Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 162 Castle on the Beach
Xu Shenxue took a look and said, damn, you are excited if you want to, but why are you crying... You are an old man in his forties, how can you have the nerve to do that!

And then he couldn't even coax Xu Shenxue... In his two lifetimes, he was too lazy to even coax little girls. He had never coaxed the three secretaries in the general manager's office. Only Lin Yaxian would occasionally act coquettishly and let him coax her, but it was just a little romance between a man and a woman.

But to coax a grown man...I've never done that before, and he doesn't want to do it either.

So he glanced at Wang Daolin, then pretended not to see it, turned around and asked another deputy chief engineer of Gulf Technology who had a B-level scientific research quota, asking about other details of the lithography machine.

As for Wang Daolin...he's a grown man and he will adjust himself.

Then when Wang Daolin was squatting on the ground, sighing about life and wiping his tears, Xu Shenxue asked about the details of the lithography machine.

Although he didn't quite understand some of the detailed technical indicators, from their description, especially the production efficiency and cost, compared with similar foreign products, although there is a gap, the difference is not very big... The chip cost has increased to a certain extent, but Xu Shenxue did a quick calculation and found that this cost increase is acceptable.

Anyway, we don’t sell these low-end chips directly. They are all used in our own terminal products. The higher or lower cost of some low-end chips actually doesn’t have much impact.

Then there are some relatively unique low-end chips that sell designs and patents... The prices are already very high, so a slight increase in manufacturing costs is even less of a concern.

It would be difficult to sell this kind of lithography machine to others...but there would be no problem at all if it is used in one's own factory.

After asking about this thing in detail, Xu Shenxue said: "This i-line front-end lithography machine has been developed, so what about the KRF lithography machine behind it? I remember that this thing is not very difficult, right? There are also relevant mature technologies in China!"

At this time, Wang Daolin had calmed down and reappeared in front of Xu Shenxue: "Boss Xu, our KRF front-end lithography machine also adopts a series of mature domestic technologies. The sub-components of each system are also OK. We also did a very smooth job when integrating the system. It is estimated that we will be able to produce the first prototype in three months!"

"As for the technical standards, it should probably meet the requirements of 130 nanometer technology."

"Of course, this KRF front-end lithography machine will also have some problems similar to the i-line lithography machine. The production efficiency and overall manufacturing cost are slightly worse than similar domestic products, but not by much!"

Xu Shenxue nodded after hearing this: "Let's get the product out first. As for the production efficiency issue, we can improve it slowly later. You have to eat one bite at a time!"

Looking at the i-line lithography machine in front of him and then looking forward to the subsequent KRF lithography machine, Xu Shenxue couldn't help but sigh, it's great to have a system!

Xu Shenxue knew better than anyone that the reason why Gulf Technology was able to develop a mature commercial i-line lithography machine so quickly, and to be able to produce a KRF lithography machine a few months later, was that the scientific research system played a huge role in it.

There are more than 100 companies of various types under the Xiannvshan Holding System, with more than 20,000 R&D engineers of various types all holding D-level scientific research quotas... and there are also several hundred C-level scientific research quotas.

There are more than a dozen B-level places available for use in rotation.

That is to say, in the past year, the business achievements of Zhiyun Technology and Weiku Electronics were dazzling enough to provide Xu Shenxue with a large number of achievement points, which he was then able to use to gradually exchange for scientific research quotas and then arrange them.

With the support of so many scientific research quotas, the research and development progress in the basic field of semiconductors actually far exceeds the actual situation!
Otherwise, even the lowest-level i-line lithography machine would not be easy to carry out even a preliminary integrated design, so how could it be produced so quickly?

The scientific research system plays a huge role here!

With the support of the scientific research system, the overall capabilities of the more than 20,000 R&D employees under the Fairy Stone Holdings system have been enhanced to a higher level... This is not the enhancement of one or two people, but the enhancement of more than 20,000 people!
Not to mention that there are hundreds of C-level scientific research places and more than a dozen B-level scientific research places!

With this all-round strengthening, they only need to improve system integration, and the progress will naturally be very fast.

After a tour of Haiwan Technology, Xu Shenxue went back and sent a message to Zhiyun Microelectronics, asking them to send someone to negotiate with Haiwan Technology about purchasing I-line lithography machines, and to place an order for another batch of KRF lithography machines and give an advance payment...

Gulf Technology has been spending a lot of money recently... There are five front-end lithography machine projects being promoted simultaneously, including I-line lithography machine, KRF lithography machine, DUV dry lithography machine, DUV immersion lithography machine... and it has also launched early predictions for EUV lithography machine.

Almost all usable lithography machines are being developed. The first two of them do not have major problems and can be commercialized in a short time... although the production efficiency is not very good.

When it comes to DUV dry lithography machines, the problems are a little bigger, but there is hope to develop them in the next few years... There was no Xu Shenxue in the original time and space, but China may be able to develop it in six or seven years.

Of course, with the low-price dumping of similar products from abroad, the commercialization of domestic DUV dry lithography machines is still a problem... no manufacturer is willing to use them.

Now that I have the support of a scientific research system, the time it takes to produce something should be shortened a lot!

The DUV immersion lithography machine is very troublesome... This damn thing is too difficult. Even with system assistance, Xu Shenxue estimates that it will take many years to develop it.

As for the EUV lithography machine... this thing can only be used for preliminary theoretical research for now, so don't count on it in the short term.

