Reinventing the Millennium

Yike faces challenges, Bingxin encounters crisis.

But Yike's size and Fang Zhuo's success over the years mean that even if the company only releases the news of the project, all regions will flock to it.

From the discussion before the Spring Festival to May, when Fang Zhuo was fully focused on Bingxin, the general office finally voted to pass the project resolution by a narrow margin.

This project was named "Kunpeng", which means the transformation of Kun into Peng, which is consistent with the company's consideration of some transformations.

Fang Zhuo soon felt the enthusiasm of other cities besides Beijing, Shanghai, and Luzhou. Subsidies are being promoted, and there is a trend abroad. If a company like Yike goes down, it may be the 2.0 version of Bingxin's urban industry.

But he tried to decline as much as possible, and arranged for the company's executives to talk first if he couldn't decline. On the one hand, the market and supply chain were not mature enough. On the other hand, the company had just established the project. Although there were some technical reserves, it would take time for the real system transformation and supplementation.

The goal of the "Kunpeng" project after the General Office's resolution is also very clear. The stage is to look at research and development, and then to comprehensively measure various factors in the future.

Fang Zhuo can understand everyone's enthusiasm. No matter what, Yike will be a giant company, and the impact of this strategic change is very considerable.

But after he concentrated on dealing with various well-intentioned invitations, he still focused on Bingxin's affairs.

Although we talked about the overall shift of strategic focus and advanced processes such as 28nm that should be guaranteed when we were in Beijing before, Bingxin still had to do what it should do.

On June 21, Fang Zhuo inspected the construction of the joint venture plant with Xinyang again after listening to Bingxin's research and development progress and the resolution of recent problems.

This time, he witnessed the launch of the verification platform accompanied by Xinyang's deputy general manager Deng Yunxing.

From joint venture to construction to equipment procurement to now, the launch of this ArF photoresist verification platform in Luzhou can be described as light speed. Many steps are carried out simultaneously, and the most core lithography machine is even the most advanced NXT:2000i besides EUV.

Deng Yunxing is now in charge of this joint venture. He had heard the news from Bingxin before. He was confused when he heard that 2000i was going to enter the market. Although it was "only" DUV, ASML had not officially launched it to the market yet. How did it get it...

When he actually saw this machine, he knew more about the reason. It was from SMIC.

Deng Yunxing knew that the saying in the world was not a lie.

SMIC Bingxin, we are of the same blood!

Although such a machine is also very valuable in SMIC, it was taken out before it was warmed up. This shows the close relationship between the two companies.

As long as Mr. Fang speaks, no one can shake the relationship between the two companies, not even SMIC!

In addition to ASML's machines, Xinyang Luzhou Factory also purchased Nikon's NSR series lithography machines, which are also extremely advanced, but compared with the former, it is not surprising.

The core equipment is gorgeous, and the equipment and systems for coating, developing, baking, cleaning, and environmental control are all the most advanced.

As far as Deng Yunxing knows, this is the only one in China.

He clearly felt the eager expectations of Mr. Fang and Bingxin, but...

When facing Mr. Fang's inquiry, Deng Yunxing could only regretfully remain cautious.

"It is difficult for us to set a time. We can only say that we will do our best. Mr. Fang, ArF photoresist has extremely high requirements for material purity, stability, and resolution. We have to try it little by little."

"Even though Japan has benefited from long-term investment and industrial foundation, it sometimes takes several years to do customer verification."

"We... can only say that we will do our best."

Deng Yunxing said "do our best" twice. If possible, he would certainly be willing to guarantee it in front of Mr. Fang, but the reality really does not allow it.

Fang Zhuo was silent for a while and only said three words: "I understand."

Deng Yunxing suddenly felt a little guilty and sad when he heard this short answer.

"But it's good to do your best. As long as you do your best, Bingxin, SMIC and I can continue to invest. In the past, Japan's monopoly in this area was largely due to the threshold of customer manufacturers." Fang Zhuo said calmly, "Now there is no such threshold, and the development situation is different." In the past few years, Bingxin has organized manufacturers in this area to form a joint venture "Xingcai" company for cooperative research, but at that time, the focus was on improving its own competitiveness, and it was naturally impossible to conduct customer verification with Xingcai without a threshold. Today, that stage has passed. What needs to be solved now is not competitiveness, but substitution regardless of cost. The contradiction is different. In fact, as long as ArF photoresist makes a breakthrough, even if there are restrictions in this area, the room for mediation will be different. Fang Zhuo asked again: "Mr. Deng, what do you think I can do now to help you?" Deng Yunxing felt that Mr. Fang had done a lot, and he had enough equipment, policies, funds, etc., but this kind of research and development could not be rushed. He said earnestly: "Mr. Fang, we have done what we should do. There is nothing else to do. We will see the progress of research and development and verification in the future. "Xingcai" has made a lot of achievements in the past two years. We will continue to move forward on this basis." Fang Zhuo understood what Mr. Deng meant, but he still asked in a competitive manner: "What if we can poach part of the team from JSR and TOK?" JSR and TOK are Japan's leading photoresist manufacturers.

