Reinventing the Millennium

A serious safety incident occurred in the distant Netherlands, but it only caused shock in a small circle. After all, the only ones directly affected were Taiji, Samsung, and Yike.

At present, ASML has not disclosed the specific damage situation, only announced supply delays, which may also have an indirect impact on other customers.

After all, semiconductor upstream core equipment manufacturers are too far away. Except for a few people, this is just a few news and related accident investigations.

Perhaps it was the same method used by some manufacturers to control prices in the past. When such news came into the eyes of AMD head Su Zifeng, she didn't even intend to look at it for longer. She continued to flip through a few pages of the newspaper before turning her mind again. for today's business.

Returning to Silicon Valley from China, Su Zifeng believes that she has gained a lot from this trip.

She is a Ph.D., and her first job after graduation was Texas Instruments. Later, she became the vice president of the semiconductor R\u0026D department at IBM, leading a team of hundreds of engineers to focus on the R\u0026D and innovation of semiconductor technology.

Before joining AMD in 2012, she served as COO and CEO at GlobalFoundries.

Su Zifeng is very knowledgeable about technology and R\u0026D. Because of her ability and experience, she wanted to leave GF after becoming the head of AMD - others don’t know your technical level at GF, so don’t I, the former CEO, know? ?

Leakage of electricity!

The temperature control is unstable!

During this trip to China and Luzhou, she communicated with Qiu Ciyun, Hu Zhengming, and Liang Mengsong of Ice Core. She increasingly felt that as long as the situation did not deteriorate rapidly, AMD could counterattack the market competition with Ice Core's process technology.

Su Zifeng arrived at the office and soon met Vice President of Technology Karni and told him about the cooperation intention negotiated during this trip to China.

However, before she could say a few more words, Karni jumped up.

"You sold the ZEN architecture?!"

Su Zifeng said calmly: "The US$450 million is limited to the Chinese market."

Karni frowned and sat down again with a hiss.

However, he jumped up again after listening to a few more words.

"You want to tear up the foundry cooperation with GLOBALFOUNDRIES?!"

Su Zifeng still said calmly: "Ice Core International promises to provide AMD with the most advanced 16nm production capacity as a priority."

Karni frowned and sat down again with a "hmm", looking at the leader with bright eyes, waiting for the next step.

Su Zifeng thought about it and realized that this trip was mainly about these two items, one was money and the other was technology, but she still said something special: "If the performance is satisfactory, Yike's notebooks are willing to be equipped with our processors."

"Yike, Yike." Karni chewed the name twice and said, "Yike is a good company. Its mobile phones and tablets have their own chips, but the sales of notebooks also grew rapidly last year. This is a good company. Cooperation."

He changed the subject: "However, our ZEN structure has not been completed yet, and if you sell it directly like this, Bourne and Nick will definitely not agree!"

"What's more, Yike has R\u0026D capabilities that may not be inferior to ours. Well, I'm just talking about this area that we are good at."

Karni compared his family with Yike, and suddenly thought of a clear number, adding qualifications to his comparison.

Among other things, AMD's R\u0026D expenses in 2014 were US$1 billion. Yike has not released its financial report yet, but based on year-by-year growth projections, its R\u0026D investment in 2014 may exceed US$4 billion.

Such a huge gap echoed in his mind, and for a moment Karni forgot what he wanted to say next.

Fortunately, Su Zifeng understood what he meant and explained: "Mr. Fang and I have an agreement that Yike cannot release products based on the ZEN architecture earlier than us."

Garnier carefully tasted the meaning of these words and understood the same deep fear of the leader.

Yike didn't want anything else, but chose AMD's ZEN architecture, which has not yet been completely successful. This purpose is self-evident. Since it has launched notebook products, it is obvious that it does not want to limit the creation of chips to mobile devices.

If based on Yike's scientific research capabilities and development speed, AMD is likely to be funding a strong competitor in the future.

Garnier thought over and over again about the information reported by the boss. GlobalFoundries' process is indeed poor. Regardless of the research and development of advanced processes or the stability of the process, it is not as good as Intel, Taiwan Records, Bingxin International, and Samsung.

