20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3681 Roberts's Suspicion

The reason ASML held this meeting so late was because the letter from OneNano North America came too suddenly. Before this, even if you broke their heads, you wouldn't think that the company would have any business dealings with OneNano North America.

Even if RIM needs to use mobile phone chips, it will outsource their manufacturing to chip manufacturers in North America, or more simply, as it has done before and now, it will directly purchase chips from Motorola, or license the technology to Texas Instruments for processing and manufacturing.

Excluding Japanese mobile phone companies that operate in isolation on small islands, very few mobile phone manufacturers worldwide currently supply their own chips.

Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Samsung—these are just a few of the major companies.

Samsung only uses some of its own chips. The rest are purchased from external suppliers.

Ericsson even outsourced all of his mobile phone manufacturing to Flextronics.

The result was that this very company actually sent a letter expressing its desire to visit ASML, discuss investing in the next generation of DUV and EUV lithography machines, and purchase the PAS5500.

Therefore, ASML had to temporarily collect and organize data on one nanometer in North America, and tonight is the deadline for the CEO's office to submit the report.

In the past few days, Doug Dunn and the company's senior executives have also used their own means and channels, such as the Internet, to check information about OneNano North America.

At this point, each of them had a printed copy. Due to time constraints, they didn't investigate much. However, even these superficial things filled them with emotion.

A young Chinese man who had just arrived in North America relied solely on his ruthlessness and took a gamble, reaping a fortune of three to four billion US dollars in just a few months and achieving a tremendous leap in social class.

This stands in stark contrast to ASML's decades of struggle.

"Now I understand why he was able to come up with so much money during this economic downturn and charter a Boeing 747 for a year. The money really came too easily."

Looking at the document, which roughly estimated the increase in Zhao Chang'an's assets from the North American market since last September, Martin van den Brink couldn't help but sigh, "The key is that he's still so young. When I joined ASML at his age, my main task every day was to make coffee for my seniors. At this age, as long as you have money and are willing to pay for things that interest you, you'll be very generous."

As the company's Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Martin only cared about who could provide the money so he could pursue his research and development projects; he had absolutely no interest in any other scheming or underhanded dealings.

Martin graduated from Delft University of Technology in 84 and joined the newly established ASML, where he worked for 28 years, transforming from a young man into a middle-aged man in his early fifties.

Thinking back to when I was Zhao Chang'an's age, with a humble status yet brimming with ambition, I can't help but sigh.

"The question is, how could he have dared to gamble so recklessly before last September?"

As a high-tech company, ASML has always attached great importance to corporate security. As the company's security chief, Roberts was naturally required to attend the meeting, including arranging and defining tomorrow's visit. Some core departments will not be open to the public, and filming will not be permitted.

Charlie Roberts said with a serious expression, "I looked at the user comments on their Gotham City investment company's website. It's been five months, and people are still questioning them about how they managed to control the timing so accurately, and even calling them executioners."

“Charlie, what we need is his investment, not a vote for the best man in Europe.”

Martin looked at Charlie, then glanced at his colleagues in the conference room, and said in a deep voice, "Otherwise, you're in charge of getting me enough money immediately, not that two hundred million dollars, and not even that two hundred million dollars that's been delayed for so long."

Martin, Charlie, and Doug were among the 47 people who signed with ASML after its split with Philips over a decade ago. Having weathered so many difficulties and storms together, they have a good relationship, so there's no need for formalities. "Let's not talk about this anymore. Since Nano North America is an American company, and so much time has passed without any objections from them—considering the Americans stormed into the Imperial Graveyard last October and are still fighting—if even they don't mention it, what right do we, as Europeans, have to interfere in their internal affairs, making all sorts of suspicions and speculations?"

Doug said, “If you still don’t understand, think about Pearl Harbor back then. It is said that a Chinese man deciphered the Japanese telegram and sent it to them, but they deliberately ignored it. War, profiting from war, that’s their goal.”

Doug's words immediately enlightened everyone.

“How insidious!”

"Are those oligarchs willing to abandon all shame in their pursuit of profit?"

"Now that they've decided to sell, what right do they have to be shameless!"

"One of my college classmates was involved in that incident—"

"How shameless!"

Immediately, the conference room was filled with discussions, with everyone cursing Old M for his shamelessness and despicable behavior.

Seeing that everyone in the meeting room had reached a consensus, Doug's previous worries were relieved. He had also noticed this suspicious point in the past two days. However, the problem now is that ASML needs a lot of funds to promote the research and development of the DUV193nm ArFi project, which is the foundation for the company's future survival.

Regardless of the truth, as Charlie said, as long as the money is in hand, everything else can wait.

Otherwise, if we can't even survive, what's the point of talking about the future?
"The research and development of ArFi, including the establishment of a manufacturing plant to mass-produce ArFi lithography machines, requires a total investment of at least four to five billion US dollars. Even if North America is willing to invest in one nanometer, we still need to make a prototype first. Two hundred million US dollars is definitely too little, four hundred million US dollars should be enough. No matter how unwilling Intel and these companies are to spend money on the development of the prototype, if we really don't let them spend a single penny, they will definitely make a fuss."

Doug's words brought laughter to the meeting room. For the past two months, every ASML executive in the room had had something to say about these companies, and now they finally felt a sense of relief.

It's unethical to agree to invest but then refuse to provide sufficient funds.

If you don't want to take that much, then don't. Just take out the money you're willing to take without hesitation and get the project started. After all, time is really precious.

The result was more arguments and delays.

That's called being a jerk.

But now that someone is willing to give money, if we really don't let them give it, they definitely won't agree. That's called being cheap!
"Besides,"

Doug said meaningfully, "Once the prototype is developed, that's when we'll really talk to these companies about joint ventures and equity stakes. With an investment of four or five billion US dollars, how much each company will invest and how much they will hold will be another round of negotiations."

The meeting room fell silent instantly. Everyone stared at Doug in surprise, suddenly feeling that their old colleague seemed a little unfamiliar today.

Seeing the somewhat unfamiliar looks from his colleagues, Doug realized that he had gotten carried away and blurted out things he shouldn't have said.

His smile froze, and he quickly tried to salvage the situation, regretting his earlier statement: "Of course, I believe in Nano North America, an excellent company. When receiving investment, we will definitely treat everyone the same and without discrimination."