Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Talent can be found, but it also needs to be cultivated.

If China's semiconductor industry really wants to develop, the number of talents it will need is huge.

Electronic information engineering, microelectronics science and engineering, integrated circuit engineering, computer science and technology and other related majors, and even physics, optical engineering related majors, all need to be vigorously developed.

This is certainly not something that can be accomplished by Nanshan Group alone. It requires the joint efforts of domestic universities.

For Cao Yang, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely Lingnan University of Technology.

Although this major is not one of their strong majors, as long as they work hard and follow companies such as Nanshan Semiconductor, BYD Semiconductor and Warwick HiSilicon to engage in industry-university-research, they will soon become a leading presence among domestic universities.

Xiang Changle was also very concerned about this situation.

Although he is the dean of the Automotive College, he is also the vice-president. It is completely imaginative for him to take the initiative to combine the chip-related majors of the school and establish a semiconductor college.

"Ayang, you, the visiting professor, haven't given a lecture to students for a long time. Why don't you take this opportunity to give a large online lecture?"

Xiang Changle personally poured a cup of tea for Cao Yang, and the two sat side by side on the sofa in the office.

"No problem, but wait until next month."

"At that time, I will have a detailed chat with you about the choice of major in college."

Cao Yang agreed without any hesitation.

As a visiting professor, even if I don't come to teach for a semester, I should still give a lecture.

The most important thing is that he also wants to use this lecture to promote some things that are beneficial to Nanshan Group.

Nowadays, the overall employment salary for engineering majors is not very high, and many people want to work in finance, computers, etc.

Some people would rather choose majors such as biology, environmental engineering, business administration, and international trade than optoelectronic engineering, microelectronics, and physics.

Of course, there is no need to worry about no one signing up for majors such as computer science and technology and software engineering that are biased toward the Internet.

But to engage in chips, relying on these majors is definitely not enough.

"Okay, I'll have someone make an appointment with Director Mi for you then."

Xiang Changle was very happy to see Cao Yang agree so readily.

Of course, inviting Cao Yang to the school to give a lecture is definitely not today's topic.

In front of Xiang Changle, Cao Yang did not go around in circles and said directly: "Nanshan Semiconductor can fully cooperate with the School of Semiconductor of Lingnan University of Technology."

"Our company has technical talents poached from all over the world, and many of these people are qualified to teach students."

“Some of them have even served in universities at home and abroad before.”

"These people with practical experience will teach students, and the students they will train will be able to integrate into the research and development work of chip companies more quickly."

"Our company can also provide students with a better internship platform, allowing them to gain early exposure to semiconductor production equipment, processes and related designs."

"Of course, Lingnan University of Technology must also find ways to introduce some teachers from other universities. Only by walking on two legs can we go further."

Cao Yang knew that although Lingnan University of Technology was very good in South China, it was still not very good from a national perspective.

Especially for semiconductor-related majors, there is still a clear gap compared with the University of Science and Technology of China.

Fortunately, being in Yangcheng, the attraction of Lingnan University of Technology is not bad.

In addition, various policies are relatively flexible, so there is no need to worry about not attracting talents.

At worst, the conditions will be increased by one.

"No problem. I will formally raise this topic at the school council meeting tomorrow."

“In the future, we will build the Automotive College and the Semiconductor College into the school’s most distinctive colleges and attract talents from all over the country to teach in our two colleges.”

"At the same time, relying on local semiconductor companies such as Nanshan Semiconductor, Warwick HiSilicon, and BYD Semiconductor will enable our students and teachers to have front-line practical capabilities."

"With time, our domestic semiconductor talents will not be so in short supply."

Xiang Changle also knows how much Nanshan Semiconductor paid some time ago to poach semiconductor talents from all over the world.

If these highly paid talents are recruited locally in China, the promotion effect they will bring to the entire industry will definitely be huge.

Moreover, this will further stimulate the development of this industry.

For example, one of your classmates may not have finished college yet, but he studied a semiconductor-related major and entered a chip company.

Five years later, you will have an annual salary of 100,000, while others will have an annual salary of one million.

This kind of stimulation and contrast will definitely lead to a large number of talents transitioning to work on chips.

After all, this is a quick way to make money.

We are all ordinary people. We go to work, don’t we just want to make more money?

Only when this premise is met will we consider feelings.

Those who don't talk about money and only talk about feelings from the beginning are obviously playing hooligans.

