Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

This was not the first day Wang Huiliang met Cao Yang.

He knew that the other party was a cheerful person.

But I was so excited that the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars was agreed after I only talked about it for a few minutes...

This was the first time he encountered this kind of refreshing feeling.

However, Cao Yang agreed so readily, which made him a little worried.

"Mr. Cao, what is the estimated investment amount for Nanshan Semiconductor's wafer fab?"

He was worried that there was something wrong with the rumors outside, and he would agree to a bunch of conditions without fully understanding the situation.

There will be no way to go back and do business at that time.

There will also be a special inspection team coming from the Magic City soon. If I am misled, I will be very responsible.

"The investment in the first phase is expected to be more than US$500 million, and we will consider whether to build a second wafer factory later based on the situation."

These are all matters that have been discussed and decided internally, and there is nothing to hide.

And Cao Yang hopes that the wafer fab will start moving as soon as possible, so he also wants to smoothly connect with the Magic City.

"There are rumors on the Internet that you have ordered two sets of photolithography machines from ASML. Is this news true?"

"Of course it's true, the deposit has already been paid!"

"Mr. Cao, the leaders of Magic City will come to inspect the day after tomorrow. Do you think it would be convenient for you to spare half a day to receive them?"

Wang Huiliang didn't dare to ask too many questions.

As long as it is confirmed that Nanshan Semiconductor is serious about building a wafer factory, that is enough.

The remaining details were not something he should delve into.

“No problem, always welcome!”

"If it's convenient, we can go directly to Shanghai together after the inspection to confirm the location of the fab, and then complete the relevant procedures and processes as soon as possible."

Although in 2008, there were not as many domestic support policies for the semiconductor industry as there were in later generations.

But this kind of high-tech industry, no matter where it is, no matter when it is, will definitely be popular.

Following this conversation between Cao Yang and Wang Huiliang, Nanshan Semiconductor's actions further accelerated.

The packaging and testing factory in Yangcheng determined the construction location the next day.

After all, Nanshan Group is a local leader in Yangcheng, and he knows clearly the advantages and disadvantages of each piece of land.

Therefore, Liu Tianwu and others do not need to do any special work to determine it directly.

The rest is left to the project team to advance concretely.

After Cao Yang received the inspection team from Magic City, both parties were very satisfied and flew to Magic City together.

The location of the wafer fab was finalized again the next day.

In order to avoid long nights and dreams, the Magic City also held a signing ceremony overnight to implement the project.

An investment of at least US$500 million was realized so quickly in the context of the financial crisis, which was simply unprepared.

"President, I specifically inquired about it. In addition to acquiring a wafer fab and packaging and testing plant from Renesas Electronics, Nanshan Semiconductor has been in contact with Elpida and wants to acquire the other party's memory technology and factories."

"This time, taking advantage of the financial crisis, they quickly obtained ASML's most advanced lithography machines, and then used talents poached from all over the world to quickly form their own semiconductor design team."

"Nanshan Semiconductor is likely to become an important semiconductor company in China in the future and deserves our attention."

Li Zailin, general manager of the semiconductor business unit of Samsung Electronics China, was very serious in reporting the latest developments in the industry to Park Geun-hee, president of China.

Since 1994, Samsung Electronics has built the first semiconductor factory to produce memory in China.

In the past two years, it has made major inroads into the fields of computers, mobile phones and display screens, and is now a relatively influential enterprise in China's consumer electronics market.

Although Samsung Electronics' main business in China is consumer electronics, the semiconductor industry is Samsung Electronics' core field.

Lee Jae-lin will specifically report to Park Geun-hee about the construction of a wafer fab by Nanshan Semiconductor, also because Samsung Electronics regards China's semiconductor market as its own meal.

Now that there is another company coming to seize the market, he must be paying more attention to it.

"How many nanometer wafers are Nanshan Semiconductor's wafer fab prepared to produce?"

For Samsung Electronics, it has now mastered the 40-nanometer technology. As long as the latecomers are lower than this level, he is not particularly worried.

In the wafer industry, if you take a step slowly, it will often continue to slow down.

Seniors will not be there waiting for you to catch up.

"I heard that it is 65 nanometers, but I think it is doubtful whether it can be produced smoothly."

Li Zailin has always been concerned about the technical level of China's semiconductor industry.

In 2005, manufacturers such as IBM, Infineon, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and TSMC all launched semiconductor integrated circuit samples produced using the 65-nanometer process.

