Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 241: US sanctions are coming ( words long chapter)
Today's content is not easy to divide into chapters, so I will update it together with 10,000 words
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At the wedding, more than 2,000 guests sat or stood in the huge open-air venue, looking at the newlyweds on the stage in front of them.

As for what these ordinary guests are thinking, no one knows!
On the other hand, the guests who were sitting in the front row and had a closer relationship all had smiles on their faces.

Xu's mother was sitting in the front row in traditional attire!

In front and behind her were a group of powerful and wealthy ladies, and a few old sisters who used to play with her. At this time, they were whispering compliments, nothing more than what they said about how well-matched the two newlyweds on the stage were.

On the other side were Lin's parents, who were also looking at the newlyweds on the stage with smiles on their faces.

Needless to say, Lin's mother has always been very satisfied with Xu Shenxue. When she encouraged her daughter to go on a blind date with Xu Shenxue, Xu Shenxue was not very successful at all.

At that time, Xu Shenxue had just taken over the family business not long ago, Zhiyun Technology had just been established, and even smartphones had not yet been developed.

At that time, Xu Shenxue was considered by Lin's parents to be a second-generation man with good abilities, who could support the family business, had a decent life, and had outstanding looks... Of course, even such a rich second-generation was considered a very outstanding young man in the small circle of wealthy people.

It would be difficult to find another Xu Shenxue even if you search through the small circle of wealthy people around you.

At that time, many wealthy families had their eyes on Xu Shenxue and were planning to marry their daughters to him!
At that time, Xu Shenxue was a high-quality blind date candidate in the wealthy circle. A group of rich ladies and young ladies were asking around and trying to find a blind date with him in roundabout ways.

But Lin's mother was the one who acted the fastest!
Even today, when Lin's mother thinks about how swift, accurate and ruthless she was at the time, she is still quite proud of herself... She has never done anything particularly successful in her life. The first thing she did was to marry a husband with great potential. She fell in love with Lin's father during college, and then got married right after graduation, trapping Lin's father deeply.

Sure enough, after Lin's father graduated, his career went smoothly, from work to entrepreneurship. Within a few years, his net worth exceeded 100 million yuan, and then it skyrocketed to a scale of tens of billions, and he directly transformed her, a woman from an ordinary family, into a wealthy wife.

The second thing was to find a good husband for my daughter!

When they first met, the Xu family's assets were only a few hundred million at most, which was a far cry from the Lin family's. However, Lin's mother had already decided on this son-in-law and strongly supported her daughter to throw herself at him...

Of course, at the beginning, according to Lin's mother's idea, after the young couple got married, she would give them a few hundred million yuan, and then they would be able to live a good life in the future. If they worked hard for ten or twenty years, with luck, the couple's assets might increase to 30 or 50 billion yuan.

But what happened later far exceeded Lin's mother's expectations. Not long after the blind date, Xu Shenxue's Zhiyun Technology continued to be successful, and then the mobile phone was released. The company's financing valuation was 10 billion. Subsequently, Xu Shenxue's assets increased faster than a rocket, from a net worth of tens of billions to hundreds of billions, and then to hundreds of billions... As for now, no one knows how much Xu Shenxue's net worth is.

But many people believe that even the most conservative estimate would be more than 200 billion US dollars.

When money comes to Xu Shenxue, it truly becomes numbers!
Not in a joking, self-deprecating, or humble way...it really has become a numbers game.

And it is so easy to make money. Let’s take Hailan Automobile, which recently launched an electric car, as an example.

This automobile company is wholly owned by Liuhe Investment. In order to develop electric cars, Xu Shenxue has invested about tens of billions of dollars, which is only equivalent to 700 to 800 million US dollars.

However, after the release of HaiLan SEC, the outside world's valuation of HaiLan Automobile has reached billions of US dollars... Even though HaiLan Automobile's vehicles have not yet been officially mass-produced, capital is so optimistic about it.

Because, Hailan Automobile's electric vehicles with automatic assisted driving as the core, to some extent, represent the future direction of automobile development. People are optimistic about Hailan Automobile not its present, but its future.

It’s just that HaiLan Automobile currently has no plans to accept financing or go public!

The reason why they raised funds and went public before was, on the one hand, because they did not have enough strength in the early stage and wanted to raise funds to develop faster, but now... who dares to say that they are richer than Xu Shenxue?