"Okay, isn't it popular now for colleges and universities to introduce some high-level talents from overseas?"

"If we can introduce some high-end talents from universities such as Stanford or MIT, it will be more feasible for Lingnan University of Technology to build the School of Semiconductor into the best school in the country in the future."

"Nanshan Semiconductor can also donate some money to the Institute of Semiconductor in the future, and we can work together to develop chips."

Cao Yang and Xiang Changle chatted for a long time and basically finalized some cooperation between the School of Semiconductor of Lingnan University of Technology and Nanshan Semiconductor.

Zhang Jing, who was far away in the United States, also called Cao Yang and said that he expected to formally reach an agreement to acquire Nvidia next week and asked him if he wanted to fly to the United States as well.

"Ayang, I think you should be careful when going abroad now. If you can't help it, don't go out."

When Fang Sisi heard that Cao Yang was going to the United States next week, she thought for a while and made a rather unexpected proposal.

No one within Nanshan Group has ever mentioned this topic to Cao Yang.

Everyone is not aware of this yet.

After all, the current international environment is generally good.

Especially with the outbreak of the financial crisis, the United States hopes that China, the engine of economic growth, will be stronger and pull them out of the quagmire.

However, if you think about it carefully, in fact, the topic Fang Sisi mentioned really needs to be carefully considered.

Nanshan Group is no longer a small company with just a few soldiers and generals.

Whether it is the development of a large-scale high-precision five-axis CNC machine tool that can produce propellers for nuclear submarines, or the development of China's carbon fiber industry to the highest international level in one fell swoop.

These are all very taboo things in the United States.

In addition, there are a series of products such as special steel, engines, robots, etc. Nanshan Group is also constantly refreshing everyone's understanding.

Now that we have to develop semiconductors, a high-precision technology that has been monopolized by the West, it is hard to say whether some people will come up with other tricks.

At least after Fang Sisi mentioned this, Cao Yang was not sure that it would be safe for him to go to the United States.

Don't go there and you won't be able to come back.

Or if there's a plane crash or a car accident, then it's time to stop.

"Sisi, did you hear something?"

Cao Yang is naturally relatively clear about his girlfriend's family background.

We have been together for so many years, and we have met everyone we should see.

It's even time to talk about marriage.

"It's not that there's any rumors, but judging from the current international environment, the development of Nanshan Group has threatened the core interests of some interest groups."

"Especially many things from Nanshan Group can also be used in the military industry after a little transformation."

"In the past two years, the domestic aerospace industry has developed very rapidly, and some projects under development have also made great progress."

"There are many things in it that have something to do with Nanshan Group."

"As a result, Nanshan Group will become a thorn in some people's eyes sooner or later."

"I think it's necessary to consider your safety in advance."

"In China, as long as you have a few bodyguards, nothing will happen."

"Anyway, you are traveling in the bulletproof version, so safety is guaranteed."

"But after leaving China, the role of bodyguards who don't even have pistols is very limited."

"Even hiring a very capable security team doesn't make much sense."

"After all, no matter how powerful your security team is, can it be as powerful as the American intelligence agency?"

Fang Sisi suddenly became positive when she saw that Cao Yang could listen to what she said.

Most people can't listen to what I just said.

You may even feel that Fang Si thinks too much.

So she finally brought it up to Cao Yang after struggling for a long time.

Now seeing that Cao Yang could figure out the logic so quickly, Fang Sisi was naturally very happy.

"You are right. It seems that I will go abroad as little as possible in the future. It is best to stay at home."

"The senior management of the group has also grown up now, and many occasions do not require me to attend in person."

At this time, Cao Yang's main focus is to listen to advice.

There is no need to risk your own safety.

Who knows if someone in the United States will really take action so quickly?

Who will I cry to then?

"Yes, those who work hard govern others, and those who work hard govern others."

"It's enough for you to be in charge in the country."

After this conversation with Fang Sisi, Cao Yang decisively chose to stay in the country.

At the same time, he also began to consider the safety issues of some core technical talents.

For example, Zhang Jing, although he is still in the United States, will he try to reduce the number of trips abroad as much as possible in the future?

In addition, the talents who have mastered core technologies in Nanshan Carbon Fiber, Nanshan Special Steel, Nanshan Chemical and other companies must also prevent anyone from taking action against them.

To a certain extent, these people are not only the wealth of Nanshan Group, but also the wealth of China.

