absolute control over Apple, it is entirely possible that a new company will produce similar products and replace Apple's original position.

Rather than competing with unfamiliar companies, it is better to compete with familiar companies. With most of Apple's stock and board seats, he can enjoy the dividends of Apple's future development and also intervene in Apple's business strategy.

So Zhou Xin is not so keen on acquiring Apple.

This is like if someone has most of the BTC on the surface and can directly interfere with its price fluctuations, then the capital will naturally choose another hyped virtual currency to replace the BTC position.

"Bill, congratulations." Zhou Xin said.

Microsoft hasn't had a good time lately, or at least they've had a good decade.

The business has swept the world, and there is no rival in the field of home operating systems. Apple, which was originally the only rival, is dying.

Relying on the substantial monopoly business, it has grabbed excess profits from the world, and its market value has soared to 6000 billion U.S. dollars, which was 2000 billion U.S. dollars in 6000.

And its direct competitor in the past, Apple, which spans operating systems and personal PCs, has a market value of only tens of billions of dollars even under the Nasdaq bubble.

Such a stark contrast has made American's old money always want to split Microsoft.Microsoft's rise is too fast, and they haven't enjoyed any dividends at all.

Only a few Wall Street investment institutions have enjoyed Microsoft's development dividends in the past golden decade.

So in the second half of the 90s, there were constant voices within American to split Microsoft.

Monopoly is just an excuse, and striving for profit is the essence under the excuse.

The same is true for quora. If Zhou Xin paid taxes honestly and did not take any risky tax avoidance methods, he would certainly not be able to escape the fate of being prosecuted.

"How about Microsoft's appeal?" Zhou Xin asked.

The end of the Fed's interest rate hike only means that the negative macroeconomic environment for Internet stocks has ended.

The end of the negative macro environment does not mean that confidence will be rebuilt soon.It takes time and iconic events for the bubble to burst and the market to return to prosperity.

In the eyes of investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the Microsoft split is a landmark event.

Microsoft's monopoly is the result of market competition. If Microsoft is split, it means that even if other Internet companies have achieved a relative monopoly in this field, they will not escape the fate of being split.

Then the valuation of Internet companies will remain low, and more companies will adopt the same strategy as Intel, deliberately allowing rival AMD to survive.

Bill Gates said in a low voice: "There will be a result soon. It is estimated that the court will give a judgment on Thomas' ruling at the beginning of next month."

"We intend to overturn Thomas' conviction on the grounds that he had inappropriate discussions with the news media while the case was ongoing.

Thomas' behavior was a serious violation of the judge's code of conduct, which was clearly unethical. "

He continued: "Actually, does Microsoft have a monopoly, of course it does, but wanting to split Microsoft violates the principle of free competition.

This would be a severe blow to innovation and a serious violation of property rights.

We hope to seek lighter antitrust penalties, such as fines, or other provisions. "

Zhou Xin concluded while drinking coffee with Bill Gates: "In short, Microsoft can accept all punishments except the split."

Bill Gates shook his head: "It's not so absolute, it's just that we can't accept the split.

If Microsoft splits up, it will not only affect the interests of Microsoft, but also the interests of other consumers and Internet companies.

There are multiple operating systems, and our software must be adapted for different operating systems.

The operating system is the infrastructure of the computer, just as there are different standards for railroad tracks, and different states have different widths of railroad tracks.When passengers take interstate trains, they need to keep changing trains.

This is a bit too unreasonable. "

Zhou Xin can understand Bill Gates' thoughts, but this is not the reason why Microsoft compulsorily bundles the IE browser with the operating system.

The most critical evidence for the federal prosecution of Microsoft is that Microsoft has mandatory bundling of the ie browser and manipulated its software programming interface to favor IE rather than third-party browsers.

As a witness, the vice president of Intel directly accused the vice president of Microsoft, saying that he wanted to extinguish and strangle the competitor Netscape Communications Company. The vice president of Microsoft also claimed to cut off the user source of Netscape by giving away the ie browser for free.

Even in the later process of providing evidence, the videotapes provided by Microsoft were all forged, some clips were cut out, and the forged Netscape browser could be quickly installed in the window operating system.

In practice the process is lengthy and complicated.

During the entire process of being sued, Microsoft had too many operations and was caught with too many handles.

That is to say, Bill Gates continued to sell Microsoft shares and share the benefits with Wall Street investment institutions, which saved Microsoft from being split.

If Zhou Xin were the founder and actual controller of Microsoft, even if he sold his shares to Wall Street, Microsoft would still be split up.

Zhou Xin saw that Bill Gates was particularly confident: "It seems that Microsoft has already taken care of everything.

A federal court will soon overturn Thomas' sentence. "

Bill Gates: "Nothing has been determined yet, I just put my faith in the federal courts.

I believe they will not make unreasonable judgments. "

(End of this chapter)