Reborn: Billionaire in College

What Zhang Rujing and Liang Mengsong feared most was that Chen Pingjiang was too young and would give up after encountering some setbacks.

Or maybe they are not aware of the difficulties in investing in and building a wafer fab and are just thinking too optimistically.

Currently in 2011, the most advanced process in the world is only 22 nanometers, including TSMC, Global Foundry and Samsung Electronics which recently announced an alliance with IBM.

Others such as UMC and SMIC have fallen behind and can only manufacture products at 28-32nm nodes.

The huge cost investment in advanced semiconductor process technology has brought about earth-shaking changes in the semiconductor market this year.

Japanese companies have been the hardest hit, and it is estimated that by the end of this year, all chip companies producing 32 nanometers and below will be wiped out.

SMIC has spent so many years and has only achieved 28 nanometers, while TSMC and Samsung have been around for to years.

If we only focus on mature processes, we will face price wars and compete with rivals such as SMIC, but advanced processes are too difficult.

This market is so cruel.

"It seems that you, Mr. Chen, have thought it through very clearly. Then we can rest assured. Let me and Lao Zhang, two old bones, continue to shine in our new positions and contribute to the country's semiconductor industry." Liang Mengsong said.

At this time, Mr. Zhang hesitated: "Mr. Chen, I have something else I want to talk about."

Chen Pingjiang waved his hands quickly: "Don't be so polite, elders. Just call me Xiao Chen. It sounds friendly. Mr. Chen is too unfamiliar. In addition, if you have any conditions, please feel free to mention them."

"Then I'll be frank." Mr. Zhang nodded and said, "Lao Liang and I are already old, so we don't have any expectations for salary. We just want a normal salary. But some of my classmates, friends and former colleagues that Lao Liang and I have called here left their hometowns and came here just to make money. I hope to provide them with a good working environment and salary."

"Hey, I thought you were going to say something. Isn't this what should happen? I know nothing about semiconductors, and I will have to rely on you in the future. Not only will the salary satisfy you, I will also provide you with accommodation and solve your children's schooling problems. At the same time, key talents or those who have made outstanding contributions will be rewarded with stock options. All of this can be written into the contract."

Mr. Zhang and Mr. Liang looked at each other and nodded with satisfaction. This way they would have nothing to worry about.

"Although you two are here for China's semiconductor industry and to beat TSMC one day, I cannot lower your salary standards for these reasons." Chen Pingjiang continued: "We have temporarily set your annual salary at 200 million US dollars a year. Even during the preparation period of the factory, it will be regarded as normal work. In addition, all allowances are complete, and there will be no shortage of profit dividends and stock option incentives at the end of the year."

Chen Pingjiang has investigated this treatment abroad and found that it is certainly not as good as that of American companies, but it is much higher than that of other professional managers in China.

The annual salary + allowances + dividends are estimated to be more than 300 million US dollars per year.

The key part still lies in options.

As for the shares, it’s not that Chen Pingjiang is stingy, but he can’t give them to you for the time being.

Unless Huaxin really reaches the same scale as TSMC one day, it will not be too late to give shares.

After all, all the money invested in Huaxin now comes from his pocket, and he is not generous enough to come up and share the money directly.

Apparently, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Liang were not only satisfied with the salary, but even shocked: "Isn't it too much?"

"Not much. You two deserve this treatment in my eyes."

As the saying goes, a lot of money is enough to buy a good horse. With the participation of Zhang Rujing and Liang Mengsong, the preparation and production of Huaxin will be very fast. Moreover, these two people will bring their disciples, colleagues, classmates and friends with them. There is no better deal in the world than this.

Without these two people, the preparation and production of Huaxin would be more than ten times more difficult.

Talent is the most valuable.

Since Chen Pingjiang was so polite, the two elders did not refuse, but secretly felt that they must strive to make Huaxin. Even if it was not to defeat TSMC, they had to give back to Chen Pingjiang.

They are not like those big scammers out there, but they really want to make semiconductors well and run them as their own business.

Especially Chen Pingjiang, who spent so much money.

If they fail to do this, not only will they fail to live up to Chen Pingjiang's expectations, but they will also ruin their own reputations in their later years.

"During this period, I will speed up the process and register the trademark and company of Huaxin International. Other colleagues will have to work hard, so you may have to hurry up and contact them."

"We will have to find time to work together to decide on a site, build a factory and purchase equipment."

