Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 221 The Most Shameless Business Competition
Somewhere in the distant United States, on a helicopter pad outside a luxurious manor far away from the city.

A helicopter slowly descended, and after a while it came to a complete stop, a middle-aged man with blond hair came down from it.

After getting off the helicopter, he took two quick steps forward and walked towards a group of people waiting nearby.

An elderly man with a South American face stepped forward from the waiting crowd and said, "Welcome, John. I hope you had a safe journey!"

John, who had just stepped off the helicopter, smiled and said, "Thank you, everything went very smoothly!"

Soon, the two men appeared in a huge grassland on the north side of the manor, and the person closest to them was hundreds of meters away.

At this time, the two men each held a glass of whiskey in their hands. John said, "Mr. Congressman, your manor is not only large in area, but also has a great view. I hope I can own a manor like this when I retire!"

The congressman said: "A manor like this is not worth much, just a few thousand dollars. With your great magical powers, John, and the powerful strength of your boss behind you, it is probably not worth mentioning to buy such a manor!"

John laughed and said, "The money of those big bosses is not my money. I am an independent businessman. My consulting company is owned by me alone. It is 100% American and an American company!"

The congressman took a sip of wine with a smile on his face: "Maybe!"

"Tell me, what's the matter that made you, the North American spokesperson for a tech giant, come to me in person? To be honest, I'm very curious. If there's anything, can't you just ask someone to pass on the message?"

John said seriously, "Once again, I am not anyone's spokesperson, let alone anyone's employee. I was born and raised in the United States, and the consulting company I founded is also an American company in which I own 100% of the shares!"

However, just after he finished speaking, John smiled again and said, "But you know, it's hard to make dollars now, so I've only received a few new consulting orders recently."

"There is one consulting order that I'm not sure I can take, so I came here to visit you and ask for your opinion as a senior."

The councillor said, "Oh, what kind of order is so difficult for you to handle?"

John said, "There is a high-tech company with an outstanding reputation worldwide. It is committed to providing advanced technology products and convenient life for all mankind. At the same time, our American capital occupies about 30% of the shares, and more than half of the board members are American. They have recently encountered some minor troubles!"

The congressman said, "John, don't do things in a messy way. You know me. As long as the price is right and the work can be done, then it can be done. Don't talk nonsense."

"The last time you asked me to mobilize the Coast Guard, did I ask anything? Did I say anything?"

"But you are quite courageous. You dare to do it even though you are a billionaire, and it happened right under the noses of a group of people. I heard that many people were furious, and they all strengthened their security."

"A shipwreck caused by bad weather, this excuse makes me want to laugh. You should at least come up with a better excuse. It's worse than a car accident."

The congressman became serious as he spoke: "This will break the rules, you know? Once the rules are broken, many things will be difficult to do!"

John said, "Rules are of course very important, and my clients also respect them very much. Normal business competition has never broken the rules. Otherwise, with the strength of my clients' products, how much fruit would be left in the North American market?"

"But those who break the rules must be prepared to accept the punishment for breaking the rules!"

"Besides, aren't his family members all doing well now? They can continue to enjoy the life of a billionaire. I heard that his third wife, whom he married not long ago, is very happy. He changes boyfriends every few days. They have gardeners, fitness coaches and all kinds of people!"

John smiled after hearing this: "And you know, sometimes these big clients do things just to convey some information to the outside world. For example, some things cannot be said, especially cannot be said repeatedly, otherwise... there is a high possibility of encountering a shipwreck."

"Otherwise, you can just arrange for him to have a heart attack, but then it will lose its intended effect!"

"Look, it's been a lot quieter lately!"

The congressman sighed and said, "Forget it, I'm too lazy to talk about it. I have never agreed with the working style of you big financial groups. It's too crude and barbaric!"

"Let's get down to business!"

John said, "Okay, actually the situation is similar. My client recently wants to acquire a company. The company is not large, and its own operations have also encountered some problems. It is time to seek external funding. My client is interested!"

The congressman said, "Oh, how interested are you? To what extent?"

