20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3702 The Conceptual Difference Between Wafer Fabs and Chip Fabs
When the car arrived at the Mountain City Hotel, Zhao Chang'an asked for three standard rooms. After putting his things in the rooms, he went to the hotel restaurant next door. It was already nine o'clock in the evening. The main dishes that Qi Xuan'er wanted to eat took too long to prepare, so he could only order a few simple dishes to make do.

Before the food was even served, Gu Dacong called.

"Brother Gu."

In private, Zhao Chang'an addressed him more casually.

“Mr. Xiao just called me. He saw the news report on Jiangcheng TV and asked if I knew that your company, OneNano, was planning to build an 8-inch wafer fab in Jiangcheng. I said, how would I know? If I had known, I would have sold everything I owned and given away the land for free to bring this chip factory to Luoyi.”

Zhao Chang'an naturally understood what Gu Dacong was saying. Xiao Xuecheng knew that Zhao Chang'an, Gu Dacong, and Ji Zhenqian had a very close relationship, so he asked Gu Dacong to inquire about what was going on.

In the past, it would have been impossible to find Gu Dacong in this matter; Shan Qiang would have already made the questioning call.

With an investment exceeding $10 billion, and Ericsson and Siemens being top-ranked international giants, and the joint venture being one of the world's most cutting-edge chip manufacturers, it's no wonder that Zhengzhou is envious.

Currently, only SMIC and TSMC have achieved large-scale production of 6-inch and larger wafer fabs in China. There is no 8-inch wafer fab in mainland China yet.

Although Huahong, SMIC, and Grace Semiconductor, along with TSMC, have all proposed building 8-inch wafer fabs in Mingzhu, there are no other 6-inch wafer fabs in the country besides these four companies and the city of Mingzhu.

This project is clearly more attractive than the Pro smartphone industrial cluster concept launched by OneNumber earlier, and it could change the technological status of a city or even a province.

Otherwise, Xiao Xuecheng wouldn't have received the news so soon after it aired on Jiangcheng TV, and wouldn't have rushed to ask Gu Dacong for information.

“I’ve brought this up before, in Zhengzhou and Luoyi, but I didn’t hear you say anything, so I assumed you weren’t very interested. You have to understand that building this is different from building Pro or electric motorcycle companies. The government supports it with equipment subsidies of 15% to 25%. Even for an 8-inch fab, the equipment subsidies would be over a billion.”

Zhao Chang'an didn't make his point clear, but he meant that he thought you were reluctant to pay the subsidy.

Actually, he was just making excuses. If it weren't for Su Bo and Nan Li's actions, they would all be in Zhengzhou right now. Faced with such a good opportunity, Xiao Xuecheng and the others would be crazy to refuse.

However, the equipment subsidy is 15% to 25%, and it's hard to say exactly how much will be provided. It will definitely be offset by various forms such as land use, pipeline construction, taxes, and fees.

Zhao Chang'an had previously stated in some public occasions in the central province that once the Pro series was on track, they would consider building a chip manufacturing plant and using some technology licenses to produce chips for the Pro phones.

They must have all assumed it referred to a wafer dicing and packaging plant, but they didn't realize that Zhao Chang'an was referring to the entirety of a wafer fab and a chip factory.

“Chang’an, I remember it very clearly. You said you were going to build a chip factory, but you didn’t say you were going to build a wafer fab.”

Gu Dacong was clearly not so easily fooled by Zhao Chang'an, and pointed out that 'wafer fab' and 'chip fab' are two different concepts.

"This time we're not just talking about wafer fabs, but also chip manufacturers that cut, package, and test wafers. We're discussing these two things together because we have high hopes for the Pro phone."

At this moment, a hotel waiter gently knocked on the door and came in to serve the dishes.

"This should still be in the evaluation stage, right?" Gu Dacong asked.

Zhao Chang'an knew what he wanted to say and frankly told him, "Look at the lineup that picked me up at the airport today, and in a few days when I return to Jiangcheng, their boss, Cheng Yongji, will also personally attend to welcome me. It makes me feel how strong their determination is to keep this chip factory. I estimate that although it's not a sure thing, it's pretty close. If Ericsson and Siemens are satisfied, and OneNano charters a plane to bring their two teams to Jiangcheng, it will be difficult for OneNano to change their decision."

"Is that so? I'll report to Boss Xiao in a bit."

Gu Dacong wasn't disappointed. He knew that even if the chip factory were to be located in the central province, it would definitely not be in Luoyi. He was more concerned about Luanchuan Molybdenum and the acquisition of Chundu Food by One Nano.

The situation is going well with Luanchuan Molybdenum. The first round of formal negotiations after the Lunar New Year is underway and is scheduled to begin on the morning of the first Monday of next month, which is March 7th.

However, negotiations with Chun Du Foods were unilaterally suspended. As for when or even if they would be restarted, the response from Mayor Cheng was, "We are studying it and have no comment at this time."

Gu Dacong naturally knew the reason: those people below were too greedy. Since the stock market opened on the seventh day of the first lunar month, only about twenty days have passed, and the stock price has already surged by 80%. Moreover, the liquidity is getting lower and lower. Obviously, they all believe that Yi Nanmi is going to acquire Chundu Foods and are holding onto it to sell it at a higher price.

Although One Nano was negotiating a non-tradable share transaction with Chundu Group, it was always affected by the current stock price. Selling too low would easily be seen as rent-seeking, triggering various unpredictable events, such as protests and rights protection. However, if the stock price were discounted further, One Nano would certainly not be willing to suffer such a loss.

Gu Dacong wanted to discuss with Zhao Chang'an what compromise could be made to continue the acquisition.

Hearing what Zhao Chang'an said, he asked in surprise, "Didn't you just return to the country today? Aren't you in Jiangcheng now?"

"Just arrived in Chongqing. I'm going to attend a donation ceremony here. Brother Gu, have you seen the news?"

"No, I only heard about it from someone else."

"Also accompanying us is Ms. Ye Yiyi from the Investment Department of Ye's Group's Nordic Branch, who will visit Luoyi Taihang Pharmaceutical Factory No. 1 and the Farmers Plus Enterprise Plantation."

Gu Dacong immediately perked up and asked Zhao Chang'an without beating around the bush, "Are you interested in investing?"

"The Ye Group possesses a large number of Chinese medicine formulas and manufacturing processes, and is currently the largest Chinese medicine group in Europe. If there is an opportunity, we hope that Taihang Pharmaceutical can obtain some of these formulas and processes for modern assembly line manufacturing. Brother Gu, this market is huge. Chinese medicine can not only be sold domestically, but can also go global like Western medicine."

"When will you and Ms. Ye Yiyi arrive in Luoyi so we can prepare to welcome you?"

"After we finish our talks in Jiangcheng, we'll fly to Zhengzhou. It'll probably take two or three days in Zhengzhou. It should be seven or eight days in Luoyi. We also need to visit Danyang Pharmaceutical Factory No. 2 in Wanyang."

"Alright, please also convey our welcome and expectations to Ms. Ye from Luoyi."

Gu Dacong spoke with great enthusiasm. He hadn't really wanted to make the call at first, because he didn't need to get involved in such matters. However, he received an unexpected surprise.

Zhao Chang'an hung up the phone and saw that the girls were all looking at him, clearly hungry but still enduring it. He smiled and said, "Let's start eating!"