After the three of them finished their division of work, Chen Pingjiang smiled and sent the two elders to the car.

After Huaxin International is completed, Zhang Rujing and Liang Mengsong will become co-CEOs, with Zhang Rujing responsible for the company's daily management and Liang Mengsong responsible for technology research and development.

In the car.

Zhang Rujing asked Liang Mengsong with emotion: "Old Liang, do you think this time will be successful?"

Liang Mengsong shook his head: "It's hard to say, but it's no problem to reach SMIC's level in the shortest possible time. It will be difficult to catch up with TSMC. Not only does it require talent and capital, but it also requires equipment and R&D, and most importantly, foundation."

Zhang Rujing nodded: "I think so too, but I am still unwilling to give up. No matter what, I want to bring Huaxin out to Zhang Zhongmou and give him a slap in the face."

The enemies of the two elders are the same, but there are also differences.

For example, Zhang Rujing hated Morris Chang more because Morris Chang first acquired World Advanced Semiconductor, which he founded, and then made trouble for him in various ways, and even drove him out of SMIC, which he had founded.

A ten-year dream shattered!

As for Liang Mengsong, although he also disliked Morris Chang, he did not hate him that much. The only person he hated was his "mentor" Chiang Shangyi.

In order to defeat TSMC, he went to Samsung and joined the Koreans. You can imagine how much he hated them. When Chiang Shangyi wanted to come to SMIC, he immediately resigned because he felt betrayed.

Liang Mengsong changed the subject: "But this is indeed the best opportunity. Mr. Chen trusts us, is willing to delegate power, and gives us very good treatment. There is no other force in the company that would hinder us. If we can't do this, it would be a shame."

…………

After seeing off Zhang Rujing and Liang Mengsong, Chen Pingjiang breathed a sigh of relief. He finally had these two people dealt with. In this way, the key personnel were solved.

All that remains is to recruit some graduates of related majors as backup teams, and some front-line operational staff.

This meeting also means that the Huaxin project has been officially launched.

Open the bow without turning back the arrow.

It was only after this incident that Chen Pingjiang felt the heavy pressure on his shoulders.

The subsequent expenditures are huge, and apart from the funds, Chen Pingjiang will be personally involved in everything else.

The total construction cost of a 12-inch wafer factory alone will not be less than US$25 billion. Including the subsequent purchase of raw materials, the minimum cost will be no less than US$30 billion.

This is not a blind estimate by Chen Pingjiang. TSMC invested 2016 billion US dollars in its wholly-owned subsidiary established in Nanjing in 30.

Of course, TSMC's equipment includes the most advanced EUV (extreme ultraviolet), and at this node the only technology available in the world is DUV (deep ultraviolet). However, TSMC is a veteran, and HuaXin is just a new apprentice who needs to learn everything, which will incur costs.

You may even be ripped off when buying equipment.

The construction cost is the largest part, including equipment purchase, plant construction, personnel training, technology research and development, etc. The costs of different links vary due to factors such as technical difficulty, market demand and regional differences, in addition to the issue of product yield.

In general, the cost of building a wafer fab is high, but with the advancement of technology and the expansion of market size, the cost will gradually decrease.

Among them, factory construction needs to consider factors such as geographical location, environmental protection requirements, and safety standards.

The manufacturing equipment specifically includes oxidation furnaces, CVD equipment, PVD equipment, vacuum evaporation equipment, MBE equipment, liquid phase epitaxial equipment, ALD equipment, electrochemical plating equipment, glue coating equipment, exposure machines, developing equipment, photolithography machines, dry etching equipment, wet etching equipment, CMP equipment, ion implantation machines, cleaning equipment, etc.

These devices are responsible for the wafer oxidation, deposition, lithography, etching, ion implantation/diffusion and other steps.

It is only 2011 now, and a series of domestic equipment manufacturers such as North Huachuang, China Micro Semiconductor, China Electronics 48th Institute, and China Electronics 45th Institute are just getting started.

If you want to buy it, you can only look abroad.

In the manufacturing process, the three most important and expensive categories are deposition equipment, including PECVD, LPCVD, etc., etching equipment, and photolithography machines, accounting for 15%, 15%, and 20-25% of the total investment in semiconductor wafer fab equipment.

ASML, which almost monopolizes the high-end lithography market share of up to 80%, Applied Materials (AMAT), which maintains a leading position in the fields of CVD equipment and PVD equipment, and Lam Research, the leader in the field of etching equipment, are firmly in the top three.