Compared with the previous generation's 90-nanometer process, the 65-nanometer process can double the number of transistors integrated on each chip.

At the same time, after adopting the 65-nanometer line width process, the device power consumption can be reduced by 20% compared with the 90-nanometer process, and the operating speed can be increased by 50%, which can also significantly reduce production costs.

"SMIC has been building wafer fabs for so many years, and now it has reached the level of 90 nanometers. 65 nanometers will not be put into mass production until next year at the earliest."

"Nanshan Semiconductor will build a 65-nanometer fab as soon as it comes out. Do you think it is reliable?"

Although 65nm is no longer an advanced technology for Samsung Electronics, they have mastered 40nm technology and are further studying 28nm technology.

It can be said that the Nanshan Semiconductor Wafer Factory, which will not be mass-produced until next year at the earliest, is not a threat to Samsung Electronics even if it can really produce 65-nanometer wafers.

However, the development speed of Nanshan Semiconductor makes him a little worried.

If we build a 65-nanometer wafer fab this year, will we consider building a 40-nanometer wafer fab next year?

In a few years, will other people’s 28 nanometer technology also achieve a breakthrough?

This is not a good sign.

"Due to the impact of the financial crisis, both Nikon and ASML are making every effort to sell photolithography machines to foreign countries."

"Intel and TSMC even took the risk of paying liquidated damages and canceled some lithography machine orders."

"In this case, Nanshan Semiconductor can easily buy the most advanced photolithography machines from the manufacturer."

"So if we want to produce 65-nanometer wafers on a small scale, I think it shouldn't be a big problem."

"But Nanshan Semiconductor has never built a wafer factory before. When it was produced for the first time, the yield rate was definitely very low."

"Without production, it is a waste to leave the factory empty."

"In terms of production, the yield rate is very low, the cost is very high, and there is no market competitiveness."

"So I think that at least before 2010, Nanshan Semiconductor's 65-nanometer wafer factory will not be able to exert any competitiveness."

"Even if they gradually solve the yield problem by then, the market has begun to deliver a large number of 40-nanometer products, and the price of 65-nanometer wafers must have fallen to a level that exceeds their cost price."

Although Li Zailin attaches great importance to Nanshan Semiconductor, it does not mean that he is very optimistic about the development prospects of this company.

That is to say, Nanshan Semiconductor is backed by Nanshan Group, and a large number of other companies give him blood transfusions, so he cares more about it.

Because this is somewhat similar to the development trajectory of Samsung Electronics in the early years.

If Nanshan Semiconductor really sustains losses for five or six years, it is really possible for them to catch up with the mainstream chip technology in the industry.

This is not the scene that people at Samsung Electronics want to see.

"Their wafer fab has just started to be built, and they will definitely recruit people from various peers. Then we will find a way to put a few people in so that we can better understand each other's movements."

It is not new for Chinese semiconductor companies to poach people from peers such as Samsung.

Park Geun-hee does not expect every employee of Samsung Electronics to be so loyal and willing to face the temptation of higher annual salary and choose to stay in Samsung.

However, there is definitely no problem in taking this opportunity to insert a few eyes and ears.

Anyway, it's just to grasp the other party's movements in time. It will definitely be difficult to find out who leaked this kind of information.

"I'll make arrangements right away."

"The global semiconductor industry is now in a very sluggish state, and the capacity utilization rate of wafer foundries has dropped to a new low since 2002."

"In this environment, Nanshan Semiconductor bucked the trend and entered the wafer production industry. It is said that it is also considering OEM for other Chinese chip design manufacturers such as Huawei HiSilicon."

"This is definitely something we should vigorously suppress."

"Neither we nor TSMC want another company like SMIC to appear in China."

Li Zailin is very familiar with the situation of the global and even Chinese semiconductor industry.

Although the prospects of this industry are very good, the competition is also very fierce.

It could end up being a winner-takes-all situation.

But this process is definitely more painful.

"Nanshan Group's requirements for chips should mainly focus on machine tools and automobile parts. These things do not have high requirements for advanced manufacturing processes."

"Not to mention 40 nanometer, even if we use 300 nanometer technology to produce these parts, it can fully meet the market requirements."

"Car-grade chips care more about quality stability."

"You can also find a way to contact Nanshan Group to see if they are interested in handing some wafers to Samsung for OEM."

"We will let them know that professional things are left to professionals. This sentence makes sense."

"The cost of building their own wafer fab is very high. In the end, it is better to design the chip and hand it over to us for OEM."