The strategic investment department of Liuhe Investment is looking for various potential companies to invest in around the world.

Not to mention Zhiyun Technology's strategic investment department, which is also conducting various acquisitions and strategic investments around the world.

Xiannvshan Holdings is also actively developing the semiconductor industry chain.

In the past two years, the various strategic investments that Xu Shenxue has been able to lead have reached tens of billions of US dollars, and his investment layout has spread all over the world.

At the same time, there were a lot of banks chasing Xu Shenxue, begging him for loans.

In fact, HaiLan Automobile did not need a loan. Xu Shenxue could have directly increased investment to start mass production. However, the bank was too enthusiastic and after various persuasions, Xu Shenxue finally gave up the investment and took out a loan.

So Hailan Automobile is not short of money at all.

One HaiLan car has added billions of dollars to Xu Shenxue's wealth, and the amount may increase in the future.

If an electric car company performs well, it will be able to reach a scale of hundreds of billions of dollars in the future.

Among Xu Shenxue's many industries, in addition to a few that are more familiar to the public, there are also a large number of companies that are less familiar to the public.

For example, Xiannvshan Holdings, a company that has never appeared in news reports, actually wholly owns or controls more than 200 companies, all of which are high-tech companies in the semiconductor industry chain and the consumer electronics industry chain.

It's hard to say how much it's worth, but Xu Shenxue has invested more than 20 billion US dollars in the past few years...

Since Zhiyun Technology went public, Xu Shenxue has actually been cashing out through various channels and methods, either directly reducing his holdings or cashing out through equity pledge.

In total, more than 30 billion US dollars were cashed out, most of which was invested in Fairy Mountain Holdings, and another part was invested in Liuhe Investment.

Liuhe Investment, this company was originally a family-owned company of the Xu family, with Xu Shenxue holding only 95% of the shares. Later, after a series of adjustments, the shares of Xu's mother and Xu Weiwei were gradually converted into shares of several subsidiaries of the Weiku Group and shares of some Internet companies.

After these adjustments, Liuhe Investment became Xu Shenxue's sole proprietorship, which facilitates various strategic investments and capital mobilization.

Liuhe Investment has many wholly-owned or holding companies, including Wecoo Electronics, Wecoo Industry, Wecoo Trading and other Wecoo-related companies as well as Hailan Automobile. In addition, it also holds holdings in a large number of companies such as Nanmen Aerospace and Xiaojiang Technology, and also holds shares in a large number of various miscellaneous companies.

For example, in the Internet industry, BTA has shares, but not much, only a few percentage points...

There are more shares in other Internet companies, but it is not because Xu Shenxue has a good vision and has invested in various Internet companies that will be successful in the future.

Rather, in the past one or two years, Liuhe Investment has been interested in following the investment in any well-known domestic Internet company financing, and sometimes even led the investment.

Liuhe Investment has basically followed the recent boom in food delivery and even online taxi-hailing businesses, and has led the first few rounds of financing for Ele.me, owning a large number of shares in the company.

The taxi business is no exception. Liuhe Investment has already contacted and invested in three taxi startups, not one, not two, but three, including Didi, Kuaidi and the like.

When big capital like Liuhe Investment plays investment, it is not about being optimistic about a single company, but about the track...

If you are optimistic about a track, then just invest in a large number of companies of that type. No matter which company succeeds, they can get rich returns.

This kind of scatter-net investment model has allowed Liuhe Investment to own a large number of shares in Internet companies, and it can even hold controlling stakes in many of them.

For example, ByteDance is a company that Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to. He poached some of its employees from the very beginning and encouraged them to start their own businesses. Therefore, his shareholding ratio in this company is very large. Except for the founding management team, the rest of the shares are in the hands of Liuhe Investment.

Of course, apart from a few data collection functions that Xu Shenxue values ​​in the Internet industry, Xu Shenxue is not very interested in other things. Basically, he just wants to make quick money, invest a while and then look for an opportunity to cash out.

Only a few Internet companies that can obtain large amounts of data will be valued by Xu Shenxue for strategic investment, long-term shareholding cooperation, and even personal support, such as ByteDance.

In contrast, Liuhe Investment pays more attention to and is more patient in the real economy.

For example, Weiku Electronics' market value is actually just that, even though it is currently the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in China, second only to Zhiyun Technology. Even if we look at the world, its size can rank fourth... But because it is a traditional manufacturing industry with low profits, its valuation is not high.