And then...Gulf Technology is not only developing front-end lithography machines, but also advanced and top-level back-end lithography machines...Back-end lithography machines are also lithography machines, and they have a lot of technical commonalities with front-end lithography machines. It is normal to develop the two together, otherwise it would be a waste of technology.

In addition, there are etching machine projects, ion implantation machine projects, etc.

Basically, Gulf Technology is developing some of the core equipment that is lacking in semiconductor production lines. But there is no other way because there are no related manufacturers in the country that can develop these core equipment.

In the semiconductor industry chain, what China lacks is not just lithography machines... This thing is just famous. In fact, in the entire domestic semiconductor industry chain, except for the back-end lithography machines with relatively simple technology, other core equipment is not good enough!
The photolithography machine is just a typical representative of them...

Because Gulf Technology is not only responsible for a simple lithography machine project, but also for the overall design and development of the entire semiconductor core equipment.

This also allows its staff size to expand rapidly... Now it has just simply rolled out the lithography machine project, but it already has more than 2,000 employees, and it is still expanding further. It will be easy for the number of employees to reach tens of thousands in the future.

So many R&D engineers cost money to employ, and various experimental R&D also cost money.

However, Gulf Technology currently has no income at all and relies entirely on continued capital injection from its overseas parent company, Fairy Stone Holdings, to maintain its operations.

Now that we have finally developed a product, of course we have to let our sister company Zhiyun Microelectronics, well, actually Zhiyun Technology, pay for it.

Fairy Stone Holdings is currently short of funds, and Gulf Technology is even more short of money.

But Zhiyun Technology is rich... with annual revenue of several hundred billion US dollars and super high gross profit, it has sufficient funds.

Hi Zhiyun Technology invests in semiconductor manufacturing and transfers funds to its wholly-owned subsidiary Zhiyun Microelectronics, which then purchases lithography machines from Gulf Technology...thus achieving a certain degree of capital transfer.

It is impossible for Xu Shenxue to rely on personal funds to maintain the development of the entire semiconductor basic industry chain... His personal funds can only be used as a start.

After the start, we will need to use the two large companies, Zhiyun Technology and Weiku Electronics, to continue to provide financial investment... the most important thing is to provide industrialization.

The semiconductor industry chain... this thing is an industrial chain. It needs to be actually produced to generate commercial value.

What the two companies, Zhiyun and Weiku, provide is the feasibility of industrialization!
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Of course, even if Xu Shenxue started out in the early stages, it would cost a lot of money.

Five billion US dollars is not enough, Xu Shenxue has to invest more money.

So in the few days after Xu Shenxue came back from Gulf Technology, he was thinking about how to make money.

It will cost a lot of money to develop DUV dry lithography machines and DUV immersion lithography machines later!

At the same time, developing some other core semiconductor equipment is basically not much easier than a lithography machine, and the funding gap is relatively large.

In order to raise money, Xu Shenxue felt that it was almost time to implement Zhiyun Technology's listing plan, so that he could better cash out or pledge his shares...

In Xu Shenxue's eyes, if the backup plan cannot be solved, Zhiyun Technology is now a castle on the beach without any foundation. It will be easy to be stuck and lead to collapse in the future...

For example, others may stop selling you chips, stop manufacturing chips for you, stop allowing you to enter the European and American markets, etc.

Any one of them will be finished...

Huawei and Zhongxing are lessons for us!
Unless Xu Shenxue is willing to kneel down and beg for food... even if he kneels down and begs for food, he can't get a market value of more than 200 billion US dollars. Do you think the capital is stupid? Even if you are given tens of billions of US dollars, you will be exhausted.

Not to mention, Xu Shenxue was not willing to kneel down and beg for food!
After all, he is a super rich man. He will not compromise himself simply for money. At worst, he can sell Zhiyun Technology and continue to be a super rich man. There is no need to compromise himself.

So whether it is to cash out for a backup plan or to cash out in advance to avoid the risk of future sanctions!
In short, listing and cashing out are all established plans!

Anyway, Xu Shenxue doesn't need so many shares of Zhiyun Technology. Zhiyun Technology adopts a 20:1 AB share structure. With this voting rights structure, Xu Shenxue only needs a small portion of shares to achieve absolute control.

So for Xu Shenxue, a large number of shares can actually be sold gradually for cash... Of course, at this stage he will not sell the shares directly. He prefers to cash out through methods such as equity pledge, which allows him to obtain a large amount of cash and retain shares, and the interest cost can also be borne.

After all, he is still very confident in the scientific research system... Just because others can't build the semiconductor industry chain doesn't mean he can't!
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In addition to cashing out through Zhiyun Technology's listing, some other subsidiaries should also increase their money-making plans. For example, Weiku Electronics is actually quite profitable. This company can also raise funds and then cash out part of it in the financing process.

Then find some Internet business that can make money quickly and sell it for cash.

Xu Shenxue will strive to get another 10 to 20 billion US dollars in cash within one or two years for the initial investment in the backup plan!
As for the later investment, Xu Shenxue's personal assets are not enough to handle it. He plans to let Weiku Electronics and Zhiyun Technology take over... It's not just about giving money, but supporting them by giving orders.

Only with orders can industrialization be achieved and a virtuous cycle be formed, stimulating the continuous upgrading and improvement of the industrial chain... This can also reduce financial pressure.

After having this idea in mind, Xu Shenxue took advantage of the good opportunity of S10's launch and sold well, and asked the entire company to officially launch Zhiyun Technology's listing plan.

(End of this chapter)