In addition to paying attention to the development of Nanshan Semiconductor, Park Geunxi also hopes to turn this competitor into his customer.

The wafer fab is so difficult to operate and the competition is so fierce, so don’t do it.

Just leave it to our professional foundries.

This solution is very popular among many chip design companies.

"I'll try my best to give it a try, but they have already started building a fab. I guess I won't regret it if I don't hit the wall in the short term."

"It doesn't matter, just give it a try. What if someone figures it out?"

If the boss has instructions, Li Zailin will naturally carry them out.

For a large company like Samsung Electronics, if you want to contact Nanshan Group, there are naturally many ways to find contact information.

Soon, Zhang Jing met Li Zailin in the company who took the initiative to visit him.

Since some semiconductor components for Nanshan mobile phones and Nanshan auto parts need to be purchased from manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, Zhang Jing will definitely not break up with Samsung Electronics directly.

After all, the competition between the two parties has not officially begun yet.

There is no need to break up so quickly.

"Mr. Zhang, I have been in China for many years, and I have heard of your name for a long time."

"I didn't expect that you would eventually leave college and come to Nanshan Semiconductor."

Li Zailin speaks Chinese very well.

Many Korean company personnel in China can speak Chinese very well.

This is also an advantage for them to expand the market.

"Mr. Li, it seems that Nanshan Equipment and Nanshan Auto Parts under our Nanshan Group use the memory from your Suzhou/factory, but they are purchased through agents."

"Speaking of which, our two companies are quite destined."

When we met for the first time, we definitely talked mostly nonsense.

Anyway, it’s all business talk.

It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that Li Zailin started to get to the point and said, "Mr. Zhang, you are also an old man in the semiconductor industry."

"What is popular in the industry now is the fabless model. Whether it is Huawei HiSilicon in China, Qualcomm in the United States, or Apple, they are all taking this path."

"The investment in fabs is huge, especially in fabs with advanced processes. The investment is getting bigger each time."

"For a 65-nanometer fab, maybe $500 million is enough."

"But when it comes to 40-nanometer wafer fabs, it may cost 7 to 8 billion US dollars."

"In the future, 28-nanometer wafer fabs are likely to reach the level of more than one billion US dollars."

"And once a peer makes a breakthrough in this field, you must catch up immediately, otherwise you will soon be eliminated by the industry."

"It can be said that competition in the field of wafer production is very fierce and the risks are also very high."

"According to our investigation, the capacity utilization rate of global wafer fabs this year is less than 50%, and there is a large amount of surplus capacity."

"Under such circumstances, price wars are inevitable."

"It is a good time for Nanshan Semiconductor to enter the semiconductor field at this time."

"But building a wafer factory yourself, I don't think it may be a good choice."

Li Zailin realistically affirmed Nanshan Semiconductor’s choice, but also highlighted the difficulties and unfavorable situation of the wafer fab.

He definitely hopes that Nanshan Semiconductor can give up the construction of the wafer factory. Even if the current factory is built, it will not build other factories in the future.

"You are right, but our current equipment has been ordered, and it must be built first."

“When the company internally sees the disadvantages of building its own wafer fab, it will reconsider its future layout.”

"Otherwise, it will be difficult for me to convince everyone to accept the fabless solution."

Zhang Jing's words made Li Zailin's fist feel like hitting cotton, and he felt very aggrieved.

Is the other party telling the truth or is he just deceiving himself?

Li Zailin was a little unsure.

But the other party has already said this, so he doesn't know how to answer it.

In the end, we can only emphasize Samsung Electronics' advanced technology in the field of wafer fabs and competitive cost levels in the industry. We hope that in the future, Nanshan Semiconductor can design the chip itself and hand it over to Samsung Electronics for OEM.

Although this meeting could not be said to have ended on bad terms, it still ended hastily.

After meeting Li Zailin, Zhang Jing immediately went to report to Cao Yang.

"Samsung Electronics and TSMC are the two most important foundry manufacturers. Among them, Samsung Electronics poses the greatest threat to Nanshan Semiconductor and has the greatest potential impact on Nanshan Group."

"Especially when our mobile phones are launched in the future, many components will be purchased from Samsung Electronics."

"They can get stuck in our necks relatively easily, and if we want to produce those components ourselves in the future, we will be in a competitive relationship with Samsung Electronics."

