20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3692 The First Settlement
"In the past two years, we've invested 20 million in one nanometer. Those recent graduates who are programmers earn 6,000 to 7,000 a month, which is nearly 600,000 a month in salary alone. Of course, if this were used for large-scale research and development, let alone 20 million, even 200 million would be far from enough. But even if I gave them 200 million, they wouldn't know how to use it. The best way for them to do this is to deposit it in the bank and earn interest."

Zhao Chang'an's words made Su Bo laugh: "If you said that to the two of them, they would definitely get angry with you."

"In fact, just like the Jiangcheng R&D Center, even if a lot of money is poured in at this stage, it may not necessarily have an accelerating effect. Many things still require time to settle and experience and talent to train and accumulate."

When Zhao Chang'an said these words, his face was full of sincerity, making it impossible for Su Bo to discern his true thoughts.

"You know what? There's something I'm not sure if I should say."

Su Bo let out a long sigh.

“You said it yourself, whether you should say it or not, since you’ve already said it, then tell us.”

Zhao Chang'an didn't know what Su Bo wanted to say, so he asked curiously.

"I feel that you don't actually believe that our Jiangcheng R&D center and Mingzhu's smartphone operating system project can succeed, or rather, you don't think they can't succeed,"

Subo carefully said, "That is to say, they believe that large-scale commercial use is not possible."

"Haha, you really have a good imagination. Why would I go through all this trouble? I've already spent two or three hundred million on your side, and I've also spent tens of millions on both sides of the strait on Qi Xuan'er's side."

Zhao Chang'an laughed, but his heart was beating a little faster.

Although OneNano has invested two or three hundred million yuan in this R&D center in Jiangcheng, it has also obtained nearly 6 million yuan in loans from banks in the name of this R&D center and as collateral.

Moreover, the 200 acres of land enclosed by the R&D center may not seem like a great location now, but in a few years, with the urban planning of Jiangcheng, 150 acres will be allocated to change the land use, and in ten years it will become a real estate development community with an average price of nearly 20,000 yuan per square meter.

This doesn't mean Zhao Chang'an is stingy with such a small amount of money; rather, Chang'an Real Estate's first foray into Jiangcheng will require a prime piece of land.

The premium for this land alone far exceeds the investment of a single nanometer.

With just 20 million yuan invested in the Qi Xuan'er and Fan Chufei project, Zhao Chang'an has already connected several prestigious universities, including Fudan University, Shanghai International Studies University, Tongji University, and Shanghai University of Science and Technology. Not to mention the Qi and Fan families involved.

OneNano is determined to manufacture domestically produced chips and operating systems, which sounds incredibly inspiring and patriotic, thus establishing OneNano's prestigious and responsible image as a company.

The most famous internet business currently operating in China is internet gaming, which is easily subject to criticism and even boycotts.

Zhao Chang'an is a person who cherishes his reputation. Since he couldn't clear his name in the online gaming industry, he used these two investments to move the Chinese people and engage in moral blackmail.

It gives the impression that although Zhao Chang'an earns money from young people, he doesn't use that money to spend on food, women, and other pleasures. Instead, he uses it to develop domestic technology and break through Western blockades. He is a person who has the country in his heart and earns money for the rise of China.

It is precisely because of this persona that Zhao Chang'an has always been very popular with women. Women of this era, especially beautiful, educated, knowledgeable, and opinionated modern women, are not easily resisted by a man's money, power, talent, and handsomeness. However, if there is a third wheel behind him, shining with a magnanimous spirit of serving the public good, even if they are two centimeters apart from Qi Xuan'er, they can tolerate it, only asking Zhao Chang'an to increase investment in smartphone operating systems.

Because in Qi Xuan'er's little head, although she was angry because she had suffered a loss, she could still distinguish between public and private matters. She couldn't let her personal hatred with Zhao Chang'an affect her efforts to break through the Western blockade and develop her own smartphone operating system.

It is precisely for this reason that Zhao Chang'an believes Su Bo's judgment that Qi Xuan'er would also leave with Fan Chufei is absolutely a false proposition.

