Perfection of Rebirth

Chapter 825 It's Not That Simple

Money is not everything, but no money is absolutely impossible.

If Jiang Hui is purely chasing money, there is no need to consider investing in the chip industry. The risk of this industry is too high for private enterprises in China.

If you want technology but you don't have technology, you need equipment but you don't have equipment, even if you have a little money, it will be wasted if you accidentally invest it.

However, as the richest man in the Celestial Dynasty, Jiang Hui, as a "butterfly" reborn from later generations, Jiang Hui is destined not to blindly pursue money.

To put it bluntly, more money and less money will not affect Jiang Hui's quality of life now.

Even if Jiang Hui started to travel around the world every day, eating, drinking and having fun, it would be enough to squander his whole life.

However, people always have to pursue a little bit. After seeing that the later generations of China suffered a lot in the chip industry, even if there is no way to make a profit for a long time, Jiang Hui still wants to enter this industry.

Over the years, oil has been China's largest import commodity, and it has spent a lot of foreign exchange.However, ten years later, everyone will find that the original cost of importing chips has already exceeded that of oil, and even nearly doubled that of oil.

You must know that the production volume of various products that require chips such as smartphones, computers, stores, and communication equipment in later generations of China is already the world's number one.

However, this also means that China needs a large number of imported chips.

It's perfectly normal to be stuck in the neck at a critical moment.

The most obvious is when Jiang Hui was reborn. Because the United States wanted to deploy a missile defense system in South Korea, the relationship between South Korea and China became very bad in a short period of time. Various measures are used to punish them.

But how do people respond?

Prices of chip-related components have risen across the board, especially memory.

South Korea's Samsung and Hynix just found an excuse to keep raising the price of memory.

You know, Samsung and Hynix are the world's number one and number two memory manufacturers respectively, and China's memory usage accounts for more than [-]% of the world's memory.

As a result, this wave of price increases is almost all aimed at the Celestial Dynasty.

Without core technology, it can only be slaughtered by others.

Jiang Hui doesn't want Guanghui's mobile phone to be trampled upon one day.

"I've been prepared to not make money for ten years. Guanghui Group's current asset-liability ratio is unbelievably good. There is still a pile of cash in the bank account. Instead of leaving it there to depreciate, it is better to invest it as soon as possible," said Zhu Zhengfeng. Regarding the third question about the development of the chip industry, Jiang Hui obviously has his own ideas.

It is not so easy to develop the chip industry, especially to compete with major international manufacturers from scratch. South Korea’s Samsung has paid a high price for its current position in the chip industry.

Samsung's starting point was just a small chamber of commerce, and it was the first to do trade, selling dried fish, vegetables, and fruits to the Celestial Dynasty. In the 60s, it set foot in sugar, weaving, fertilizer and other fields. In 1969, Samsung Electronics was established and began to produce black and white TVs.

In the 70s and [-]s, the semiconductor technology revolution led the rapid development of the global electronics industry.Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung, is acutely aware that this high value-added industry is South Korea's hope for the future.But his idea is only to work for the island country Sanyo.

At that time, the monopoly of semiconductor technology was in the hands of the United States and island countries, and Li Bingzhe did not dare to have too many extravagant hopes.For this industry with both capital and technology, most people in the company, including the close president, are opposed to investing in semiconductors, and even the government is not optimistic.

However, Li Bingzhe's youngest son, Li Jianxi, who returned from studying in the United States, focused on semiconductors after a long-term investigation and analysis.The reason is that South Korea is a small country with scarce resources and should develop cutting-edge industries with high added value.

Most importantly, it is an area that I am obsessed with and good at.

In the midst of almost everyone's opposition, Li Jianxi said to his father: "Dad, even if it's just me, I have to try that thing!"

Then, amidst the remarks that "semiconductors will bring down Samsung", he started his own business.

In 1974, Lee Kun-hee bought a Korean semiconductor company, aiming at the emerging memory technology at that time.

Memory, also called memory, is a major component of most electronic products.According to different technologies, it is divided into many types. At present, the mainstream is DRAM memory and NAND flash memory. The former is used as mobile phone and computer system memory, and the latter is used as mobile phone flash memory and solid state drive (SSD).

In order to achieve success, Li Jianxi went to Silicon Valley more than 50 times to introduce technology and talents, and poured in huge efforts and investments, but the difficulty of things was higher than he imagined. Year after year, all he got was continuous losses.

Perhaps moved by his son's ambition and determination not to repay Loulan, Li Bingzhe finally stepped in to support him when he was almost out of ammunition and food.

The two oil crises also made Li Bingzhe firmer in his judgment of Li Kunxi: in a small country with scarce resources, the development of semiconductors can make Samsung win the future: "Be sure to start this business before I close my eyes, so that Samsung will be safe and sound."

In 1983, Samsung established its first semiconductor factory in Giheung, Gyeonggi-do, officially declaring war on memory.

However, the father and son still underestimated the tragic nature of this battle.

In people's impression, the price of electronic products is reduced every year.But memory is very strange. Like chemicals, it is asset-heavy and has a strong cycle. The price fluctuates drastically.

The advantage is that once you survive the recession, you are the boss of the world.

In this industry, there is almost only one strategy, either use money to kill your opponent, or be killed by your opponent with money.

Intel is the earliest player in this industry. It put DRAM into large-scale applications in 1970 and swept 80% of the market four years later.After that, the islanders emerged suddenly and defeated Intel.

When Samsung got involved in this market, the islanders were already the world's hegemon.

As a latecomer with no market position, Samsung can only bear the burden of humiliation, step by step from talent to technology.There is a price to pay for being a student. Taking food from other people's bowls, chasing and intercepting them, and short-circuiting and blocking them are all commonplace.

Even so, the road ahead is still bumpy.

First, the technical difficulties were difficult. In 1983, when Samsung developed 64K DRAM, the key technology was 5 years behind the island country.At 256K, it is 2 years behind the island country; at 1M, it is still 1 year behind.

After finally breaking through the technical blockade, it encountered the industry's first recession. In 1984, as soon as Samsung launched 64K DRAM, memory prices plummeted from $4 per chip to 30 cents per chip, while Samsung’s cost was $1.3 per chip.

In other words, a loss of $1 per piece produced.

Losses that lasted for more than 10 years not only failed to shake Li Jianxi's belief, but instead aroused his fighting spirit.In a brutal fight, when both sides are hurting, whoever can last a little longer will win. Li Jianxi gritted his teeth and tried his best to push forward.

In order to overcome technical difficulties, Samsung frantically competed for technology in the global semiconductor industry. It went to island countries to hire engineers and went to South Korea to teach technology on weekends, and went to American semiconductor companies to recruit experienced Koreans...

In short, if you can "buy", you should "buy", if you can "steal", you should "steal".

In the end, after years of hard work, Samsung finally became a giant in the chip industry, and even overthrew Intel a few years later, taking the position of the global leader.

(End of this chapter)