…

"Mr. Zhang, speaking of which, when I was studying at Stanford, you should also be studying for a Ph.D. there. However, our majors are different and our tutors are also different. Apart from hearing your name, I really don't know much about you. More intersections.”

"I didn't expect that twenty years later, we would meet like this and become people on the same boat."

As the founder of Nvidia, Huang Jiansheng is actually reluctant to sell the company.

However, the impact of the financial crisis is indeed a bit large, and the sales of the latest generation of products are not good, so Nvidia's valuation is now falling again and again, and Huang Jiansheng is also under great pressure.

In 1999, NVIDIA launched the world's first graphics processor, also known as GPU.

Since then, the GPU has become another important computing unit in the computer that is independent of the CPU.

The next year, Huang Jiansheng boldly proposed his own "Huang's Law": NVIDIA's core strategy is to upgrade products every 6 months and double their functions.

At that time, the industry already had another more famous law, which was the "Moore's Law" created by Intel founder Moore: the number of transistors that can be accommodated on a chip doubles every 18 months, and the performance doubles.

Compared with "Moore's Law", the technological update speed of "Huang's Law" is 2 times faster.

A great person has achieved all that he has boasted about, so he is a great person.

Since then, Nvidia has continued to launch higher-performance GPUs, gradually defeating many competitors and becoming the No. 1 player in the field of visual computing. Huang Jiansheng has also become one of the youngest billionaires in Silicon Valley.

Under such circumstances, how could he be someone willing to sell the company easily?

You know, in the past few years, when Nvidia's valuation was at its highest, it had already reached six to seven billion US dollars.

Although there are elements of a bubble in it, it is not comparable to the current valuation of more than one billion US dollars.

"Mr. Huang, although my boss can't come this time, he has always admired you very much."

"After NVIDIA is acquired by Nanshan Semiconductor, it will continue to be managed by the founder team led by Mr. Huang."

"The specific conditions and requirements are just like those I communicated to you before."

"CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture, a parallel computing unified computing architecture) that NVIDIA is currently promoting with all its strength is not taken seriously by the market."

"We, Mr. Cao, feel that this is not actually because CUDA is not good, but because CUDA is so good and so advanced that there are no suitable application scenarios for it on the market."

"After NVIDIA becomes a subsidiary of Nanshan Semiconductor, Nanshan Group will first start to use CUDA on some products, making NVIDIA's CUDA a world-famous flagship product in the future."

Zhang Jing used to be a university professor and was very eloquent.

"Before the emergence of CUDA, there were probably no more than 100 people in the world who could program with GPU. With CUDA, using GPU has become a very easy thing."

"CUDA has the advantages of easy deployment, flexible development interface, programming language adaptation, complete tools and code libraries, etc., and is compatible with multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux and MacOS."

"The development of CUDA has made GPU no longer a simple graphics processor, and its applicable target has changed from game producers to scientists, engineers or artists."

Speaking of the fact that he has spent a lot of energy in the past two years, but the result is that the market value of CUDA has been getting lower and lower, Huang Jiansheng still has a lot to say.

This time Nanshan Semiconductor was able to successfully persuade Huang Jiansheng to accept the acquisition, which had a lot to do with the other party's promise to reuse CUDA and the fact that it had found CUDA application scenarios.

Of course, the competitive landscape of the industry has also put a lot of pressure on Huang Jiansheng.

In July 2006, AMD acquired ATI at a premium of US$5.4 billion, reshuffling the GPU chip market.

Although Intel gave up its plan to develop its own GPU, Nvidia breathed a sigh of relief.

But the financial crisis that followed immediately pushed Nvidia to the edge of the cliff.

Nanshan Semiconductor took advantage of the opportunity and found a good time.

Because just in February this year, Intel formally submitted a complaint to the Delaware Court of the United States, requesting that the previous licensing agreement with Nvidia should not apply to Intel's next-generation integrated memory controller.

In other words: Nvidia can no longer provide GPUs to Intel in the future, and everyone has to say goodbye.

However, Huang Jiansheng was not a vegetarian. A month later, in March 2009, he countersued Intel.

Nvidia pointed out that Intel violated the contract and its real purpose was to hinder GPU technology.

When Huang Jiansheng was interviewed at that time, he vowed: "There will never be reconciliation."

This lawsuit has just begun!

Intel is a super large company with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars. Many people are not optimistic about Nvidia and Intel.

There are even different voices within Nvidia.

