20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3691 Svilak's Invitation

Zhao Chang'an and his group arrived at the second-floor staircase of the restaurant. Allen and his two companions went downstairs and left, while Zhao Chang'an's team went upstairs to their hotel rooms.

"Miss Mina, may I invite you to have a cup of coffee with me?"

At that moment, Svilak suddenly extended an invitation to Mina: "This should be a time for a relaxing chat after a busy day."

Since two rounds of negotiations have already taken place today, and both sides have stated their respective conditions and bargaining chips, there is little taboo or sensitivity regarding members of the negotiation team contacting each other privately.

Moreover, Mina was only a translator and recorder for the North American negotiation team of 1nm, and Svilak was not the person in charge of negotiations on the ASML side, so it was understandable that he proposed to contact her privately at this time.

As for why they contact each other, any adult knows that it's simply because the male peacock wants to spread its wings and display its plumage to attract the female peacock.

Moreover, the two of them were sitting together and whispering to each other from time to time, which clearly indicates that they are sexually interested in each other.

Mina glanced at Zhao Chang'an and said with a smile, "That's perfect, I didn't want to go back to my room so early either."

Svilak couldn't help but show his delight. Although he had only known Mina for a short time, he had already fallen in love with her.

-

The eight members of the One Nano team went upstairs in silence. Svilak's stunt and Mina's readily agreed made them all feel embarrassed.

Today's negotiations left the entire OneNano North American team disappointed, and for the time being, there seems to be no way to break the deadlock.

Now, the women in the team have also been seduced by members of the opposing negotiation team. Zhao Chang'an and Su Bo, being men with a more magnanimous heart, at least on the surface, don't show anything. Ye Yiyi hasn't been involved, so the three of them look relatively okay.

Qi Xuan'er, Fan Chufei, Nan Li, Wang Yu, and Yang Yixin all had stiff and unpleasant expressions.

Everyone went up to the third floor, walked to their respective rooms, opened the doors, and entered without speaking, let alone mentioning what time to meet the next morning or any arrangements for going out for sightseeing.

Zhao Chang'an and Su Bo returned to their room. Zhao Chang'an had spent the whole day with four women, and Su Bo had racked his brains trying to talk them out. They were both a little tired and sat on the sofa without saying a word, each silently lighting a cigarette.

As for what Mina said last night, that if Zhao Chang'an believed ASML's stock price would rise, he could invest now to make a profit, Zhao Chang'an had absolutely no such idea.

With its current size, OneNumber can readily mobilize billions of RMB in funds. It has already leaped over the dragon gate and transformed into a high-level creature in the food chain. Instead of spending money to invest in ASML and make profits, it can use that money in other more needed places.

If Zhao Chang'an had told himself he wanted to be the world's richest man during his senior year of high school, it would have seemed presumptuous. To be that powerful, besides being able to make money, one must also have the means and ability to protect oneself and maintain checks and balances, ensuring that one's interests are not easily plundered.

However, by now, the dispersed assets mean that Zhao Chang'an will not lose all his assets. In the future, as long as he creates a cryptocurrency trading website at the right time, he can easily reach the top.

The current GG Coins and virtual recharge system are not only building the GG ecosystem, but also accumulating experience for future virtual currency trading platforms.

If Zhao Chang'an could raise $30 billion right now, he really would dare to buy up a large number of ASML shares, using his abundant funds to keep pouring money in. ASML's current market value is about $190 billion. If he poured in $30 billion, because Philips, a major shareholder with wavering resolve, would act as a hedge, ASML's total market value would definitely be pushed up, but it probably wouldn't be too ridiculously high.

So, $30 billion could probably acquire 11-13% of the shares, which is not much different from Intel's later formal investment of $41 billion in R&D expenses to acquire 15% of ASML's equity.

However, of Intel's $41 billion investment, $34 billion was specifically allocated to the investment in 18-inch wafer lithography machines, also known as ArFi.

Intel believes that EUV light sources are difficult to achieve and is only willing to invest $9 million.

At the time, it was theoretically possible to achieve a 7nm process using an ArFi light source.

The smallest process technology for lithography machines in the world is currently 130nm. Looking at 7nm from this perspective is as unbelievable as reading a fairy tale.

EUV light sources are not only extremely difficult to manufacture, but they also only represent a breakthrough from 7nm to 5nm and 3nm processes.

It's not that upgrading from 7 to 5, and then to 3, isn't important; rather, the chances of success are significantly higher than upgrading from ArF to ArFi.

In that investment, Samsung invested $4 million in R&D and $6 million to buy ASML shares, holding a 3% stake. TSMC invested $14 billion in R&D, holding a 5% stake. They were both not optimistic about EUV and their investments were simply to support ArFi.

"It's actually quite absurd. ASML's shareholders are all short-sighted, only thinking about driving up the stock price to cash out, especially its former owner. The EUV-LLC alliance sees ASML as a means to counterbalance Nikon and Canon, and even they themselves don't really have much confidence in ASML. The only ones truly thinking about ASML's future are its employees and..."

Zhao Chang'an said with a smile, "We!"

"Actually, it's normal. Didn't Engels say, 'Once there is a suitable profit, capitalists will become bold. With a 100% profit, they will dare to trample on all human laws!' If we think about it from the perspective of interests, all their actions are clearly logical. Investing 2 million is a risk with a high cost-performance ratio, and being unwilling to expand but only willing to accumulate shares is also a balance of their respective interests."

Su Bo looked at Zhao Chang'an with some doubt and said, "I strongly support investing in ASML, but I don't understand your enthusiasm. $3 million for a 1.36% stake is a good solution for all parties. Even if ASML can solve the technical challenges of immersion technology, from another perspective, even if Intel was asked to invest at that time, they shouldn't have thought much about it, because ASML's profit margin isn't high, and high-tech companies need to continuously invest. It's difficult to get dividends; they can only obtain them by reducing their holdings."

Zhao Chang'an shook his head: "What if their interest becomes very high at that time? Back then, OneNano North America was rejected from investing in the form of financing expansion. If they wanted to hold shares, they could only buy up shares on the market. This kind of indiscriminate buying up of shares would not only be very disadvantageous, but would also still not give them real control of ASML."

Subo shook his head and laughed: "ASML's current market value is $190 billion. To truly gain control, you would need at least 50% of the shares. There's simply no way that's possible. Even if one nanometer has $100 billion right now, it's still impossible. On the contrary, it would result in a huge loss."

"Therefore, OneNano North America needs to make a statement that, like ASML employees, we firmly believe in ASML's strength and are willing to invest real money to support it, rather than speculating on its stock price."

Su Bo understood Zhao Chang'an's words, but he didn't understand why Zhao Chang'an was so obsessed with controlling ASML. However, Zhao Chang'an was the boss, and since he had made this decision, Su Bo, as a subordinate, could only try his best.

After taking a shower, neither of them felt sleepy, so they turned on the TV and chatted while watching something.

"Aren't you going to comfort Fan Chufei and Qi Xuan'er?"

Su Bo said, "If Fan Chufei leaves, I estimate that Qi Xuan'er will too. Then, with both people in charge of this smartphone operating system development project gone, it's not a good thing."

(End of this chapter)