However, in Xu Shenxue's personal opinion, the importance of this company is not much less than that of Zhiyun Technology!

For no other reason than its annual shipments of more than 100 million smart terminals.

Such a huge shipment volume is enough to drive a large wave of electronic consumer industry chain and even promote the development of the semiconductor industry chain behind it.

So even though Wecoo Electronics doesn't make much money and its valuation is low in the eyes of outsiders, far less than that of industry leaders such as Zhiyun Technology, but in Xu Shenxue's heart, Wecoo Electronics is extremely important.

In addition to this leading enterprise, Liuhe Investment has many other companies under its umbrella.

For example, Wecoo Industrial, a large-scale domestic OEM for consumer electronics, has undertaken a large number of OEM orders from Wecoo Electronics, Zhiyun Technology and other manufacturers. Its total number of direct employees has reached hundreds of thousands, making it a super-large-scale OEM company in China, alongside Foxconn and BYD.

Weiku Trading is slightly inferior and not very large in size, but it is also a world-class distributor of consumer electronics products. Its tentacles can reach every county in China. At the same time, international channels are also being rapidly expanded, especially in the ASEAN region.

There is no need to say more about Nanmen Aerospace and Hailan Automobile. One is engaged in reusable rockets and the other is engaged in automatic assisted driving electric vehicles. Both are industry leaders.

Plus there is Xiaojiang Technology and a large number of Internet companies, etc.

To be honest, even Xu Shenxue himself finds it difficult to value his own Liuhe Investment... It is too troublesome and too complicated, and he has no idea how much this investment company is worth.

Up to now, Xu Shenxue's career has grown so large that he himself can't figure out how much money he has, with the addition of these three major systems: Zhiyun Technology, Liuhe Investment, and Xiannvshan Holdings.
Now money has really become just a number to him!
I don’t know the exact amount, but it is definitely more than the 200 billion US dollars rumored by the outside world, and it is much more.

No matter how much money he has, he is definitely the world's richest man, and if nothing unexpected happens, he will be able to maintain this title for many years.

The world's richest man getting married naturally has a lot of news value, and a large number of reporters are trying to dig up information about the wedding. However, except for someone who took advantage of the situation and used a drone to take a video at the beginning, no such public video has been leaked since then.

At most, only the guests attending the wedding would take a short video or photo and spread it out.

However, the guests attending the wedding are basically all well-known figures, and they all care about their reputation, so they will not do anything too excessive.

As a result, the outside world had very limited knowledge of the specific circumstances of the wedding, and even a photo of the bride did not appear in the public media.

There is basically no information!
It’s not that no one has leaked the information, but that even if it has been leaked, it cannot be sent out... The privacy of the family of the world’s richest man can be easily revealed. Netizens don’t care, but the bosses of these websites do care.

The wedding ended in the evening and the guests left and returned to the hotel. After a busy day, Xu Shenxue took Lin Yaxian, who was also very tired, back home.

The two of them lay on the sofa, and Lin Yaxian said, "Getting married is more tiring than I thought, but now it's finally over!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Actually it's not over yet, there's still one last step!"

Lin Yaxian was a little confused: "What link?"

Xu Shenxue said: "Wedding night!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yaxian reacted immediately, but she didn't show any shyness. Instead, she turned over and sat in Xu Shenxue's arms: "Come on, let me see how you have been resting these days!"

Xu Shenxue was naturally not afraid. After many times of strengthening his physical fitness through the system, his body was very strong. Even though he was very tired after being busy with the wedding for several days in a row, he still killed Lin Yaxian without leaving a single piece of armor.

----

A week after the wedding, Ji Chenghe called and Xu Shenxue ended his honeymoon early and returned to the company.

After arriving at the company, Xu Shenxue simply accepted the congratulations, and everyone quickly entered the working state. At the beginning of the meeting, Ji Chenghe reported a bad news: "The United States has once again launched sanctions against our company. It is still the same old saying that our Zhiyun mobile phone may cause American leaks and the privacy and security of Americans' data cannot be guaranteed. They require our Zhiyun to submit information for security review, otherwise they will ban the sale of Zhiyun mobile phones in the United States."

Ji Chenghe said: "This time is different from the previous security reviews. They also asked us to hand over our data center in the United States to the US side for management and operation, and asked us to release the permissions of the Xiaoyun system for them to review, including the source code."