Under multiple pressures, Zhang Jing's goal was successfully achieved.

"You're right, Mr. Cao thinks so too."

“NVIDIA’s CUDA can definitely become a classic in the future.”

"With the development of automobile intelligence and networking, and the advent of the smartphone era, Nvidia's GPUs will become even more promising."

"Given time, it is not impossible for Nvidia to become as big as Intel."

Although Zhang Jing doesn't believe that Nvidia can compete with Intel, but why are you embarrassed?

"Mr. Zhang, Mr. Cao directly delegates power to you for such a big acquisition case. Does this mean that Mr. Cao trusts you very much?"

Huang Jiansheng has learned a lot about Nanshan Group during this period.

The more I understand, the more I admire.

After all, great people are sympathetic to each other.

So taking the opportunity to chat with Zhang Jing, he also wanted to know more about Cao Yang.

"Actually, it's not that Mr. Cao has much trust in me personally, but that Mr. Cao has always been suspicious of people when he hires people, and he doesn't trust people when he hires people."

"Nanshan Group's industries involve a wide range of industries, and many things in each business department are everyone's own responsibility."

"Just like NVIDIA, Mr. Cao will definitely trust you fully in the future and continue to hand over the company to you to run it."

When Zhang Jing said this, Huang Jiansheng was quite happy to hear it.

Through this period of contact, Zhang Jing also realized that the benefits of acquiring Nvidia to Nanshan Semiconductor were huge.

First of all, the founder of Nvidia is a Chinese himself.

There are also many Chinese employees in the company.

In this way, in the future, whether they are directly dispatched from Nanshan Semiconductor or recruit some Chinese people from the society, they will not look very conspicuous.

Nvidia grew up in the United States, and even after being acquired, it is impossible to directly leave the American market.

Huang Jiansheng also made it clear that he would not consider going to Shanghai to work, and it would not matter if he was traveling on business.

In this case, the cultivation of talents and the learning of technology are very important.

"I hope everything is as you said, Mr. Zhang."

"We can formally sign the acquisition agreement the day after tomorrow. It will depend on what instructions you have, Mr. Zhang."

Huang Jiansheng and Zhang Jing chatted in the office for several hours, and they were quite happy.

This has something to do with the fact that both of them studied at Stanford.

With this conversation between Zhang Jing and Huang Jiansheng, Nanshan Semiconductor's acquisition of Nvidia was finally settled.

Nanshan Semiconductor invested US$1 billion to acquire 80% of Nvidia's shares.

Of course, since Nvidia is a Nasdaq-listed company, this kind of acquisition is actually quite complicated.

And the 80% of the shares here is equivalent to privatizing Nvidia.

There are a bunch of procedures to go through.

However, there are professionals doing it, so there is no need for Zhang Jing to worry.

"Mr. Cao, fortunately you have lived up to your command!"

After taking care of Huang Jiansheng, Zhang Jing immediately called Cao Yang regardless of what time it was in China.

Since the establishment of Nanshan Semiconductor, except for the previous acquisition of a wafer factory and packaging and testing plant from Renesas Electronics, there has been no bigger news than this move.

A US$1 billion acquisition, whether it is placed in China or in the international market, is not an ordinary commercial activity and deserves everyone's attention.

"The group's legal department has arranged for special people to come over to assist with the acquisition."

"Don't be afraid of spending money. Please ask a well-known local law firm in the United States for help. Don't leave any tail behind."

"Especially now that Nvidia and Intel are still in a lawsuit. Some things should be clearly stated in the contract, and they must be made clear."

"The case of Nanshan Semiconductor's acquisition of Nvidia, I hope it will be a very successful case in the history of the development of the chip industry in the future, rather than being regarded as a negative example."

Cao Yang was not dazzled by this victory.

American chip companies, especially companies that have become popular, are not so easy to acquire.

It would be a pity if the money is spent but the technology is not obtained.

Taking advantage of the financial crisis, we must put all the normally difficult conditions into the contract.

In this way, Nanshan Semiconductor will be in a proactive position in the future.

Even if you need to give up part of Nvidia's shares in the future, you can still make a lot of money.

"Mr. Cao, don't worry!"

"We have hired specialized agencies and lawyers to ensure the acquisition is handled properly!"

Zhang Jing naturally knew that this acquisition was of great significance, so he took it very seriously.

Whether his life can make a leap is inevitably related to this acquisition.