20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3670 Luck is also a kind of strength

Arthur Del Prado, the founder of ASM, was born in Indonesia to Dutch parents. He was imprisoned in a concentration camp during World War II. After the war, he returned to the Netherlands and studied economics and chemistry. He then went to the United States to pursue further studies at Harvard Business School.

Afterwards, he founded ASM and approached Philips to cooperate on the lithography machine business. However, Philips rejected him, believing that this little-known company was just trying to steal Natlab's decades of research and development results, which was just wishful thinking.

By 84, ASM had become a Dutch company listed on NASDAQ, qualified to engage in dialogue and cooperation with Natlab. Philips, which was constantly cutting its business, finally decided to invest $210 million each with ASM to establish ASML (Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography Company).

Of the nearly 100 researchers in the Natlab team, 47 ultimately decided to join ASML.

ASML subsequently faced numerous setbacks, barely surviving amidst continuous losses thanks to financial support from TSMC. By 88, it was so poor that it owed $130 million in back wages for several months, leaving its researchers desperate for food.

An anxious Arthur Del Prado overheard AMD president Jerry Sanders complaining that the quality of American lithography machines was too poor, forcing them to buy lithography machines from Japan.

Arthur Del Prado even paid to have an ad placed in a Silicon Valley newspaper at AMD's headquarters, saying, "We heard you, Jerry," and got Jerry Sanders to promote the PAS2500.

However, Arthur Del Prado's trip yielded only one result: 'He received unanimous praise from Jerry Sanders, yet not a single PAS2500 was sold.'

It was under these circumstances that a desperate Arthur Del Prado, on the eve of the rise of Fish Dragon, had no choice but to withdraw from ASML, making it wholly owned by Philips, and paying the $130 million in back wages.

Philips is going all in on the PAS5500.

At the same time, ASML persuaded its brother TSMC to purchase 17 PAS2500 lithography machines. TSMC also worked hard. After the 17 lithography machines were delivered, a fire broke out in the factory. ASML had no choice but to purchase another 17 PAS2500 lithography machines, which allowed ASML to make a small profit and extend its life for another two years.

By 91, the PAS5500 was finally developed, but it faced the same predicament as the PAS2500: no companies were buying it, and TSMC, the only buyer, would not need to purchase these devices for at least two years.

The company was suddenly plunged into dire straits, on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then, the turning point came dramatically. Since its inception, ASML's first customer was a small North American chip manufacturer called MMI. Because it was poor, it settled for a few PAS2400 machines from the even poorer ASML.

In 91, AMD acquired MMI. When they were taking stock of MMI's equipment, they were surprised to find that this poor company had purchased all sorts of cheap equipment and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Only the ASML PAS2400 purchased five years earlier was still working properly, and the yield rate remained very stable.

That's awesome.

The real rise began from this moment. AMD, which had been using Toyo stepper machines, chose ASML's PAS5500, which enabled ASML, which had been relying on TSMC for survival, to begin its glorious rise.

In 1990, ASML's sales revenue consisted only of the 17 PAS2500 lithography machines that TSMC sold. Moreover, ASML only paid for the shipping of the 17 damaged lithography machines back to the Netherlands and then replaced the damaged parts on the original machines, thus achieving the goal of selling one machine twice.

There were no more small hands left.

With purchases from AMD and IBM in 91, ASML's sales reached $8100 million that year, and $1.19 million in 92.

By the time it went public on NASDAQ in 95, this company, which had once been on the verge of bankruptcy, had grown into one of the true giants in lithography machines. It joined Sematec in 97 and began acquiring SVG in 99, attempting to gain the capability to manufacture 193nm lithography machines.

SVG is the third high-tech company in the world, after Nikon and Canon, to own an independent 193nm lithography machine.

After failing with Nikon and Canon in 01, the EUV-LLC alliance joined the EUV-LLC alliance, and the US Department of Commerce immediately approved the SVG acquisition case, which had been stalled for nearly two years.

After ASML and SVG merged, they surpassed Canon in lithography machine sales in less than a year, becoming the world's second-largest player in the industry.

From this, Zhao Chang'an clearly saw the company's strong survival ability and resilience, which started in 62 and has been established for forty years. It was not just good luck.

It's important to know that luck is a very important ability, and sometimes it's even the most important superpower.

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Slightly tipsy, Zhao Chang'an waved goodbye to Xiao Yangming at the restaurant entrance. As he left, Xiao Yangming wondered if he had managed to persuade his now incredibly wealthy and famous junior.

He solemnly spoke to Zhao Chang'an, saying, "Chang'an, as a high-tech mobile communications company, RIM really doesn't need to enter this field. The current emphasis is on comparative advantage, international division of labor and cooperation, and learning from each other's strengths. The most obvious example is the global manufacturing industry flowing to China. This is because of China's stable environment, abundant and inexpensive human resources, convenient transportation, and plentiful raw material supply. There's absolutely no need to gamble your money here. I know that your company, OneNano, has established the Jiangcheng Chip Design and R&D Center and the Mingzhu Smartphone Operating System R&D Center in China. It's better to invest your money domestically than here. I plan to return to China after my ASML contract expires, also because of these factors."

Zhao Chang'an didn't say much, and smiled as he said goodbye to Xiao Yangming. As it was a major decision, Xiao Yangming knew that if he had to reconsider, it was definitely not something that could be decided or rejected with just a few words.

Moreover, Zhao Chang'an knew the other layer of meaning in his words, which was that he wanted to join the OneNan system after returning to China.

Xiao Yangming has now acquired Dutch citizenship. In China, the standard for recognizing foreign nationals is based on their nationality, and they are given corresponding relocation subsidies, which are not too low.

Another example is Qi Xidong, which those who should know and want to know should know. Moreover, the Netherlands is right next to France, and Wang Yu was his classmate during university and study abroad. The two have always maintained contact.

A year ago, Qi Xidong was the foreign manager of the joint venture mobile phone factory between Alcatel and OneNano, and two years ago he was a senior manager in the mobile phone division of Alcatel's parent company.

In such a short time, he became the president of RIM, achieving a magnificent transformation from a fish to a dragon in the workplace. Obviously, this filled Xiao Yangming's heart with a desire and impulse to replicate it.

However, Zhao Chang'an was not very interested in Xiao Yangming. As a developer of PAS5500 and having worked at ASML for so many years, he was now pessimistic about losing before even starting the game, thinking that he would switch jobs and leave ASML when his contract expired in the summer.

Their vision, resilience, courage, and spirit to challenge difficulties all seem mediocre, even somewhat foolish.

Moreover, he is a technician, while Qi Xidong is a senior corporate manager; their strengths and positions are completely different.

It's not that one nanometer doesn't need semiconductor engineers like Xiao Yangming; the problem is that even if he had such engineers, he would put them at ASML.

If we ask Xiao Yangming to join ASML after he resigns, wouldn't that be a boomerang-like joke?