The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 279

After the basic needs of people are satisfied, they will want to pursue higher-level things.

To be honest, Guan Jianying still has a certain amount of accumulation in the past 20 years of working in Silicon Valley, and it is not an exaggeration to say that low-level wealth freedom is not an exaggeration.

After coming to Xinxin Semiconductor, the options obtained can also achieve a higher level of wealth and freedom, and people will have more pursuits at this time.

For veterans like Guan Jianying who have worked in the semiconductor industry for a lifetime, higher-level pursuits are naturally related to semiconductors. He sincerely hopes to build Xinxin Zhangjiang's R&D team into a team with sufficient combat effectiveness in the industry.

Will be fooled by Zhou Xin to go back to Zhangjiang to open up wasteland, and I have a little bit of family and country in my heart.

At that time, Zhou Xin persuaded Guan Jianying to return to China, including participating in the daily operation and management of Xinxin Technology in China. Guan Jianying had a general understanding of what Zhou Xin wanted to do.

After all, the Huaguo engineers who will come to Zhangjiang to open up wasteland have the same purpose, which is to develop the chip industry in Huaguo.

Because everyone who can be seen by Guan Jianying has two talents, even if Silicon Valley is affected by the bursting of the Nasdaq bubble and a large number of layoffs in the chip industry, engineers with two talents like them will not be unable to find a job.

No matter how bad it is, in this day and age, anyone who finds a job in American earns more than senior white-collar workers in Huaguo.

Although Guan Jianying is sure that Zhou Xin has the idea of ​​developing Huaguo's chip industry, it doesn't mean that Zhou Xin has to use them and change people if he can't do it. Guan Jianying saw a lot of similar things when he was working in Silicon Valley.

Therefore, out of self-interest considerations, higher-level pursuits, and consideration for other team members, Guan Jianying hopes to make achievements.

It is also a process of fighting for resources within the company. Xinxin Technology alone has multiple sectors such as lithography machines, chip design, chip foundry, industrial software, and consumer electronics.

The industrial software here refers to EDA, an auxiliary software for chip design. After Hu Zhengming joined Xinxin, Xinxin Technology wholly acquired Silue Semiconductor.

After acquiring Silue Semiconductor, Xinxin is slowly moving Silue Semiconductor to Huaguo.

Why does chip design get the most dividends every year, and performance pay takes the bulk?It's not because there are three blockbuster products such as Bluetooth chips, Mphone's A-series chips and mobile phone integrated chips.

These three blockbuster products determine that the field of chip design generates the most income, and can get the most performance salary from the company's performance design.

Employees and managers in other fields will not have any objections, because income is the confidence, and the confidence is here, and it is useless for others to make trouble.

But Guan Jianying knows what's going on. Whether it's the Bluetooth chip or the A-series chip, it's the result of the Silicon Valley team.

The mobile phone integrated chip is the result of their research and development, and the research and development difficulty of this result is limited. Such an idea is entirely proposed by Hu Zhengming after a full research on the Huaguo market, and their contribution is also limited.

Lying on such a report card and enjoying the best resources, Guan Jianying, a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows, big eyes, broad head and square face, feels uncomfortable.

He hopes to use the research and development of smartphone chips to train the team, and to prove to his team that salary and strength are matched.

After hearing this, Hu Zhengming smiled: "Old Guan, I completely understand you, everyone who came to China to open up wasteland has no inner pressure.

Taking myself as an example, I was more tired after coming to Xinxin Technology than when I was working two jobs in Silicon Valley.

At that time, I was taking classes at Berkeley at the same time, and then I was working on Silue Semiconductor, and sometimes I also took jobs from other companies.

But I am not tired at all, I feel that I can do it with ease, and I have a good balance between life and work.

There is even time to come to China for academic exchanges and give academic lectures.

After I came to Xinxin, I felt like a spinning top, being pushed by various things all the time, and at the same time, I had to make correct decisions.

Looking back now, whether it is mobile phone integrated chips or Xiaomi Electronics, it is a correct strategic plan.

These two steps have won us time and space, and we have achieved double gains in efficiency and scale. "

Hu Zhengming did not explain too much, because they talked about it many times in internal executive meetings.