As for Consort Fan Chu, she wasn't even worthy of carrying Qi Xuan'er's shoes in terms of national sentiment.

"That's why I can't understand it."

Subo frankly said, "Now I'm certain that you'll be investing heavily in Pro's North American headquarters in Los Angeles for chip design, and you probably want to develop the smartphone operating system in Irvine." Zhao Chang'an was still thinking about how to dispel Subo's doubts when his phone rang. It was Mina calling.

"Finished your coffee?"

Zhao Chang'an asked with a smile.

"I drank it, hehe~"

Mina was laughing over there.

"Didn't he invite you to his house to see the cat doing backflips?"

"Does Svilak have a cat that can do backflips?"

Mina asked in surprise, "Did he tell you? But he hinted at inviting me to his house to see his award-winning photos, saying he's a photography enthusiast who has won quite a few awards—wait, I forgot the name, but it seems to be a pretty famous one. But I declined."

Mina chuckled on the other end of the phone, saying, "Svilak told me that from the perspective of companies like Intel, they are the buyers. The reason they are willing to invest in ASML is not because it truly conforms to market rules, but because if they don't support ASML, they have absolutely no chance of beating Nikon and Canon. Moreover, they have an internal assessment that even if they invest, it will be difficult to beat Nikon and Canon; at most, it will only achieve a balance of power. Therefore, they are unwilling to spend the $2 million. In fact, ASML's shareholders are not interested in this ArFi at all. If it weren't for companies like Intel being the buyers, they would never have agreed to this targeted expansion."

"I know this."

Zhao Chang'an felt that Mina going out for coffee with that lecherous scoundrel had made him, as Mina's current man, suffer a loss for nothing, without getting any useful information.

"What would happen if we went to talk to Intel?"

Mina's words seemed to have given Zhao Chang'an a new path.

In other words, if Zhao Chang'an tells Intel that he is willing to be the sucker and gamble on ASML's ArFi R&D project, would Intel go along with it and persuade ASML's board of directors to accept the investment?

-

In the following days, after several private meetings between Zhao Chang'an and C.J. Coburn, the head of Intel's negotiation team, RIM was finally brought into the EUV-LLC alliance through the introduction of four companies: Intel, Motorola, AMD, and IBM.

At the same time, RIM and Pro placed a $7 million order with ASML to purchase PAS5500 and TWINSCAN AT:750T.

Furthermore, 1nm North America submitted a plan to the ASML board of directors to establish two large-scale chip manufacturing plants in Waterloo and Zhengzhou in the future. The plan states that "Pro will have an annual production capacity of 20 million smartphones within three years, and RIM will also be able to produce all the chips it uses in-house." This gave ASML a huge business opportunity.

With the endorsement of the EUV-LLC alliance and the ambitious promises made by OneNano North America and RIM, the ASML board of directors finally decided to agree to OneNano North America, an affiliate of RIM, investing $6 million in two installments: $4 million and $2 million, to acquire a 3.15% stake in ASML through financing expansion. This is significantly higher than the previous $3 million exchange for a 1.36% stake.

Meanwhile, 1nm North America and Intel made a commitment to the ASML board of directors that if ASML completes the development of the ArFi prototype and achieves a process technology of 65nm within three years, the two companies will cover the remaining R&D expenses.

Although Zhao Chang'an invested $10 billion to develop ArFi when ASML's stock price was low, thus missing out on $4 million in funding and shares, he still achieved his first collaboration with Intel and officially joined the EUV-LLC alliance.

Even for OneNano North America and RIM, only by joining this alliance can they be considered to have taken sides in the confrontation with Toyo Technology, which is equivalent to having their own organization.

Helping Western technology defeat Japanese technology, while also improving and perfecting its own technological partners, is definitely a worthwhile endeavor for the OneNanometer system.

Moreover, the purpose of holding shares in ASML is to cooperate rather than to confront, which is especially important in the next twenty years.

(End of this chapter)