"And they asked us to deploy a small cloud system directly in the United States to prevent information and data leakage."

After hearing this, Xu Shenxue said, "Are you here for our artificial intelligence source code?"

Ji Chenghe said: "It's almost the same. They have been struggling for so long but have not achieved any results. Many people can't help but want us to open source. After we refused, they proposed that the Xiaoyun system must be deployed in the United States and release the source code permissions for them to review!"

Xu Shenxue said without hesitation: "Let them go! They won't even be able to see a single punctuation mark in the core source code of artificial intelligence!"

Artificial intelligence technology is the core technology of Zhiyun Technology today. How can it be easily opened to the public? Not to mention opening it up, even the technical principles are kept strictly secret.

The United States has been sanctioning Zhiyun for more than once or twice. Last year, there was a lot of noise, but last year it was mainly the local mobile phone industry and other companies whose interests were damaged that were involved, mainly fruit, BlackBerry, Motorola and other companies.

Therefore, the momentum was not too great, and Zhiyun Technology used various means to suppress it, and the lobbying funds spent on this were not a small amount.

As a result, it appeared again this year, and the American companies involved this time were not just Motorola, Apple, BlackBerry and other mobile phone companies, but also a large number of American semiconductor industries, such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

Since the beginning of this year, Zhiyun Technology has almost completely stopped purchasing components from the United States for its mobile phones and tablet products, especially mobile phone SOCs and other products.

At the same time, we also launch memory and flash memory, mobile phone SOC products, communication baseband and other products for export to participate in market competition.

Having reached the opposing side, people will naturally not sit idle, but will continue to promote Zhiyun's data security argument.

So now, before Zhiyun's new generation of flagship phones are ready for mass production and launch, such a wave has emerged again.

Xu Shenxue is very clear that this is a major trend that is almost inevitable... Unless Zhiyun Technology is willing to give up development and be an assembly manufacturer, it will insist on the path of self-development and will sooner or later be subject to comprehensive sanctions.

Of course, we should delay it as long as possible. American money is also money, so it’s best to make money from it!
When doing business, you can't just give up because of a momentary impulse.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue continued: "We should strive for the U.S. market as much as we can. We should do what we can in routine security reviews and try to cooperate as long as it does not lead to leaks. The cloud storage data of users in the U.S. is originally stored in data centers in the U.S., so let them supervise it if they want to."

"But don't count on artificial intelligence. Don't let them see even a single punctuation mark. Since they are worried that artificial intelligence will lead to leaks, then remove the networking function of the Xiaoyun voice assistant system in the US version and only retain the basic local voice assistant function!"

"If this doesn't work, just remove the Xiaoyun voice assistant function from the US version of the phone and tablet."

"I gave them good things to use, but they still asked for better things. What a fuss. I'll just not let them use them in the future."

Ji Chenghe said: "If we make improvements according to their requirements and remove the Xiaoyun system from the US version, we won't be completely banned from selling it, but we will most likely be banned from entering their official institutions, which will also have a certain impact on our US market business."

"I've talked to the people on the other side before. Our equipment is restricted from entering official institutions. This is their bottom line. There is no room for negotiation. No amount of lobbying money can change this result."

Xu Shenxue said: "The American market is like this. Just maintain as much as you can. Actively respond to the lawsuit and find a good team of lawyers. I would rather spend money on legal fees than on fines!"

"At the same time, we must also increase our presence in other overseas markets and try our best to make up for this part of the market in other ways."

"We should also pay attention to changes in other regional markets, especially the European market, and take proactive countermeasures in advance to prevent them from getting caught and following suit!" "We don't have an essential competitive relationship with Europe, so the situation will be better, but we must remember that if we go to make money on someone else's turf, we must abide by their rules. Don't act like you're the best in the world and ignore their rules like shit."

"We also need to do some face-saving work. We need to increase the recruitment of R&D centers in Europe, improve the sales system, and try to increase the number of grassroots employees locally to form a certain interest bundle!"

Xu Shenxue had long anticipated that he would lose the American market, but he did not expect it to happen so quickly. It has only been a few years, and it is far from the time when the environment has changed drastically, but the other party has already begun to act impatiently.

It is probably because of Zhiyun’s development that many people are already terrified.

Currently, Zhiyun smart devices are restricted from entering official institutions, but what about the future?