However, GF was born from AMD, and the cooperation between the two parties has more complicated reasons.

However, ice core is now the world’s number one manufacturing process!

In fact, according to the R\u0026D investment and team there, it will still be the first-tier capability in the future!

Karni thought for a long time before mentioning the recent voices floating in public opinion, and said cautiously: "Yike and Bingxin seem to have encountered some troubles in Washington. The White House obviously doesn't like Oriental Semiconductor to have developed to such an extent."

"GlobalFoundries can't count on it. Taichi has not yet started production. Samsung is later than Taichi. UMC's R\u0026D has encountered problems. Now in 2015, only Bingxin is willing to squeeze out production capacity for us. This is a way to solve the burden of GF opportunity." Su Zifeng first described the situation and then said, "The ice core will face troubles, but we only need it to help us through the two years of transformation. As long as our transformation is successful, it will be another world. ”

Su Zifeng does not expect to rely on Ice Core's process competitiveness for a long time. She is willing to sell the ZEN architecture for the present, and she chooses to cooperate with Ice Core for the present.

Only with the present can we have a future.

Besides, no one knows what the future will look like.

Karni frowned deeply: "In this case, once Washington launches a test on the stability of the ice core, it is not testing the ice core, but testing us. This... this risk..."

"With US$450 million + 16nm process, even if it doesn't take two years, if we can launch products with the same generation process as Intel within this year, I think it will be a great success." Su Zifeng emphasized, "This is a very big success. A good opportunity worth taking a gamble on.”

She looked at the vice president of technology who was promoted by her, and finally said: "So what if it fails? What we lost was GF, and what we threw away was just a baggage. The market is nothing more than the current market."

Karni pursed his lips. It makes sense. Even if AMD does not get the expected cooperation with Ice Core, it will not lose much. If it can really achieve a leap in products this year, it will make a lot of money.

He suggested: "I'm afraid there will still be a lot of internal opposition. We need to communicate in advance before the meeting."

Su Zifeng nodded and expressed her attitude this time: "I am the CEO, and I will not hesitate this time."

Karni looked at the leader and couldn't tell for a moment whether she hated GF more or liked the ice core manufacturing process more.

In just two days, AMD, which was facing layoffs and restructuring, broke the news that five executives were about to leave, including core figures such as the general manager of AMD's computing and graphics business group, chief marketing officer, and chief strategy officer.

Another day later, an internal email from AMD was exposed, claiming that the departure of five executives was "one of the steps to achieve the best organizational design and leadership team to further strengthen AMD's execution and promote AMD's growth."

After more gossip leaked out, distrust of the female boss, differences in the company's strategic decision-making, and better external development opportunities became the main factors for leaving the company.

News about AMD’s internal turmoil appeared on Bloomberg. However, Su Wei saw such news because she was also reading Yike news reported by Bloomberg.

The closed-door meeting in Washington was not so closed-door after all. The uncertainty about YIKE's future became a moderately bad news, causing a correction in the YIKE stock price on Nasdaq.

"Will AMD processors be used this year? That Mr. Su is so courageous, he fired them right away!" Su Wei took the tablet and asked Fang Zhuo, who was in the study with his son stepping on ink with his feet.

"It seems that it's not just because of the cooperation with us. There were quite a lot of disagreements over the 7% layoffs she made last year. Maybe the conflicts broke out when they accumulated together." Fang Zhuo carefully hugged his son from under his arms and nodded. He said nonchalantly, "She still has to bring someone to finalize the cooperation this month. You can ask her in person then."

Su Wei said "tsk" and asked a key question about AMD's cooperation: "Can AMD launch a 16nm CPU this year?"

"I really don't know about this. It depends on the cooperation between AMD and Ice Core." Fang Zhuo raised his head and thought for a moment, "It's a bit difficult. AMD's ZEN architecture still needs to be worked on, and it has to adapt to the sudden improvement in process technology. But it’s not hopeless. It mainly depends on AMD. Anyway, Yike will get what he wants.”

Su Wei laughed and praised: "Okay, it's Mr. Fang who knows how to set fire."

"Ahem, don't talk nonsense." Fang Zhuo reminded.

