The diva and I cross each other

"It's still more comfortable to sit in the office!" In the new week, Luo Ming and Lin Shuwen were in an intertwining state. Lin Shuwen sat in Luo Ming's president chair, stretched and muttered to herself.

Recently, Lin Shuwen has been flying all over the country for her concert.

Fortunately, the national tour is almost over here and we will be free soon.

"Knock knock knock~" The knock on the door interrupted Lin Shuwen's thoughts.

"Come in."

Li Yan opened the door and walked to the desk holding a few folders.

"Mr. Luo, our company's headquarters in Shanghai has been completed, and the decoration work has been basically completed. This is the specific progress." Li Yan handed over a folder with both hands.

Lin Shuwen took the folder, glanced through it quickly, and then asked, "When can we move in?"

"According to the construction company, it will take at least a month before we can move."

"Does Mr. Rong have any ideas?" Lin Shuwen asked.

"Mr. Rong's idea is to find a master to pick an auspicious day."

"Well, let's do as he says! How's the land in the imperial capital?" Lin Shuwen asked casually.

"It has been approved. The construction of Douyin headquarters can start as early as the beginning of next year and will be completed in the middle of 18."

Lin Shuwen nodded to show that she understood.

"Boss Luo, you have to take a look at this too."

Lin Shuwen took another folder from Li Yan. After opening it, she found that the folder was actually a list of layoffs.

Lin Shuwen couldn't help but sit up straight and look through the list carefully.

After reading it, Lin Shuwen couldn't help but frown. It's not that there is anything wrong with the layoff list. On the contrary, the layoff list is very reasonable.

The people on the list are either corrupt or sell out the company's inside information for profit. It would be absolutely harmful if these people stayed in the company.

Lin Shuwen frowned because she didn't expect there were so many parasites in the company.

As if she could see what Lin Shuwen was thinking, Li Yan quickly said, "Boss Luo, our company is now so large, it's normal to have some termites."

Lin Shuwen thought about it and agreed without further hesitation.

After reading the two folders, Li Yan turned around and left, and Lin Shuwen spent the whole morning sitting there.

At around 2 p.m., there was another knock on Luo Ming's office door, and this time it was Zhao Ningyuan who came in.

"Senior Brother Zhao? Why did you come here suddenly? Is there any problem with the game development?" Lin Shuwen asked in surprise.

"No, no, boss, don't worry, the game development is going smoothly. I came here because I have something I want to talk to you about in person."

As soon as Lin Shuwen heard Zhao Ningyuan's tone, she knew that what he was saying must be very important.

So Lin Shuwen immediately sent a message to Luo Ming. After receiving Luo Ming's reply, she used the administrator's authority to allow the two souls to return to their place temporarily.

As soon as Luo Ming came over, he heard Zhao Ningyuan ask him, "Boss, do you know anything about the semiconductor chip industry?"

"Semiconductor chip industry? I don't know much about it, but I know one thing, that the semiconductor chip industry chain seems to be divided into three major links: IC design, IC manufacturing, and IC packaging and testing. It seems that there is no corresponding industry chain in our country?" Luo Ming answered casually.

“You are right. We do not have a corresponding industrial chain in China. Packaging and testing do not require much technical content and it is not difficult to produce them. However, we are far behind foreign countries in design and manufacturing.

The design of chips mainly requires the use of EDA software, which is considered to be the most upstream software in the chip industry. Once this product is missing, all chip design companies will have to shut down.

Currently, the EDA design software field is highly concentrated, with the three giants Synopsys, Cadence and Mentor Graphics accounting for more than 95% of the EDA design software market.

These companies integrate their own soft IP into design software, further increasing user stickiness and raising industry barriers.

In this way, even if later comers have EDA software for chip design, they cannot perform the simulation, design simplification, etc. that come with the software without their help.

As for manufacturing, we need lithography machines, which are known as the crown jewel of the semiconductor industry. We don’t have this thing anymore.”

After listening to Zhao Ningyuan's words, Luo Ming was a little confused. He asked tentatively: "Brother Zhao, when you say EDA, can it be understood as some kind of algorithm that is far ahead and monopolized by others?"

"That's right, and EDA is only part of the chip industry. The other part is the lithography machine. Boss, you know about the lithography machine, right?"

"Yes, I saw someone on the Internet say that the lithography machine can be understood as a "projector", which can project the "shadow" we want onto the screen." "Yes, your understanding is correct, but the specific situation is more complicated."

Zhao Ningyuan then explained the principle of the photolithography machine to Luo Ming. The more Luo Ming listened, the more he felt something was wrong. After Zhao Ningyuan finished speaking, Luo Ming asked tentatively: "Brother Zhao, do you want me to invest in the semiconductor industry?"