Just as Deng Yunxing was about to speak, he suddenly said "uh": "This...if this is the case, it will definitely be beneficial."

He wanted to say the effect of individual R\u0026D personnel, but suddenly the word "part of the team" came to mind.

Immediately, he said: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to poach people from JSR and TOK."

Fang Zhuo frowned and nodded: "Let's give it a try. If you can't dig out the best, forget about it. Unfortunately, my relationship with my Japanese friends was pretty good two years ago, but now there are some differences."

Deng Yunxing probably understood what Mr. Fang was referring to. Yike Optoelectronics was robbing Sony, and there was an uproar there. In addition, manufacturers such as JSR and TOK themselves were very careful, and they didn't just poach them.

Fang Zhuo ended the topic and thought a little about the situation in Singapore. In order to circumvent restrictions, the people he had poached from Nikon were there. If this continues, the scale there may not get bigger and bigger.

However, now it is restricted by the United States, but different countries are not all of the same mind. Everyone makes things to make money.

For example, in the Netherlands, they sold the 2000i to SMIC and borrowed it very proactively.

The market is already niche, and the behavior of being exclusive from customers is really not very marketable.

"It's very difficult, but we still have to keep doing it, Mr. Deng, don't worry, there will be tall people to hold up even if the sky falls." Fang Zhuo ended this inspection, still remaining calm.

These problems are not known the first day, but the priorities are different in different situations. The research and development of the ice core manufacturing process have been through it, as long as there is progress, it will be fine.

…

The problems in the semiconductor industry are trivial and difficult, and many times it is not just about spending money.

But in the Internet industry, money spent often yields very quick results.

After Uber ended its competition and its vice president’s prediction before leaving China came true, Didi, led by Penguin, announced a reduction in subsidies, and there was news that Didi was considering accepting investment from Alibaba.

In the future, a merger between Kuaidi and Didi may not be ruled out.

Two years of unprecedented money-burning subsidies have finally left people numb.

First it was Duji, then Uber, and now Penguin. Although it still has good traffic, like Duji, the competition this time also involves electronic payment.

Although Penguin has upgraded its "Penguin Wallet", the siphon effect is increasingly showing in the payment scenario of mobile travel. It really cannot attract Alipay and Yipay.

It’s also a money-burning subsidy, and Penguin Investment’s Didi conversion efficiency is getting lower and lower. However, the other two companies are even stronger.

How to play this?

Penguin almost admitted failure in this area.

This latest development has the victors excited.

Although the acquisition has not yet begun, Kuaidi has already contacted the other party under Ali's instruction.

At the same time, Alibaba’s head Ma Dan also passionately commented on his opponents in the past few years at the Zhejiang Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the middle of the year.

“These times are full of challenges and developments are really changing at a rapid pace.”

"Three years ago, could you have imagined that Duji would be in such a situation today? What did it do wrong? At that time, some people also said that it did not pay attention to user experience, but could you have imagined that it would be caught because of this? Attack the weak point?"

"The transition from computers to mobile is a transition full of opportunities and traps. Duji has not optimized itself well and has also fallen into a trap."

"What about Penguin? I think there are certain problems with its strategic model. It used to want to hold everything in its hands too much, but Yi Ke is much smarter and knows how to restrain and share."

When Ma Ren said this, he paused and continued: "However, a company as strong as Yike is also facing severe challenges now."

"I mentioned transformation and upgrading today because we have to do the transformation and upgrading work before the challenges come, otherwise we will panic when the time comes."

"I have always believed that the domestic troika is two horses and one ox. Exports are horse-drawn carriages, investment is horse-drawn carriages, but domestic demand is definitely an ox-cart."

"We must use concepts to open up domestic demand and stimulate consumption. This is the role and opportunity of our enterprise."

"Internet + is now a buzzword. It is a weapon for the development of the new era."

The head of Alibaba shared his views, and with his thinking, the entire group is indeed rushing towards Internet + and transformation and upgrading.