If you want to buy good products, you can't avoid them. Of course, you can also buy some equipment from Nikon, DNS, and Hitachi High-Tech.

Among them, the most familiar to Chinese people are the lithography machines and their main manufacturer ASML.

To put it simply, the function of a photolithography machine is to use a series of means to scale down the circuit diagram, expose it to a silicon wafer, and then develop it to finally obtain a circuit diagram on the silicon wafer.

After one photolithography, the chip can continue to be coated with glue and exposed. The more complex the chip, the more layers of circuit diagrams it has, and the more precise the exposure control process is required.

Later, Huawei's Kirin 9000S used multiple exposure technology.

Among them, multiple exposure technology has existed for a long time, but it is considered to be of little value because more precise chips can be achieved through other means.

Only Huawei was forced to use this technology and achieved major breakthroughs.

After all, it is difficult to guarantee the yield of multiple exposures. If the yield cannot be guaranteed, the cost will go up. ASML is indispensable for lithography machines, which has an 80% market share in similar products in the world.

The key point is that ASML has a very peculiar rule, that is, only by investing in ASML can you get the priority supply right. This peculiar cooperation model has enabled ASML to obtain a large amount of funds. Intel, Samsung, TSMC, and Hynix all have considerable shares in ASML. It can be said that most of the semiconductor industry are partners of ASML, forming a huge community of interests.

Sorry, Chinese companies have nothing to do with it.

So you see, this is a competition between China and global companies.

EUV lithography machines have 30 parts and are known as the jewel in the crown of industry. They are jointly produced by more than 5000 top manufacturers in more than countries. The technical requirements are very high and only ASML can make them. It is not difficult to understand why we can make an atomic bomb but have not been able to make an EUV lithography machine. We have no technology and no parts, and we have to research everything ourselves.

An advanced EUV lithography machine costs an average of US$1.5 million, with shipping costs of US$10 billion. It weighs 180 tons, and its various components require 40 containers for transportation.

The assembly and debugging takes a year, and after assembly is completed it is as long as two buses.

Even so, the installation and commissioning costs will be hundreds of millions, and the key is that you can't buy the goods...

You want to buy but they won't sell!!!

The most disgusting thing is...

Even though Chen Pingjiang knew the history, the first generation of EUV would not be commercially available until 2016, and before that he could only use DUV.

DUV lithography machines can basically only achieve a 25-nanometer process. Even through some advanced technical means, such as Intel's dual-bench mode, it can only achieve a 10-nanometer process, but it is difficult to break through this limit.

EUV lithography machines can support more advanced process technologies such as 7nm, 5nm and even 3nm.

DUV lithography mainly uses the principle of light refraction to focus and position ultraviolet light through lenses and optical devices, while EUV lithography uses the principle of light reflection and uses reflectors instead of refractors to transmit light beams.

In contrast, DUV lithography machines are relatively mature and stable in terms of technology and cost, and can meet the needs of most chip manufacturing, especially in some application areas that do not have strict process requirements, such as memory and analog chips.

However, Chen Pingjiang still has an ace in his hand.

Just give Liang Mengsong some pointers and let him take the lead in developing the quadruple exposure technology.

DUV can also be used to manufacture 14-nanometer or even 7-nanometer chips.

This card is the king in Chen Pingjiang's hand, and it is also the confidence that makes him dare to make chips.

At this point in time in 2011, the most advanced technology was only 22 nanometers.

Taking into account the time when Huaxin's wafer factory goes into production, if all efforts are devoted to the research and development of 14 nanometers, then once the research and development is successful, that will be the day when Huaxin becomes a world-class wafer factory.

…………

Just when Chen Pingjiang was busy preparing for the wafer factory.

The Dongjiang government is getting a little restless.

The circle is so small, and I don’t know where the news came from, but Chen Pingjiang finally decided to build the wafer factory in Shanghai.

This made the Dongjiang side extremely anxious.

Shanghai, how dare you! ?

How dare you snatch the duck that is already in our mouths!
My goodness! Dongjiang was in chaos from top to bottom. It was said that more than a dozen meetings of various sizes were held, including the city's standing committee.

There is only one purpose for holding a meeting.

We must keep Huaxin’s wafer factory at all costs!

Taking into account the particularity of the chip industry and the need for large investments, there will be tax exemption for the next ten years!
When necessary, local banks such as Dongjiang Commercial Bank and Dongjiang Bank can provide interest-free loans.

