Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1371: Support the bold to death, starve the timid to death

The headquarters of Dongling High-Tech allocated varying amounts of funding to its affiliated companies, with Dongxin Semiconductor receiving the most, nearly $700 million.

These funds are mainly used for research and development on lithography machines and chips, both of which are absolute money-guzzling projects.

However, this funding was not entirely spent by Dongxin Semiconductor itself, but rather benefited all the companies in the lithography machine industry chain and chip industry chain that Dongxin Semiconductor is currently building.

There are simply too many components required for a lithography machine, and Dongxin Semiconductor cannot possibly produce them all on its own. Of course, it needs to cultivate its own component suppliers.

After partnering with the American company SVG, Eastchip Semiconductor began to use SVG's name to legitimately develop lithography machines.

Dongxin Semiconductor is helping America's only remaining SVG lithography machine to compete against Japan's two leading benzene lithography machine manufacturers!
Dongxin is no longer a competitor to the American semiconductor industry; on the contrary, it is SVG's most steadfast ally, dedicating itself wholeheartedly to SVG's lithography machine business.

Furthermore, SVG has now transferred its low-to-mid-range lithography machine assembly business to Dongxin, all in order to reduce the cost of SVG's lithography machines and better compete with Japanese lithography machines!

With the SVG brand in hand, Dongxin has become much bolder in its actions, including building a lithography machine parts supply chain, all under the SVG name.

They claim that they are building a global component supply chain for SVG in order to counter Japanese benzene lithography machines.

However, in this industry chain, Dongxin Semiconductor mainly relies on domestic suppliers, and even spends a lot of money to cultivate them.

What makes you suspect Dongxin Semiconductor's motives for doing this?

Then Dongxin Semiconductor has something to say: SVG is about to go bankrupt, and they only give Dongxin a small assembly fee to assemble lithography machines.

Dongxin Semiconductor, instead of finding suppliers in China where costs are lower, are you going to source from America or Europe? Does SVG have the resources for that?

As for Dongfang Optoelectronics on the other side, the funds they invested were mainly in LCD panels.

Taking advantage of the crisis, Dongfang Optoelectronics acquired Hyundai's third-generation LCD panel production line in South Korea. In addition, it took advantage of the Southeast Asian financial crisis to establish panel laboratories in Japan and South Korea, and poached many LCD panel engineers from Samsung, LG, Sharp, Panasonic and other companies.

Dongfang Optoelectronics has now fully mastered the third-generation LCD panel technology. The TFT LCD screens used in the Feiyan 2nd generation MP3 player and the upcoming Shenzhou Global Pass 2nd generation mobile phone are the best proof of Dongfang Optoelectronics' LCD panel technology.

In addition, Hasee's "Alienware" brand laptops will also soon be equipped with LCD screens. If this happens, then Hasee's flagship products will all enter the era of LCD screens!
The funding allocated to Oriental Optoelectronics is around $500 million, mainly for overcoming the challenges of fourth-generation LCD panel technology.

Like Dongxin Semiconductor, Dongfang Optoelectronics' funding is not kept all by itself, but is distributed to upstream and downstream manufacturers of glass substrates, backlight modules, driver ICs, etc., to build Dongfang Optoelectronics' component supply chain.

Currently, Dongfang Optoelectronics is essentially in an arms race, competing with manufacturers such as Samsung, Sharp, and LG for control of fourth-generation LCD panels.

Looking at the panel industry as a whole, the current mainstream is still the battle between plasma screens and LCD screens.

But Dongfang Optoelectronics didn't care about that at all and went all in on LCD panel technology because there was no way out and no reserves of plasma panel technology. What could Dongfang Optoelectronics do?
There's no other way but to go down this path to the bitter end. Regardless of whether LCD panels can win the panel industry war, Dongfang Optoelectronics has already gone all in!

Besides Dongxin Semiconductor and Dongfang Optoelectronics, Shenzhou Memory, also a direct subsidiary, also received a large sum of funding.

The philanthropist Li requested that this funding be used for a solid-state drive project that Shenzhou Storage had been developing for several years!
Shenzhou Storage's solid-state drives were actually bought back from IBM. Back then, IBM was heartbroken over solid-state drives and was unable to develop one that could be used in computers.

Finally, Shenzhou Storage used USB flash drive licensing as leverage to secure the solid-state drive project from IBM.

Although IBM transferred the solid-state drive project to Hasee Storage at a bargain price, it also kept a backup plan: using this project to exchange for a 20% stake in Hasee's solid-state drive project.

In other words, if Hasee Storage actually develops a solid-state drive in the future, IBM will also be able to obtain a portion of the profits.

However, in recent years, Shenzhou Storage has been investing a large portion of its profits from USB flash drives and SD memory cards into solid-state drives.

Shenzhou Storage is experiencing the same pain IBM went through back then: this thing is all about generating data, but it doesn't produce any results...

If it weren't for Mr. Li's persistent insistence on development, Shenzhou Storage might have given up long ago.

Of course, there have been technical gains; otherwise, all that money would have been wasted. In the laboratory, Shenzhou Storage has been able to produce solid-state drives with performance comparable to mechanical hard drives, but the cost is too high.

Shenzhou Storage took a different approach. Under the leadership of its CEO Xie Shining, it used a clever trick. Although Shenzhou Storage has not yet developed a fully functional solid-state drive, it can use some of the functions of solid-state drives to develop a "hybrid hard drive" that combines solid-state drives and hard disk drives.