"So it is necessary for Nanshan Semiconductor to arrange a dedicated team within to study the news of Samsung Electronics, and at the same time find ways to learn some of their technologies."

Although Cao Yang dislikes Korean companies, he is very clear about the future development prospects of Samsung Electronics.

This is definitely a rival worth taking seriously.

It may even be Nanshan Semiconductor’s biggest enemy in the future.

It's just that the relationship between the two parties is still in a relatively early stage, and there are not many conflicts.

But after Nanshan Semiconductor decided to build a wafer fab, the other party took the initiative to visit us, which can also explain some problems.

At least Nanshan Semiconductor has begun to enter their field of vision.

"Mr. Cao, I will arrange these later."

"But I think what Li Zailin said is not unreasonable."

"In the field of wafer fabs, competition is very fierce and investment is very large."

"The entire semiconductor industry is concentrating on handing over its experience to Samsung and TSMC. Do we also need to rethink our future wafer strategy?"

Zhang Jing's view obviously represents the views of a group of people.

You can obviously find a simpler and cheaper solution, so why go through so much trouble to do it yourself?

They all run businesses, and profit is the main purpose, right?

"Based on the current situation, what you said makes sense. It is most convenient to find TSMC or Samsung Electronics directly for OEM."

"But as mentioned just now, Nanshan Semiconductor is likely to become Samsung Electronics' main competitor in the future. Do you think Samsung will still be willing to OEM for us at that time?"

"And if all orders are given to TSMC for OEM, there seems to be no problem in a short time."

"But if something special happens in the future and someone is unwilling to do OEM work for us, or they give us some harsh OEM conditions, what should we do?"

"Now we can successfully develop 65-nanometer wafers by taking advantage of the financial crisis."

"When we evolve to more advanced processes such as 28nm and 14nm in the future, it will be even more difficult for us to catch up."

"It's better to suffer some losses and hardships from the beginning and lay a solid foundation."

"In the future, we will be another Samsung Electronics. We can not only produce our own chips, but also OEM for other manufacturers."

"For example, Warwick HiSilicon, didn't they take the initiative to contact us and change their mind to OEM cooperation in the future?"

"Situations like this will definitely happen more and more in the future."

"The premise is that we do a good job in the wafer factory and make it no worse than Samsung Electronics and TSMC."

Cao Yang naturally knows what the chip foundry industry will look like in the future.

But there are some things that are not appropriate to say at this time.

No one would believe it, and it would even make people feel weird.

So I can only find some reasons from other aspects.

Fortunately, if you are just looking for a reason, no matter what the reason is, it is easy to find.

After listening to Cao Yang's words, Zhang Jing didn't worry too much.

After all, the boss had already said before that he would spend 50 billion yuan on it, and he didn't want to miss such a great opportunity.

Who wants to simply engage in chip design when we can engage in chip production across the entire industry chain?

All styles are different, okay!

"No problem. As long as our fab is built, it will be the most advanced in the country."

"The next step is to invest more manpower and material resources in researching 40-nanometer technology."

"Samsung and TSMC have already mastered the technology of this process, and it is not that difficult for us to make breakthroughs."

"By keeping up with the world's most mainstream wafer technology step by step, we at Nanshan Semiconductor can fully meet the needs of the automotive industry and the smartphone industry in the future."

“These two areas alone are enough to support the development and growth of Nanshan Semiconductor.”

Zhang Jing is now full of confidence in Nanshan Semiconductor.

Once he really turns it into the largest semiconductor company in China, or even one of the top semiconductor companies in the world, his life will be complete.

Of course, academicians and the like are also out of the question.

May Day labor medals and the like are also readily available.

Of course, this process is definitely not that easy.

He was mentally prepared.

"The community in Zhujiang New Town is ready for move-in. You can communicate with the human resources department to speed up the recruitment of relevant talents."

"Now is the lowest level of confidence since the financial crisis."

"Various semiconductor companies have shut down factories, considered layoffs, and postponed the construction of new factories."

"At this time, even if Nanshan Semiconductor provides a job opportunity with the same salary level as the original salary, there will still be people willing to come."

"What's more, we also gave them the opportunity to increase their salary by at least 30%."

"If you miss the window period of the last year, it may not be that easy to recruit talents in the future."

Cao Yang knows that starting from the second half of next year, China's economy will have completely emerged from the financial crisis.

Economies around the world have gradually emerged from the crisis.

China, the engine of economic development, is full of power and can drive a large number of industries around the world to move forward and get out of the quagmire of crisis.