I'm afraid it will be completely banned from sale.

The simple ban on sales in the US market is not a big deal, it is nothing more than losing the US market. It will have an impact on the huge Zhiyun Technology, but it can be overcome by growing in other regional markets.

What Xu Shenxue is worried about is a series of subsequent and more serious sanctions, such as restricting Zhiyun from using American equipment or equipment with American technology.

This is the most terrible thing!
Although it is a bit embarrassing to say it, Zhiyun Technology cannot survive without American technology... There will be big problems in chip production alone.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue must respond actively!

After the meeting, Xu Shenxue, who was worried, looked at the system panel and saw the more than 100,000 achievement points he had accumulated recently. He gritted his teeth and used the 100,000 achievement points to exchange for an S-level scientific research quota.

Then he went straight to Gulf Technology with this precious S-level scientific research quota. Xu Shenxue wanted to fully understand the development of the semiconductor field, and then use this precious S-level scientific research quota in the most critical areas of shortcomings, and strive to produce lithography machines and more semiconductor equipment and raw materials as soon as possible.

This time, the Americans' sanctions were exploratory, and Xu Shenxue sensed a huge crisis!
With the continuous development of Zhiyun Technology, especially after the implementation of the comprehensive industrial chain self-research strategy, it has become difficult for Americans to continue to tolerate the rapid development of Zhiyun Technology.

Now they are even more hostile and are imposing sanctions under the pretext of security.

Under such circumstances, Xu Shenxue believes that time may not be as abundant as expected, and he must accelerate the layout in the semiconductor field and strive to build up the domestic semiconductor equipment and raw material industry chain before the full sanctions come.

We can’t count on EUV for the time being, but the DUV immersion lithography machine represents the contemporary mainstream semiconductor industry chain and must be developed in a timely manner, otherwise there will be big trouble.

Because when its own semiconductor technology cannot break through self-sufficiency, the Americans will sanction Zhiyun and prevent it from using American technology.

What should Zhiyun Technology do?
Should he choose to kneel down and beg for mercy, asking the Americans to give him a way out?
Or will you choose to ignore it and go for it, eventually leading to a complete collapse of your business line?

No matter which one it was, Xu Shenxue could not accept it.

----

With heavy thoughts, Xu Shenxue came to Gulf Technology.

After arriving at the company, Xu Shenxue called the heads of various business departments of the company and asked them to report on the technical difficulties that needed to be solved in order to overcome the process technology of 45 nanometers and below, especially some short board projects.

"The Americans are becoming more and more aggressive. We don't have much time left. The group must quickly come up with the entire industrial chain of processes below 45 nanometers, represented by available DUV immersion lithography machines, to deal with the crisis!"

"Guild Technology is responsible for the research and development of key equipment such as lithography machines and etching machines. Come on, tell us what progress you have made so far. Why are you still having so many difficulties?"

"Don't worry about the funding, I have plenty of money. Don't worry too much about the personnel. You can recruit any talents you like, both at home and abroad. They are all workers, and I don't believe that I can't recruit them with high salaries!"

Xu Shenxue's words made several core executives of Gulf Technology look gloomy.

After a while, Wang Daolin, the person in charge of Hailan Technology, said: "Mr. Xu, in terms of R&D progress, our DUV dry lithography machine is almost ready. All subsystems have basically solved the problems. At the latest, next month, that is, in June, we will be able to build the first prototype as planned!"

"We are quite confident in this project. Once the prototype is ready, we will send it to Zhiyun Microelectronics for testing and adjustment. If everything goes well, we will be able to start small-scale mass production around this time next year to meet the needs of the 65-nanometer production line."

"As for the more advanced DUV immersion lithography machine, each subsystem is highly similar to the DUV dry lithography machine. The objective lens, light source, workbench and other systems can all be used. However, there are some patent issues that are difficult to resolve. If it is directly used, it will infringe on the patents of TSMC and ASML of the Netherlands."

Xu Shenxue said: "Let's not think about the patent issue for now. Let's make the product first. At worst, we won't sell it to others and can just use it ourselves. Can they come and dismantle our lithography machine to see if it infringes their patents?"

"Our security department is not a vegetarian!"

"First solve the problem of whether there is one or not, and then solve the patent problem!"

Wang Daolin said: "If we don't consider the patent issue, then according to our schedule, we expect to be able to produce the first DUV immersion lithography machine around the year after next, and then we will gradually improve the technology and improve the process level and yield step by step."