Zhao Ningyuan shook his head: "Boss, you misunderstood. The investment in the semiconductor industry would require at least tens of billions to make a splash.

It is almost impossible to build a complete chip industrial park + wafer factory without hundreds of billions of yuan and support from the top. With the current size of our company, the risk of making such an investment is too great, and there is no need to make such an investment at all.”

"So what do you mean, Brother Zhao?"

"Boss, this is what happened. When I lost my job because of my ex-girlfriend's frame-up, I went to a laboratory and did data recording for them for a while.

A few days ago, someone from this laboratory came to me and asked me if I was interested in investing in their laboratory. According to him, their laboratory mainly deals with EUV light sources and has made some breakthroughs in this area.

Of course, the EUV light source that can be used in production and the EUV light source in the laboratory are two completely different things. The order of magnitude of the power is different, but a breakthrough in the laboratory means that there is a certain potential. If the funds are in place, there may be a breakthrough. "

After hearing what Zhao Ningyuan said, Luo Ming breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Zhao Ningyuan wanted to make chips.

Based on Luo Ming's understanding of the chip industry in his previous life, he felt that any normal person would not be optimistic about the domestic chip industry at this stage.

Let’s take the chip manufacturing process as an example.

Process technology - that is, the distance between circuits within the IC. The higher the precision, the more advanced the production technology.

More electronic components can be made from the same material, the connecting wires are thinner, the precision is higher, and the CPU power consumption is lower.

别人家现在能够量产高质量的14nm芯片，而咱们还在死磕28nm，中间差了22nm、20nm、16nm好几代。

If nothing goes wrong, foreign countries will soon be able to mass-produce 10nm, 7nm, and even 5nm.

Their craftsmanship is better and their costs are lower, so their technical disadvantages are obvious.

In terms of cost, many people believe that domestic companies have certain advantages, but in fact the only cost advantage domestic companies have is labor costs. Due to differences in procurement costs, design technology, and quality levels, domestically made products may not be cheaper than foreign ones.

Therefore, domestic chip demanders also purchase from outside.

It is precisely because of this purchase from outside that domestic R&D investment has been further increased. If you cannot get orders, you will have no money. Without money, you will have to use Hammer to develop more sophisticated chip technology.

In order to allow these chip research and development companies to obtain funds, the higher-ups have given them all kinds of green lights. As long as these industries achieve some results, they can easily go public and raise funds.

Some entrepreneurs claim that they are working hard for the rise of China's chips, but in fact they just want to make a quick buck after their company goes public and run away to achieve financial freedom.

Many companies are like this now. Under the guise of semiconductors, they solicit investments in various ways, including from individuals, and then reap the profits after they go public.

Nowadays, companies that make chips on the Science and Technology Innovation Board can easily reach a market value of 100 billion yuan when they go public. The money comes too quickly, just like when a strong wind blows and the wind is full of money, all you have to do is put it in a sack.

In this context, more and more large domestic capitals have lost trust in the chip industry and are even less willing to invest in this industry.

Luo Ming is not unaware of the importance of chips, but this thing is so powerful that even all the Internet companies in China combined cannot handle it, let alone a burning light. Only the top leaders can do it.

Moreover, Luo Ming’s subsequent goal is to focus on biopharmaceuticals. He wants to save more lives and does not want to invest money in the semiconductor industry.

Zhao Ningyuan was also aware of this. He came to Luo Ming only because he thought that Zhuoguang Technology could invest in some semiconductor laboratories, such as the one he mentioned.

After Zhao Ningyuan explained further, he handed a document to Luo Ming.

"Mr. Luo, these laboratories have a relatively leading position in the domestic semiconductor industry, but they are not the most powerful ones. They are considered to be the first-tier laboratories in the country.

The second laboratory is the one I just mentioned, and it is just one step away from a breakthrough in EUV light source in a laboratory environment. The remaining laboratories also have their own strengths.

If all the technologies of these laboratories are added together, they basically provide the supporting technologies and researchers needed for a complete chip industrial park.

If the above policies change in the future, our company will have a certain team if it wants to enter this industry."

After listening to Zhao Ningyuan's words, Luo Ming instantly understood his thoughts.

Zhao Ningyuan wanted to make arrangements for the chip industry in advance. If Zhuoguang Technology has plans to develop in this direction in the future, this arrangement can naturally be used.

If not, it would not be a loss, because these laboratories still have some research results. Although these results alone are definitely not as good as the one that is massively supported by the upper level, the total gap with those companies is not too big.

Luo Ming thinks that if it is an investment of this level, it can be done. The only question is, how much money does it cost to invest in these companies? (End of this chapter)