The rise of nanometers

Regarding Cook's proposal, Guo Taimin still thought about it. According to the current exchange rate of the Chinese dollar, Foxconn's domestic OEM revenue has indeed dropped a lot. If it can be transferred to Tianzhu, where labor costs and environmental costs are lower, it can indeed be considered.

But Guo Taimin was a little hesitant: "President Cook, if the factory is moved to Tianzhu, many of the parts we need may not be available locally."

This problem was actually expected by Cook, but it did not stop him from relocating Apple's foundry.

In fact, last year, Apple cooperated with Foxconn to establish a foundry in Samba, Latin America.

Although the construction of the Foxconn foundry in Samba has begun, Guo Taimin, the president of Foxconn, is worried about it.

The reason for this concern is that 44.9% of Apple's spare parts are supplied by Chinese companies. The factories are set up in Latin America. There are no local spare parts suppliers, so they can only import spare parts from China.

Going back and forth has increased transportation costs, tariffs and warehousing costs; at the same time, Guo Taimin expressed doubts about whether Samba can provide high-quality technical workers.

I have the same worries when setting up factories in Tianzhu. Industrial workers are not cabbages and can be trained in a few months.

"Guo, you should think about it in the future. If the Huayuan continues to appreciate, the low-end industries here will soon lose their competitiveness." Cook reminded.

Guo Taimin nodded: "This may indeed exist, but it is just a problem with the local spare parts suppliers..."

Cook, who had been prepared for a long time, waved his hand: "You can let them set up factories in Tianzhu, wouldn't there be an industrial chain? In addition, I plan to let suppliers from the Xizhou Alliance and North America also set up factories in Samba and Tianzhu, so that The industrial chain can be concentrated in these two places.”

Um? Guo Taimin suddenly became embarrassed. After all, the supplier was not his fault.

"Don't worry, if they don't agree to set up a factory in Tianzhu Samba, then they will be kicked out of the supply chain." Cook is confident.

Under Cook's coercion and inducement, Guo Taimin still nodded and agreed to transfer some foundries to Tianzhu, and at the same time cooperated with Apple to attract some domestic manufacturers to Tianzhu.

But will things really be that simple and follow Cook's script?

Spent half a day at Foxconn.

Cook took Apple's business team to BYD's Pengcheng headquarters.

Wang Chengfu was not too surprised by the arrival of Cook and his team, because the purpose of Apple's search for BYD was to hope that BYD could OEM Apple and at the same time help Apple connect with others so that they could make use of Suiren's industry chain.

Among the current domestic consumer electronics OEM companies, apart from Long Totem and Foxconn, it is BYD.

Moreover, the high-performance batteries jointly developed by BYD and Long Totem have been produced by BYD, and the batteries supplied to Long Totem are also produced by BYD.

Battery capacity has always been Apple's weak point. Cook, who comes from a supply chain background, will naturally not hang himself from a tree.

The two parties exchanged business blows for a few minutes before entering into the theme of this meeting.

Cook threw out the bait: "Your company has a lot of advanced technologies. Our company is very much looking forward to cooperating with your company. Is BYD interested in manufacturing Apple mobile phones and computers?"

"As long as Apple needs it, our company will have no problem." Wang Chengfu answered ambiguously.

"This is my condition." Cook handed over a contract.

Wang Chengfu and the two vice presidents took turns looking through it. After more than ten minutes, he replied:

"President Cook, your company wants to purchase Thor batteries, add silicon nano-coating, BOE micron screens, and a series of other spare parts. There may be some problems."

"Is it the price? We can..."

Wang Chengfu shook his head directly: "No, President Cook, this is not a question of money, but a question of patent authorization."

He explained to the Apple team that due to the high degree of localization of domestic mobile phones, in order to reduce vicious competition and mutual disruption, the Semiconductor Alliance spearheaded by Long Totem established a patent management committee.

Unified management and authorization of various patents involved in mobile phones, computers, semiconductors, OEMs, and spare parts.

BYD's OEM industry and spare parts industry are subject to the supervision and guidance of the Patent Management Committee.

Within the Semiconductor Alliance and the Communications Equipment Alliance, each company's patent authorization is relatively simple and the fees are relatively reasonable.

But if BYD wants to OEM for Apple, it must go through the review of the Patent Management Committee. Unless Apple does not use the Patent Committee's patents, it can't get around it.

Obviously, whether it is Thor batteries, silicon nano-coatings, micron screens, thermoelectric power generation modules, high-sensitive temperature sensors, etc., these are all patented products of the Suiren series.

You can’t just use it if you want. Wang Chengfu’s meaning is very clear, that is, let Cook go to the Patent Committee and apply for a patent authorization package.

"Mr. Wang, can't BYD help Apple apply?" Cook was a little dissatisfied.

Wang Chengfu spread his hands: "President Cook, OEM companies do not have the right to apply for patent packages for other companies. After all, the price and use of the products to be evaluated by the Patent Committee cannot be determined by BYD."

Hearing this, Cook frowned. The company he was least willing to cooperate with in China was the Suiren company. Not only was it very hostile to foreign investment, it was also a competitor with Apple.

Apple, which does not have many 4G patents, will definitely suffer a lot when it encounters Suiren.

Cook shook his head depressedly: "It seems I'm going to Shantou and Meizhou."

"By the way, President Cook, let me give you a piece of advice: give up the idea of ​​letting those suppliers set up factories in Tianzhu!" Wang Chengfu reminded with a half-smile.

"Why?"

"Because the Patent Management Committee has special regulations, industries involving core technologies are strictly prohibited from setting up factories overseas. Unless the technology does not involve Suiren patents, it will not be restricted."

Cook suddenly looked grim. In China's semiconductors, consumer electronics, and communication equipment, trying to bypass the Suiren system's patent hegemony was simply wishful thinking.

Since many spare parts suppliers use silicon nano-coating technology, high-purity nano-powders, and various nano-wires, these items are strictly prohibited from leaving the country.

If parts manufacturers dare to set up factories overseas, these materials cannot go out, unless Apple is willing to use defective parts.

The long-arm jurisdiction of the Patent Committee is actually similar to the situation in the United States in terms of technology patents. This is the first time that Cook has encountered this problem.

If you want to set up a foundry abroad, that's up to you, but spare parts production lines and raw materials involving core technologies are absolutely not allowed to leave the country.

Therefore, Apple's foundries in Samba and Tianzhu must either find suppliers in other regions to replace them, or import spare parts from China.

It’s just that the current domestic manufacturing industry is actually in a state of monopoly, and there may be no suppliers abroad.

For example, for Micron Screen, there are currently only Dragon Totem and BOE, while for Thor Batteries, there are only BYD and CATL, which recently obtained Dragon Totem authorization.

Products such as thermoelectric power generation modules and ultra-precision sensors are basically monopolized in China.

Cook's plan to set up a foundry in Tianzhu was immediately hit hard. These core spare parts cannot be set up in Tianzhu, which will directly eliminate the labor cost advantage of the Tianzhu foundry.

Thank you for your support. I encountered an emergency tonight, so this is the chapter⊙﹏⊙