Xu Shenxue said: "Okay, I will give you some leeway. By the end of the year after next, that is, by the end of 15, I will see the first DUV immersion lithography machine that is purely self-produced and will not be blocked by others!"

Wang Daolin gritted his teeth and said, "By the end of the year after next, no problem!"

"We are also developing several other core devices. Although there are some overall technical difficulties, there are no insurmountable technical problems. We are still confident that by next year, we will have initially solved the research and development of the main core equipment of the 65-nanometer process, and in the next three to four years, we will further deepen our research into the more advanced 45-nanometer process and equipment below!"

After talking about the research and development progress, and boasting about his determination, and giving Xu Shenxue a rough timetable, Wang Daolin then made various requests.

There is no need to talk about the most basic things like capital investment. He just asked for an investment of tens of billions in R&D, but the currency unit was only Chinese Yuan. Xu Shenxue said that it was only a few billion US dollars, which was a small amount. He was too lazy to bargain with Wang Daolin and agreed on the spot.

Seeing Xu Shenxue agree so readily, Wang Daolin felt a little regretful. He should have exaggerated the funding requirement a little more...

Then Wang Daolin raised the talent requirements. Recently, Haiwan Technology has taken a fancy to many high-tech talents, but it is not easy to poach them because they are all technical backbones in scientific research units. There are also many high-tech talents from Zhiyun Technology. If you foolishly go over to poach such sensitive key talents, you will easily get slapped in the face...

After hearing this, Xu Shenxue said, "I'll coordinate the talent issue!"

Wang Daolin then mentioned other requirements, but compared with money and talent, they were relatively not a problem, and Xu Shenxue basically agreed to all of them.

Before leaving, Xu Shenxue said to Wang Daolin, "Old Wang, I have to rely on you for these key equipment. Please keep an eye on them and urge them. Time waits for no one!"

Wang Daolin nodded and said, "Boss Xu, I understand even if you don't say it. I'm more anxious than you!"

After looking at the situation at Gulf Technology, Xu Shenxue directly used the precious S-level scientific research quota on a senior academician who was in charge of Gulf Technology's DUV lithography machine.

He then left to inspect several other companies in the semiconductor industry chain.

In addition to these key core equipment, the semiconductor industry chain also has a large number of auxiliary equipment and consumables that are also very important, and any one of them cannot be missing.

Xu Shenxue looked all the way over and then went to Zhiyun Microelectronics to find out the situation.

Finally, we have a basic understanding of the semiconductor industry chain under the group. Basically, production above 130 nanometers, from equipment to consumables, can be fully independent, the only difference is the higher cost.

Then there are the equipment and consumables for the 65-nanometer process node, which have been partially realized and, according to the various time schedules, should not be a major problem by next year.

Among them, the ARF photoresist, a relatively high-critical consumable, has already been developed...The group of Japanese engineers who were secretly poached here are really very capable. They copied their original products exactly as they were, and then received a large amount of US dollar rewards.

After receiving the rewards, these Japanese saw that the Chinese were generous in giving them money and the treatment was also very good, so they simply didn't want to leave and just took the shares to continue working.

Although this thing cannot be made public due to patent restrictions and there is no way to sell it for commercial use, it is still available on hand. If we are really sanctioned, we can use it secretly by ourselves. As long as we keep it confidential, there won't be any problem.

Of course, if you want to truly make it public, you will need to solve technical problems, bypass a lot of patents, and develop your own ARF photoresist.

But no matter what, with the things in hand, I feel more confident.

According to the current progress, more than half of the entire 65-nanometer semiconductor industry chain will be solved by next year, and it is estimated that full self-production will be possible the year after... As for the problem, it is still the old problem: the cost is too high.

If you don't consider sanctions, the more you use it, the more you lose!

As for the further nodes below 45 nanometer process, the equipment centered on DUV immersion lithography machines and various consumables are all completely new, and it will still take time. According to optimistic estimates, the key parts can be solved in three to four years, and a comprehensive solution may take more than five to six years.

The above time nodes are estimated time nodes given by the technical leaders of these companies, and are under good and optimistic conditions.

If any problems arise in the middle, there is a high probability that time will be delayed.

But when that time really comes, you don’t have to do everything yourself. You just need to get some core equipment and consumables, and then everything will be basically the same.