John took two sips of wine and said with a smile, "Probably, more than a dozen people have been shipwrecked!"

The congressman paused for a moment while holding the wine glass: "What kind of company is causing such a big fuss?"

"Also, you guys have been doing crazy things in the past year. I've cleaned up a lot of your butts before. You have to know that I'm just a senator, not the president!"

John said, "Mr. Congressman, don't be so modest. In my opinion, you have more power than the president!"

"Besides, our layout is almost complete, so there won't be too many such things in the future. Of course, it's impossible that there won't be any at all... That's how it is for big companies!"

The congressman said: "Just don't be too crazy. It doesn't matter if it's just a daily little thing. And the media needs to be controlled. Don't let it get out. It will have a bad impact. If ordinary people know about it, they will think that America is an unreasonable place!"

John said: "Of course we know the seriousness of this matter. Look, there has never been any news in the newspapers!"

"Let's talk about the rest later. First, let me talk about the company that my client is interested in. It's an optical company called Cymer, a small company with a market value of only more than ten dollars!"

The congressman said, "It's just a small company worth more than 1 billion US dollars? You can just buy a small company of this level without any trouble!"

John said: "Because this company is an enterprise that develops EUV lithography machine light sources, we are also facing a competitor, the Dutch ASML."

"Then, there are some minor obstacles with the Wassenaar Arrangement!"

The congressman said: "EUV lithography machine? I understand!"

The congressman was naturally not a simple person. He knew the key to the matter after hearing this.

Then he said: "Those agreements have no impact on you, so you can just arrange for an American or European company to take the lead."

John said, "Yes, that's what we plan to do. We have arranged an American company, which is managed by Americans, with American capital, and is a 100% American enterprise!" The congressman said, "So, this is a regular corporate competition issue?"

John said: "Not really. The main reason is that this light source is highly related to ASML in the Netherlands. We can't find any excuse to convince them if we interfere!"

"After all, it's useless for ordinary companies to have such a light source company!"

The councillor said, “Then why do you want this?”

John said: "I don't know either. I'm just a tool who follows the rules. But I guess it's probably because ASML rejected the company's EUV order... You know, big companies all have some bad habits, one of which is that they can hardly tolerate others rejecting them!"

"So, they are planning to block the Dutch from getting key spare parts!"

The congressman said: "In the final analysis, it is still to purchase this EUV lithography machine, right?"

John smiled and said, "That's about right..."

The congressman said: "Maybe it's even for some technology?"

John still smiled: "Maybe, who knows what they think!"

The councillor said: "Forget it, no matter what they think, so what is your trouble now, and how do you want to proceed?"

"And what price are you prepared to pay?"

John took a sip of wine and said, "I heard that in the next few days, a mining company from Africa may transfer a gold mine that has been mined for many years and is close to exhaustion to your youngest son's company. Then ask your youngest son to arrange engineers to conduct a detailed survey. They may find a large area of ​​gold mining that has not yet been mined. The net profit from mining in the next ten years may reach more than 50 million US dollars!"

The congressman almost choked on his drink after hearing this: "How much? Fifty million dollars?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but lower his voice: "You guys are not going to do anything big, are you? I warn you, don't do anything rash. I have wiped your butts many times, it's impossible for me to be so lucky every time."

John said: "Don't worry, we are not barbarians who only know how to fight and kill, we are also respectable people who do business legally!"

John said, "We have an idea. That is to set up a new lithography company in Silicon Valley. The American entrepreneurial team will build our own lithography company. Such an American lithography company will acquire America's own light source company. The two will form a powerful combination. Isn't this very reasonable?"

The congressman said, "It makes sense. Your plan may even get support from Intel and other companies. In the past year, the Dutch have not been very obedient. They have been too high-profile in the field of EUV lithography machines, asking too high a price, and giving priority to supplying to Four Star and TSMC. Our Intel and GlobalFoundries are unable to get the goods in time."

"Now they are trying to acquire our light source company to completely control the lithography machine. This is not a good sign!"

John said, "So, it makes sense for us to acquire Cymer for the semiconductor manufacturing industry in the United States!"

