Reborn since 1993

Chapter 564 Solitary Seedling
Walden was quite dissatisfied when they heard that Dongxin Hanxi Chip Factory project was only willing to give them 12.5% ​​of the equity.

But this time, Daley did not refute. The most important thing was what Li Dongling said just now. This chip factory was not something that Dongxin begged them to invest in, but it was an opportunity for Walden to invest. There is a world of difference between the two!

If Dongxin were to ask Walden for investment, it would have to give up its controlling stake to Walden and let Walden become the major shareholder.

But now, it is the Dongxin Hanxi chip factory that is giving Walden an opportunity to enter the domestic chip factory and let Walden make money, but it will definitely not give the controlling rights to the other party. Otherwise, how can it make money without doing anything!
Chen Liwu was also silent, but he also knew that this chip factory must have a major shareholder who has the final say. Otherwise, with so many domestic and overseas shareholders, who knows what the dispute will be like, and their energy will probably be wasted on infighting.

Just like SMIC in its previous life, it was really plagued by internal strife all the way. This was also the reason why many people were not optimistic about it in the early days. The factional infighting was really too intense.

In the early stage, the founders' management team and overseas investors were fighting for the right to speak. Finally, the foreign investors saw that the situation was not right and SMIC suffered heavy losses, so they quit and ran away, which stopped the internal fighting.

Then there is the inland group, which is mainly composed of investors represented by state-owned enterprises and municipal governments, who want SMIC to support the local semiconductor parts industry chain.

The faction formed by investors and technicians from America, Taiwan, Singapore and other places wants to go international. That is, they do not want to develop the domestic semiconductor industry chain, but want to outsource to overseas and make as much profit as possible.

The international faction doesn't care about technology or not. What they want is returns. They want the share price of SMIC to go up so that they can cash out. They don't care about anything else.

Because of their different lines and concepts, the two sides continued to fight fiercely, and the management team left in batches.

Dongxin Hanxi Chip Factory has an absolute majority shareholder, so there can be no internal strife. At most, a veto can be cast at the critical moment!
Chen Liwu hesitated for a moment. Not being able to obtain controlling rights was not good news for Walden or Goldman Sachs, whom he wanted to bring in. It meant that they could not control Dongxin.

In the past, when overseas investment companies came to the inland, they came to act like the bosses. As long as they invested in a project, they would be the big money sponsors and could find fault with the projects. If they could not control the projects they invested in, wouldn't it be too unfair for them to be the big money sponsors?
But this time, in front of Li Dongling, the previous set of rules is useless, because Li Dongling doesn't care about their so-called rules at all. When they are on Dongling Hi-Tech's territory, they have to follow Dongling Hi-Tech's rules!

"Mr. Li, there is no order without rules. I hope that Dongxin can give some guarantees to Walden and other investors!" Chen Liwu said to Li Dongling.

It would be impossible for Chen Liwu to obtain controlling rights without any means. He would not be able to explain to Walden shareholders.

It is true that Chen Liwu is the founder of Walden, but in the final analysis, he is also a senior employee, helping those who invest money in Walden to manage the invested money and then give returns to shareholders.

It is impossible that he lost hundreds of millions of dollars of investors' money without any clear reason. Even if he has a high status in the industry, he probably won't be able to quell the anger of Walden shareholders, and he won't be able to survive in the investment industry in the future.

"Please say!"

Wu Xinyi glanced in the direction of Li Dongling, then spoke to Chen Liwu.

“Huaden hopes that the Dongxin Hanxi chip factory can sign a bet agreement with Huaden. Within four years, the chip factory must be put into production and achieve profitability within eight years!
If Dongxin cannot do this, it needs to return Walden’s investment!”

Chen Liwu's conditions were not harsh. If the chip factory had not been completed and put into production within three or four years, it would most likely be abandoned and the money invested would be wasted.

For example, in the past, SMIC built a chip factory which was completed and put into production in less than two years. But that was the founder of SMIC, who brought a large number of experienced engineers and had support from all parties. The domestic chip industry had developed for many years and had already established a certain foundation.

But Dongxin is different. There are not so many talents now, and to build a factory, they have to figure it out on their own, which will definitely take time.

But no matter how long it takes, it should be completed in three years, put into production in four years, and another four years to gradually make a profit. If it is still losing money after eight years, it means that a complete semiconductor cycle has passed, which is the most profitable time for the semiconductor industry. If you can't make money, then don't expect to make money in the future.

Just shut down the business, or clean up the management from top to bottom...

If Chen Liwu's conditions are not met after eight years, then Doxin Semiconductor, the parent company of Hanxi Chip Factory, will have to repay Walden's investment on its behalf.

After Li Dongling pondered for a moment, he nodded and stretched out his hand to Chen Liwu, "Dongxin can sign this gambling agreement. I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation!"

Chen Liwu also said, "I will reach an agreement with Goldman Sachs and other investors as soon as possible. Regardless of whether Goldman Sachs will join the investment group, Walden will invest in this project!"