Winning time and space here means that Xinxin Technology has realized the synergy between different chip industries within Xinxin Technology with the help of Xiaomi Electronics and mobile phone integrated chips, forming a business linkage.

Without these two products, Xinxin Technology's profit source would be entirely dependent on Bluetooth chips and A chips. Both chips have a huge problem, that is, they need to use advanced manufacturing processes, which Huaguo does not have.

That is to say, no matter how well these two chips sell, Xinxin Technology can only enjoy the benefits brought by chip design and sales, which is of no help to chip foundry, semiconductor equipment and industrial software.

Not helping means that these two chips cannot help them cultivate a team and operate various resources such as equipment, funds, and talents.

For semiconductor companies, operating these resources is the most critical thing. The more they operate, the better, even at a loss.

For example, Samsung expanded against the trend during the down cycle of memory chips, even if it lost money, it could not stop production.

The same is true for Xinxin. Bluetooth chips and A chips are important sources of profit. Yes, it is true that these two products have achieved substantial profits. company.

It cannot become a giant that spans multiple semiconductor fields like Samsung.

Therefore, when Xinxin Technology opened the board of directors, it gave Xiaomi Electronics and mobile phone integrated chips a very high evaluation, thinking that the success of these two sectors is more important to Xinxin Technology than Bluetooth chips and A chips.

Huawei's consumer business is a matter of life and death for Huawei, why?Because it can digest a lot of internal technologies, so that internal R&D investment has a clear output, so that the entire enterprise will not fall into a prisoner's dilemma where only R&D has no output.

The Xiaomi electronics and mobile phone integrated chip business is more important to Xinxin Technology than the consumer business is to Huawei.

Hu Zhengming continued: "I also face tremendous pressure before making a decision.

Huaguo has a large number of consumer electronics brands. In addition to giants such as Lenovo, HP, and Dell, there are also large and small electronic brands. Is there really a market for us to make personal computers?

Will taking the ultimate cost-effective route be suppressed by peers and impacted by public opinion from all directions.

Including mobile phone integrated chips, there is obviously a market, but why no companies do it?Is there a pitfall in research and development, or is the company not buying it, or is the regulation not allowing such products to enter the Internet?

I update my list of questions almost every day, and then check one by one, either by doing research or asking people, to satisfy my inner doubts and anxieties.

Looking back now, these two decisions are correct, with good results and good effects, which makes Xinxin have the possibility to become a cross-field giant.

But what if those two businesses fail?Maybe we can still become a cross-field giant.

But life and death will be in the hands of others, and our chip foundry business can only be like SMIC, fighting a price war with TSMC.

What is the price of TSMC's chip foundry business, and SMIC is their [-]% or even [-]% off.

Regardless of revenue and profits, it is necessary to maintain the scale of the enterprise and maintain the operation of the enterprise. "

In the early days, SMIC was completely grabbing food from TSMC. TSMC was about to win the order. SMIC went to the customer and told the customer that I only wanted [-]% off the price, and even promised to help the customer bear the cost of defective chips.

In later generations, Apple forced TSMC to bear the production cost of defective chips in the 3nm chip foundry, which is equivalent to TSMC only charging Apple for those good chips.

This is undoubtedly difficult for chip foundries to accept. In the early days, SMIC accepted similar terms when it helped Texas Instruments manufacture the second half of 90nm chips.

Hu Zhengming said: "Last year, Zhang Rujing and others helped Texas Instruments manufacture 130nm chips. When talking with them recently, they expected to help Texas Instruments manufacture 90nm chips by the end of this year."

Guan Jianying looked at Hu Zhengming with some surprise: "Old Hu, is there a way for SMIC to bypass the restrictions of the Wassenaar Agreement?

Can they import 90nm key equipment? "

Hu Zhengming shook his head: "They only help Texas Instruments make the second half of the 90nm chip, which is equivalent to Texas Instruments completing most of the process, and then handing over the rest to SMIC.

Originally, TSMC was about to win this business. They have the capability of 90nm, and they are handy in doing it.

As a result, SMIC won it by relying on its cost advantage at all costs, which is why TSMC desperately sued SMIC. "

TSMC sued SMIC in the Northern California Federal Court in American, arguing that SMIC obtained TSMC's trade secrets and infringed TSMC's patents through various improper means.