"This is because the pressure from Washington is too great and is driving you crazy, I think." Su Wei shook her head and sighed, her morals slipping downhill.

"No, setting fire is not crazy." Fang Zhuo denied.

Su Wei asked: "This doesn't count? What does it count?"

Fang Zhuo said seriously: "You are considered crazy only if you are caught setting fire."

Su Wei was suddenly speechless.

At this moment, I thought of a lot.

She patted her head, suppressed the evil thoughts that seemed to want to grow up under the influence, and stretched out her hand to wave to her son.

"I'm telling you, there are people who are crazier than me. I think Kong Yu is the one who is really crazy." Fang Zhuo took out a few pieces of paper, wiped his son's feet randomly, and said, "You know what he is constructive about?" Opinion?"

"Build a chaebol." Su Wei had already heard about this.

"He invited Aozi's daughter to be an intern, and he also thought about letting Aozi continue the family line. He felt that now that technology is so advanced, Aozi could have another son." Fang Zhuo frowned, "Kong Yu is probably really crazy. ”

Su Wei was stunned and didn't know how to complain. What kind of trick was this...

"He is a guest of those rich people, and he is still very popular in Washington." Fang Zhuo shook his head.

Su Wei finally found the correct evaluation: "Kong Yu must have gasoline in his head!"

Fang Zhuo said "Huh", it's not impossible.

"What position have you assigned to your American king in Yike?" Su Wei took her son's hand and asked another question.

"Let's keep it unchanged for now." Fang Zhuo hesitated, "There are also some different views on future development within the company. Zhang Yaqin sent me an email yesterday, taking Apple's car-making as an example, and thinking that Yike can make further changes. But others don’t agree, and I’m a little hesitant now, mainly because I don’t know when the Yike matter will come to an end and when it will be generally stable.”

Fang Zhuo wanted to see the situation and changes of the company. As for Yu Hong's position, the Yi Ke incident had not yet started, so he was not in a hurry to adjust the arrangement.

Su Wei glanced at the man in the study with a half-smile: "Okay, President Fang, think more about the company's affairs. I will hold a welcome ceremony for her in two days. Her brother is also getting married this year, and I have to think about what to send."

Fang Zhuo had no objection and waved his hand.

The door of the study was closed.

Fang Zhuo folded the paper, picked up the pen to write, but suddenly lost interest.

He glanced at the computer screen, clicked on the homepage of Sina, and saw the news that interested him.

——Two executives of Duji were reported to have resigned, which may be related to the poor performance of the search business.

In January, not only did AMD have senior executives resign, but Duji also had turmoil. However, this is not the first time, and the media reports are not as interesting as before.

On December 31, 2014, the "Easy Search" that had been announced was launched. The Yike mobile terminal was uniformly redesigned, and only some Sogou browser users on the PC terminal were pushed for the time being, but more users have been curious to search and experience it by themselves.

"No difference."

This is the feeling of many people.

However, this may be a bad thing for Duji. "No difference" probably means that there is nothing advanced, and it is probably not worse than the accuracy of Duji search. So... you can try it or not.

Yike's online search this time is quite natural. The acquisition of Sogou came first, and the name was announced later. With the global No. 1 and market popularity of Mars 8.8, users have a good impression.

The manifestation of brand value at this moment is probably... other companies' products that can be replaced or not will not be replaced, because they have been used to using Duji, and Yike's products, give it a chance.

With such a head-on collision, Duji's market share and stock price have been hit hard again. Although it is expected, bleeding is always a little painful.

Duji is ready to take action, but the market and product side really have no other options.

There is no way to stop it!

Yike's products are well-known, Yike's hardware is advantageous, and Yike's layout is persistent...

Duji faces a behemoth like Yike and finds that it has no room to struggle. When did all this start?

Perhaps, it was destined when Yike set its sights on Duji.

In the new year, there was even a question at Duji's internal meeting: Does the company still have a future?

As the head, Li Yanhong gave a clear and confident answer.

There is a future!

"At least, Duji is a link in curbing Yike's monopoly."

It is better to live a miserable life than to die, just like AMD to Intel!