Don't employ people you doubt, and don't doubt people you employ. Li Dongling didn't doubt Chen Liwu's words. In his previous life, Chen Liwu invested in a large number of chip projects in China, and Walden was definitely aiming to make money. But it is also undeniable that Chen Liwu is indeed optimistic about the domestic chip industry, otherwise he would not have invested in domestic chips one after another when the chip industry was at its lowest point, which was a high-risk, high-tech, high-investment project with a long payback period.

……

"The first modern wafer fab in our province was officially put into construction today. Wu Xinyi, general manager of Dongxin Hanxi Chip Factory, announced that the entire project will be completed within three years.

The Dongxin Hanxi chip factory will have a series of supporting industrial chains settled in Hanxi in the future. The future Dongxin semiconductor industrial chain will become an emerging high-tech industry in our province!"

Domestic media, especially the local media in Hanxi, praised Dongxin very much, and the TV showed the footage of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Dongxin Hanxi chip factory.

Li Dongling, Wu Xinyi, Lin Qijian, Wu Yaoguo, Chen Liwu, and Zhang Ailun, a second-generation Chinese born in America, who came on behalf of Goldman Sachs, shoveled some soil together and announced the establishment of the chip factory.

It can be seen from the specifications that on the day the chip factory started construction, a group of leaders from the Hanxi Provincial Government basically accompanied the whole process. On the same day, a subsidy of 30 million yuan from the provincial government was deposited into the Dongxin Bank account, which shows how much Hanxi values ​​this project.

However, media including Hong Kong Phoenix TV, Singapore and Japan are not so optimistic about the establishment of this chip factory.

"The 8-inch wafer fab project, jointly invested by China's Dongxin Semiconductor and several investment consortiums with a total investment of US$ million, officially started construction today!
This is the largest investment and most technologically advanced chip project in the mainland's chip industry to date, and it is also the first 8-inch wafer factory production line in the mainland!

Currently, the global chip industry is entering the era of 8-inch wafer fabs. The number of 8-inch wafer fab production lines that have been built or are under construction will reach 70 in the next few years. The 8-inch wafer fab in Hanxi does not have a clear advantage, and the source of future orders is also questionable!

A professor of semiconductors at the University of Munich in Germany predicts that in the future, all wafer fabs below 8 inches will be eliminated. Within ten years, there will be more than 8 199-inch chip production lines of all kinds, and the monthly chip production capacity may reach more than 560 million pieces.

This is a report from Phoenix TV. Regardless of whether it is praise or criticism, we can see from the report how weak the domestic semiconductor industry is now. From these news reports, we can see that what is considered to be the most advanced project in China can only be considered average internationally.

The 8-inch wafer factory that Donxin has built with so much effort now has dozens of production lines around the world. Intel, Infineon, Siemens, IBM, etc. have actually begun to tentatively develop 12-inch wafer factories.

But no matter what happens overseas, in the domestic chip industry, when people saw that Dongxin was serious and invested more than 400 million US dollars to start building a wafer factory, it had a huge impact on the entire domestic chip industry!

……

"Did Dongxin really build its own chip factory, and it's an eight-inch one?"

A group of senior executives in Shougang NEC were also shocked when they saw the news on TV. General Manager Meng Zongwei was silent for a long time after seeing the news reported by the media, and finally he let out a long sigh.

"If Dongxin builds its own chip factory, will we get fewer orders in the future?" A senior executive of Shougang NEC couldn't help but ask this question with concern. If the factory earns less, their rewards and dividends will also be less. How can they not be worried?
"Pfft!"

A sneer came from the head of Shougang NEC's marketing department. "Last year, Dongxin repeatedly asked us to give Dongxin orders and increase production capacity, but you didn't care and gave priority to NEC. If you don't do the work for them, can't they do it themselves?"

Hearing these targeted words, Fang Yuanlu, who was very close to NEC and was considered the representative of NEC at Shougang, could not help but say, "NEC is our second largest shareholder. We also rely on NEC for our technology upgrades. If you offend NEC and delay the technology upgrade of Shougang NEC's 8-inch production line, can you bear the responsibility?"

Hearing this compliment, several senior executives of Shougang NEC were obviously angry but dared not speak out. Although Shougang NEC was cooperating with NEC, it had always been suppressed. Shougang was obviously the major shareholder, but it was about to become the OEM factory of NEC. It was completely suppressed by the other party and even had to listen to the other party on who to produce for.

Now NEC is threatening Shougang NEC with technology upgrades. NEC wants to exchange investment and help Shougang NEC upgrade its production level for the controlling stake of Shougang NEC.

The entire Shougang NEC has now been completely kidnapped by NEC. The technology, orders, and key technical engineers all belong to the other party. I am afraid that in the end it will have to agree to the other party's conditions.

Meng Zongwei took a last look at the news on TV and left without saying a word. When Shougang cooperated with NEC to build a factory, they also wanted to make a difference, just like what Doxin Semiconductor is doing today.

But now, Shougang NEC seems to be kidnapped by NEC, while Dongxin Semiconductor has been able to independently design and develop chips, and is now starting to independently produce chips. What Dongxin Semiconductor is doing is what Shougang NEC wanted to do back then!
Now, things have changed, and Meng Zongwei has no idea what the future holds for Shougang NEC, but he is really somewhat envious of Dongxin...

(End of this chapter)