The computer operating system and data are still stored on the mechanical hard drive, but a high-speed highway has been built. Frequently used data can be stored in the cache and retrieved at the fastest speed.

The most direct benefit is faster boot times and quicker software startup. It's like a hybrid system in the electric vehicle era, where a gasoline car has an auxiliary motor. Compared to a single mechanical hard drive, its performance is improved by more than 20%, and the opening speed of small files is increased by more than 50%, achieving near-instantaneous opening.

Hybrid drives are still far from sufficient compared to solid-state drives.

A true solid-state drive boots up to the system in "seconds," and clicking on software also opens in "seconds," with no noticeable lag.

In addition, there have been qualitative changes in terms of anti-aging and earthquake resistance, noise reduction, and energy consumption.

Although it is still quite a distance from a true solid-state drive, Li Dongling still decided to put the hybrid hard drive technology developed by Hasee Storage into Alienware laptops.

Regardless of its performance advantages or cost, Alienware laptops need to have their own unique features to make a name for themselves and establish themselves in the high-end laptop market. They need to utilize these new technologies and components!

No technology can be developed overnight. Even if a hybrid hard drive only has some of the functions of a solid-state drive, it still needs to be implemented and used.

Only by using it can we know whether we are on the right track and truly discover its advantages and disadvantages. According to Li Dongling's requirements for Shenzhou Storage, Shenzhou Storage does not need to worry about funding for the solid-state drive project, but within three years, the great philanthropist Li must see a real solid-state drive on Shenzhou computers!
……

The three major subsidiaries of Dongke Technology Group—Dongxin Semiconductor, Shenzhou Memory, and Dongfang Optoelectronics—are all headquartered in Hanxi, the provincial capital.

Li Dongling has been staying in the provincial capital of Hanxi these past few days. After dealing with these three companies, Li Dongling has also largely taken care of the affairs of various departments of Dongling High-Tech.

Before returning to Pingyang, I made another trip to the Hanxi Joint Laboratory and allocated a sum of money there.

Along the way, Li Dongling felt somewhat tired, but he had a general idea of ​​Dongling High-Tech's current main product development and technical level.

In summary, it's not the best, but it's not the worst either. Compared to the top companies in the industry globally, Dongling Hi-Tech definitely still has some shortcomings.

The good news is that Dongling Hi-Tech is currently catching up in full force. Although there is still a gap, it is not as desperate as it was when it first entered the chip, lithography machine, and panel industries.

When Dongke first entered these industries, it was completely clueless. To be honest, there was no way to catch up. Now there is a gap, but... it is not hopeless to catch up, especially with sufficient funding!
Li Dongling hurried back to Pingyang. After returning to Pingyang and handling some matters, he would begin his trip to the port city.

Just as Li Dongling returned to Pingyang, rumors suddenly began to circulate in Hanxi Province that Dongling High-Tech was going to build its own power plant.

This has stirred up many companies in Pingyang and even Hanxi. They know very well that with Dongling High-Tech's deep pockets, especially after just cashing out such a large sum of money from the Internet, this power plant project is probably not small!

Upon hearing this news, many companies in Hanxi couldn't help but get excited. They too were affected by the power shortage. If they could get involved in this project and have a power grid connected to their companies and factories, would they still be short of electricity in the future?
Not only these companies, but the Hansi Provincial Government also attaches great importance to this project. If it is finalized, it will be one of the most important projects for the Hansi Provincial Government this year. In fact, the scale of the power plant project that the Hansi Provincial Government wants is much larger than the one that Dongke is preparing to build!

Once the project is implemented, the Hanxi Provincial Government can promote the idea that any company that settles in Hanxi can access the Dongke Power Grid and will no longer be affected by power shortages. With this slogan, it is likely to attract a large number of companies to settle in Hanxi!
In Pingyang, at the global headquarters of Dongling High-Tech, when Jiang Tao, the head of Dongling's software department, carrying a stack of documents, came from the software department's office building to Li Dashan's top-floor office in the Oriental Tower, he happened to run into several visitors.

Jiang Tao was not familiar with these people, but the leader was quite polite to him.

"Mr. Jiang, nice to meet you!"

Looking at the man who reached out his hand to him, Jiang Tao was somewhat bewildered. He was not familiar with the man and did not remember seeing him before, but the other man seemed to know him very well.

"Nice to meet you!"

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Jiang Tao pointed to Li Dashanren's office, indicating that he would leave first.

"General Manager Wu, who is this gentleman?"

After Jiang Tao left, some of the group looked at the person who had spoken, and that person was none other than Wu Yaoguo, the general manager of Hanxi State-owned Investment Group, one of the most powerful men in Hanxi.

"The head of the software department at Dongling High-Tech!"

When Wu Yaoguo mentioned Jiang Tao's identity, the general managers of Hanxi Power and Hanxi Energy who were standing next to Wu Yaoguo only showed expressions of "sudden realization," but in reality, they didn't pay much attention.

For them, the most familiar figures are Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, Zhang Ao, Gao Peng, and other powerful figures in Dongling High-Tech.

Seeing this, Wu Yaoguo merely shook his head almost imperceptibly. He dared not underestimate the heads of the various departments of Dongling High-Tech. They might seem insignificant now, but who dares to say they won't become big shots in the future?

(End of this chapter)