Hu Zhengming continued: "If we want to rely on external forces to do the chip foundry business, the only way is to lower the price. In this field, SMIC's price war is already fierce enough.

If we re-enter, the price war will be even more intense.

I don't know how SMIC's technology came from, but to be honest, we have been making chips for so many years, and SMIC obviously got some technology from TSMC.

We bought them, they got them through some not so aboveboard means.

This also causes our cost to be higher than that of SMIC, and we will be at a greater disadvantage in the price war.

A price war requires constant blood transfusions to maintain scale, which is a terrible thing.

The success of Xiaomi Electronics and mobile phone integrated chips has helped us get out of this predicament, and the initiative of Xinxin is firmly in our hands.

So what I want to say is, don't worry too much before doing it, just do it with all your strength.

You feel that the current team is not motivated, so you go to recruit people. With the treatment of Xinxin Technology, it is easy to recruit people in Wanwan, Lion City and Korea.

Don't you still have so many recruitment places that have not been used up?

The best way to feel that the team is becoming less efficient is to add people. "

Without the sudden emergence of Xinxin Technology, TSMC, UMC and SMIC would occupy more than 80.00% of the chip foundry market.

United Microelectronics is MediaTek, which makes a lot of money by relying on mobile phone integrated chips.

The emergence of Xinxin Technology has made life difficult for these three companies. It is precisely because of the difficult life that TSMC started earlier than the original time and space.

Their method is not only to go to American to sue SMIC, but also to attack SMIC and UMC at the same time from Wanwan.

Benwan Hsinchu District Prosecutor's Office judge Chen Ronglin led more than 120 investigators without communicating with UMC Chairman Cao Xingcheng to conduct a large-scale search of UMC and took away many account books and computer files.

At the same time, the residences of UMC Vice Chairman Xuan Zhizhi and Continental Hejian Technology Chairman Xu Jianhua were also "searched" by relevant parties.Xu Jianhua was subsequently detained for questioning, and was still prohibited from leaving the country after being released on bail.

UMC and SMIC, who fought with the two sets of combined punches, were a little confused.

The biggest reason is that the market is not easy to operate, and TSMC also wants to crack down on Xinxin Technology. The problem is that it can't find a handle. The patent is evidenced by a contract, and Xinxin Technology bought it at a clear price.

Xinxin Technology does not fight price wars. Their own internal business is enough. There is no need to fight price wars with TSMC to grab customers.

In terms of administrative strikes, Huaguo will not be a bird at TSMC at all. Compared with Xinxin, TSMC has no domestic relationship network.

As for American, TSMC's relationship network is also not as good as Xinxin, so we have to start with the brothers UMC and the enemy SMIC.

Guan Jianying nodded after listening: "I will find a way.

TSMC is still ruthless. I heard from my friends at UMC that Cao Xingcheng didn't know about this at all, and Hsinchu didn't disclose it in advance. "

Hu Zhengming said: "Hey, to put it bluntly, it's still a political game.

Lao Cao is still too young, and I am also very familiar with him. UMC sold the technology to SMIC through the shell of Hejian Technology.

To put it bluntly, before this matter was done, Lao Cao had already taken care of it up and down.

Lao Cao has settled all key departments including the Legislative Inspection Committee, and has assessed the risks beforehand. How could he do this casually? You must know that he was a KMT cabinet counselor before, and he is very familiar with all the big bosses. .

Before 2000, Lao Cao wanted to participate in Shenhai Beiling. At that time, Beiling was building an 8-inch wafer fab. Beiling only had a 4-inch wafer fab at that time. Lao Cao’s shareholding was extremely important to them. Great help.

In fact, Lao Cao has always wanted the mainland to step in. He has never had a suitable opportunity before, and Hejian Technology is a rare opportunity.

It's just that they didn't expect a new change in their political game, which led to him being investigated completely unprepared. "

Guan Jianying asked curiously, "Why does he always want to come to mainland China to get involved?"

This fully proves that the circles of the two are different. Hu Zhengming and Cao Xingcheng know each other and have dealt with each other a lot, while Guan Jianying only knows the core backbone of UMC.

(End of this chapter)