The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

The development of Huaguo Semiconductor has never lacked opportunities.

Just from the establishment of SMIC, the country began to catch up with the semiconductor foundry with advanced manufacturing processes. At that time, although the yield rate of a few domestic supply chains was not comparable to that of foreign countries.

For these Huaguo enterprises, at least there is room for survival.

After 18 years, it will not be too easy for these small and sophisticated companies that have survived for more than ten years to list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

The most fundamental reason is that when they had the opportunity to buy foreign technology and build their own semiconductor industry chain, they did not realize the importance of this matter.

Needless to say, private capital, this kind of industry can't make money.

Mainly need to rely on government support.

Just like the counter-cycle of the storage industry, it is reasonable for the Korean government to subsidize Samsung and Hynix on a large scale.

China actually knows this truth, which can be seen from the subsidy to BOE.

It's just that in the semiconductor industry, the Hanxin incident in 2003 has affected it for too many years.

From the central to the local level, there is no ability to distinguish and dare not to distinguish the pros and cons of these high-tech semiconductor companies, and they dare not support semiconductor companies with real technology.

Zhou Xin talked about similar issues with some veterans of the semiconductor industry for many years. Everyone agreed that the Hanxin incident had caused at least a decade of setbacks in the entire Huaguo semiconductor industry.

A group of companies that originally needed to rely on policy subsidies to barely survive, basically died after the Hanxin incident.

With Zhou Xin's current popularity in China, as long as he is willing to return to China to invest, he basically wants to prevent the Hanxin incident from happening.

"The Bill \u0026 Melinda Foundation's purchase of a stake in Riot Games is expected to be in the $200 million range.

The specific proportion of the transferred shares is unknown. This move will make Newman Zhou, the co-founder of Riot Games from China, a billionaire.

The investment in Riot Games represents the first time Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Newman Zhou have worked closely together on a commercial level.

Analysts believe that Bill Gates' investment is not just a simple investment, but part of Microsoft's strategy. The reason why the investment was not reached in the name of Microsoft is because Microsoft's board of directors has been unable to reach an agreement on the amount.

According to internal sources, Bill Gates valued Riot Games at around $500 million, while other board members believed it was worth $100 million at most.

The huge gap in valuation between the two is the root cause of the acquisition of shares in the form of the Gates Foundation.

At the same time Yahoo! Jerry Yang of Jerry Yang is also interested in acquiring Riot Games, which is also an important reason why the Gates Foundation concluded the deal so quickly.

A Microsoft spokesman in New York declined to comment yesterday, as did a Microsoft spokesman in Seattle.

Microsoft shares rose slightly after news broke that Bill Gates had personally acquired a stake in Riot Games. Clearly the market is optimistic about the deal.

A Wall Street securities trading analyst said about the acquisition of Riot Games by the Gates and Melinda Foundation: This is a major benefit. Riot Games is the most dynamic forum in history, and the forum with the clearest profit model in history. It's unclear how much Mr. Gates values ​​Riot Games, but he and Yahoo! It’s already a success”

In the end, Zhou Xin reached an agreement with Bill Gates, and Bill Gates acquired a 40% stake in Riot Games for US$200 million.

This acquisition is in the name of the Gates Foundation, not a business practice of Microsoft.

Before the agreement was reached, Jerry Yang called Zhou Xin specifically and expressed his willingness to acquire Riot Games at the same price.

But what Yang Zhiyuan hoped was a wholly-owned acquisition, while Zhou Xin only accepted the transfer of part of the shares.

The investment institutions who were already very eager for Zhou Xin became more enthusiastic.

"If Zhou is just a rising star in the American Internet industry, then Bill Gates is a sun-like figure in the Internet industry.

With the endorsement of Bill Gates behind Riot Games, coupled with the characteristics of this business itself, is there any better investment target in Silicon Valley than Riot Games? "This is the exact words of the head of the investment department of Goldman Sachs.

Not only he thinks so, but other investment institutions also think so.

In their view, it is now possible to operate the fist game to be listed on NASDAQ.

We must know that now is the heyday of the Internet bubble. Basically, as long as there are stories to tell, companies can go public without revenue and profits.

Going public has never been easier.

The procedures for the transfer of shares and the funds arrived quickly. After the 200 million U.S. dollars arrived, Zhou Xin and Bill Gates injected a total of 200 million U.S. dollars into Riot Games according to the proportion of their shares.

In other words, Zhou Xin still has 80 million US dollars in cash and 60% of the shares of Riot Games, which has a liquidity of 200 million US dollars.

After the liquidity is in place, Riot Games can start recruiting and expanding massively.

"Sure enough, as I said, you will soon become my boss." Suzy Dink came to the garage of Riot Games and hugged Zhou Xinlai.

Yes, after reaching an agreement with Bill Gates, he took the initiative to propose to the other party that there were no senior management talents under him, and he needed to expand after the funds were in place.

He can't put all his energy on Riot Games alone, and I hope Bill Gates can introduce some senior managers to him.

He only needs to be responsible for strategic planning.

Because of this, Bill Gates introduced Suzy Dink, the head of Microsoft's product department, to Zhou Xin.

Zhou Xin worked under Suzy Dink, and knew that although Suzy Dink had Indian descent, his handling ability and management style were enough to manage a start-up company.

Therefore, Suzy Dink became the new CEO of the fist game and the first real executive after the establishment of the fist game.

Zhou Xin is the founder.

"Mr. Gates recommended you highly to me as a top-notch executive.

You are also the only executive I have known during my tenure at Microsoft, and I have complete confidence in your abilities.

But I don’t know if you have a general idea about Riot Games and what to do after you come here. "

Suzy knew this was a test for him.

He didn't know the saying that the power of offense and defense is different, but he had a similar feeling in his heart.

Less than half a year ago, he hosted the last round of interviews for interns, and Zhou Xin was among the interviewees.

Half a year later, it was Zhou Xin's turn to interview him.