Chen Pingjiang was still in Shanghai, and a business investment team led by a deputy mayor of Dongjiang blocked Chen Pingjiang in the hotel.

At the same time, another deputy mayor went directly to Tongnan to talk to Chen Pingjiang's future father-in-law Yan Liming.

What’s even more outrageous is that Li Yuhua was forced to take leave by her newspaper.

I only have one request, which is to persuade Chen Pingjiang.

Some key figures in the city would go to Orange Technology to do work from time to time.

It doesn’t matter if we can’t find Chen Pingjiang, it would also be a good idea to find other executives to do some ideological work!
When Chen Pingjiang first saw the people coming from Dongjiang, he treated them politely.

Faced with the other party's constant work, just give up and then think about it again.

He had agreed to go to Shanghai. After all, they had done a lot of work. The key was to find Zhang Rujing and Liang Mengsong.

Chen Pingjiang couldn't go back on his word.

What's more, Shanghai has a better geographical location and better industrial supporting facilities.

On the third day, the deputy mayor led by Dongjiang saw that the problem had not been solved for a long time, so he refused to leave in a hurry and followed Chen Pingjiang wherever he went.

Chen Pingjiang's scalp was numb from the rubbing, but he couldn't get angry because he was, after all, the official in charge.

The news soon reached the ears of relevant leaders of the Shanghai Economic and Trade Commission and China Merchants Group.

After reporting to higher levels.

The two sides then started a fierce battle for talent.

"You Shanghai people are very immoral. Mr. Chen's other businesses are all in Dongjiang, and he originally considered setting up a factory in Dongjiang first. How dare you intercept him halfway?"

"You are the immoral ones in Dongjiang. Entrepreneurs are not your personal pets. You can't tie them to your belts. They can invest wherever they want. What's it to you?"

"How dare you say that? If you hadn't used tricks to poach people, why would Mr. Chen consider you in Shanghai?"

"Haha, then I want to ask what you have done for the preparation of Huaxin? Nothing, nothing! We were the ones who ran from beginning to end in Shanghai. Oh, now you know to pick peaches?"

"I…I can't make sense to you. I will report this to my superiors."

"Then please hurry up!"

Chen Pingjiang looked at a group of older men in their forties and fifties. At first he wanted to reason with them, but later he realized that reasoning was not working, so he started arguing with them until they were red in the face.

In the end, Chen Pingjiang simply hid in the small meeting room next door and let them quarrel.

Anyway, there is no need for me to be a bad person.

Since the Dongjiang side did not dare to vent their anger on him, they had to cause trouble in Shanghai.

In this way, people from both sides quarreled for two days. In the end, no one could convince the other, and they went home to seek help.

Why are the two sides fighting so fiercely?

It's just a company after all!

This will show how popular Tesla became after it entered China.

At that time, it was rumored that many cities were competing for Tesla's landing, among which Shanghai and Guangzhou had the greatest chances.

The most amazing thing is that at that time, there were certain restrictions on the introduction of purely foreign-owned electric vehicle manufacturers. As a result, after approval from the upper-level departments, Tesla completed the registration procedures in one day. It was also the first wholly foreign-owned car company in China.

Let’s talk about how hard Shanghai is working for Tesla.

Even Tesla, which makes cars, is in this situation, not to mention the chip industry, which is a high-tech industry and a weak point in China.

It's not just small things like tax and employment behind this.

It is also a major event that promotes industrial chain aggregation, drives regional economy, and creates a city's business card.

To give another example, TSMC entered the mainland in 16. The leadership of leading enterprises has accelerated the gathering of integrated circuit companies in Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area. Half of the top ten companies in the field of chip design in China, such as Huada Semiconductor, Spreadtrum Communications, and Vimicro, have settled in Jiangbei New Area.

Later, more than 400 integrated circuit-related companies were gathered in Jiangbei New Area, including TSMC, ARM, Synopsys, Cadence, Solomon Technology, HuaDa JiuTian and other top domestic and foreign integrated circuit design companies and IP and EDA tool suppliers, covering all upstream and downstream links of the industrial chain, including chip design, wafer manufacturing, chip packaging and finished product testing, special materials and equipment, terminal manufacturing, etc., forming a mature integrated circuit industry service system.

In just about three years, the new district has gathered more than 360 upstream and downstream enterprises.

An industry is too important for a city. (End of this chapter)