The congressman said: "It makes perfect sense. I will also launch a semiconductor core equipment industry repatriation plan to support the development of domestic lithography equipment manufacturers and prohibit domestic core equipment manufacturers from being acquired by foreign companies and causing technology leakage!"

John said: "Then I look forward to the good news from the congressman!"

John flew away in a helicopter. The old congressman looked at the huge estate, thought about the gold mine in faraway Africa, then picked up his mobile phone and started making a call.

A few days later, John appeared at another senator's suburban estate and had a long secret conversation.

Just one week later, with the cooperation of several US congressmen, the United States forcibly terminated the cooperation negotiations for ASML's full acquisition of Cymer in the name of threat to national security. Cymer, which was already in financial difficulties, was even worse off, and even its research and development was about to stop.
Finally, under the pretext of shouting that Americans should also have their own lithography machine company, THOTS, a company founded in Silicon Valley and invested by Intel, GlobalFoundries and many other capitals, which is determined to develop American EUV lithography machines, acquired Cymer and injected valuable funds into the company.

As soon as the acquisition was completed, more than ten small flash memory chips, which backed up each other and contained countless confidential information, were transported across the ocean on multiple planes at different times and routes, but their final destination was Shenzhen.

Not long after, a fire broke out in Cymer's core R&D laboratory, killing dozens of core engineers and destroying many technical equipment and data.

THOTS, a newcomer in the field of lithography machines in the United States, suffered huge losses and had to announce that the research and development progress of its EUV light source would be further delayed, while its own lithography machine plan would be further postponed.

It is also unable to supply the new EUV light source system to its partner ASML on schedule, and the delay will be at least three years.

According to this schedule, the small-batch test model of the Dutch EUV will probably be delayed until 16 years later. However, these early EUV lithography machines, and even the Dutch EUV lithography machines produced now, are still not suitable for commercial mass production of chips. They are mainly used for research, experiments and testing in chip factories.

The mature mass-production Dutch EUV lithography machine that can be used for commercial mass production of chips is conservatively estimated to be 20 years from now, eight years later.

The overall plan needs to be delayed for three years. The Dutch are extremely angry about this and accuse the Americans of doing it on purpose... We were getting along well with Cymer, but you insisted on interfering. Now, Cymer is half dead because of you.

You Americans are doing this to slow down the pace of ASML so that you Americans can develop your own EUV lithography machines ahead of time.

ASML's CEO directly criticized people in public: "This is the most shameless business competition I have ever seen!"

To some extent, there is nothing wrong with this accusation... During this period, Americans, mainly American semiconductor manufacturers, were actually very dissatisfied with ASML. ASML was too close to Taiwanese companies and four stars, and the cooperation was too close.

Intel and other American semiconductor manufacturers have always wanted to support American lithography machine manufacturers...

Even if there is no THOTS, they will create a lithography machine manufacturer to fight against AMSL in the future. It’s just that they didn’t win the lawsuit against ASML in the original time and space, and ASML has already become powerful (taking advantage of the inattention of several American semiconductor giants, they secretly acquired Cyme in a shady way), and finally Intel and a number of other American semiconductor manufacturers ended up in a miserable way!

Of course, they were unwilling to give up, so they made some more trouble. A few years later, the Americans began to strangle the Dutch again... In the end, ASML still could not escape the hands of the Americans.

----

Cymer is now half dead. The foreign forces hiding behind it certainly contributed the most money and effort, but Intel and others also did a lot of harm...

Because it is also difficult for them to obtain priority supply rights for EUV.

You have to know that the world's first EUV lithography machine was taken away by the Koreans.

To some extent, this is a concentrated campaign launched by several of the world's top semiconductor companies against ASML, TSMC, and SMIC!
Who made them run too fast... making it impossible for latecomers to catch up, so we might as well block their way first. I'll burn the extreme ultraviolet light source, can you build an EUV lithography machine for me to see?
Give me a few years to stop and let me catch up with you!
Now it seems that the effect is very good!

(End of this chapter)