After all, Americans cannot cover the sky with one hand and restrict everything.

After going through the whole process, Xu Shenxue had a better idea in his mind and started giving money to others to support the research and development of his semiconductor industry chain.

At the same time, in order to raise funds and also considering the impact of future sanctions on stock price avalanche, Xu Shenxue also accelerated the cashing out of Zhiyun Technology.

In this case, the time has come to June.

The annual Zhiyun flagship phone launch conference is about to begin again. Zhiyun Technology’s marketing department has begun to build momentum globally to offset the adverse effects of sanctions imposed by the United States and boost stock prices!

In early June, although Zhiyun Technology actively protested, it still failed to stop the United States' determination to suppress Zhiyun Technology.

After a series of so-called security reviews, the United States completely banned Zhiyun Technology's mobile terminal devices from entering US official agencies, such as the Pentagon, on the grounds that Zhiyun Technology's smart terminal devices were opaque and posed huge information security risks.

As soon as this news came out, Zhiyun Technology's stock price plummeted by five percentage points on the same day, and continued to fall subsequently. So far, the market value has fallen by nearly 10%, and the downward trend has finally been stopped.

This decline directly caused Zhiyun Technology's market value to evaporate by tens of billions of dollars. A large group of investors who bought Zhiyun stocks suffered heavy losses, while a large group of financial institutions that shorted Zhiyun Technology made a lot of money.

The reason for such a sharp drop is mainly because investors are worried that this is just the beginning of the US sanctions on Zhiyun, and that the sanctions may become increasingly stringent in the future, further hindering the sales of Zhiyun products in the United States.

Regarding this matter, Zhiyun Technology held a press conference and repeatedly stated that it would continue to appeal...

This is an open and explicit response.

The actual response is that starting in May, Zhiyun Technology sued a large number of American semiconductor and consumer electronics companies including Apple and Qualcomm, accusing these companies of infringing on many of Zhiyun Technology's patented technologies.

Including the appearance patents of Fruit 4 and 4S, as well as the Fruit 5 that is being developed this year but has not yet been released!

The Fruit 5 also uses a three-section aluminum alloy back cover, and its appearance is highly similar to Zhiyun Technology's previous generations of S9 and S10 models.

Zhiyun Technology has filed lawsuits in multiple countries around the world, including China, Europe, Japan, India and other regions, demanding a ban on the sale of these models in local markets and requiring huge compensation to Zhiyun.

The amount of claims from lawsuits in China alone exceeds 2 billion US dollars!
The lawsuits in Europe sought compensation of more than 3 billion US dollars.

It then sued Qualcomm for infringing on Zhiyun Technology's multiple 4G communication technology patents, demanding that Qualcomm completely stop production of all 4G communication basebands and the new generation of flagship mobile phone SOC chips equipped with these communication basebands, and demanding huge compensation.

Of course, Apple, Qualcomm and other companies are not pushovers. They have found a lot of reasons to file patent lawsuits against Zhiyun in the United States and other regions, and the amount of compensation is also very exaggerated.

After entering June, on the one hand, the US mobile phone and semiconductor industries pushed the US to impose sanctions on Zhiyun, while on the other hand, Zhiyun frantically sued American mobile phone and semiconductor companies such as Apple and Qualcomm around the world.

This shows that the competition among these large enterprises has reached a relatively fierce level.

Let people all over the world read the news headlines every day!
However, people in the industry can basically guess that whether it is the sanctions against Zhiyun promoted by American companies or the global litigation between Zhiyun and various American companies, it may end up in nothing.

Therefore, after June, this sanction did not further evolve into a ban on the sale of Zhiyun products in the United States, but only restricted access to sensitive official institutions in the United States. It still did not affect the regular sales of Zhiyun products in the United States.
At the same time, although the patent war between Zhiyun Technology and Apple, Qualcomm and other companies is still going on, they have actually reached a certain tacit understanding and will continue to drag it out and then reach a settlement after it is resolved.

It is almost impossible to stop selling fruit products or Zhiyun products in most markets around the world through litigation, and it is also impossible to pay huge compensation.

Eventually, both parties will reach a settlement.

Given the current situation, it's not time to completely tear each other apart. If we act recklessly, it could easily result in loss of life... literally!
In the past two years, many overseas dignitaries and wealthy people have known that when Zhiyun’s group of people get crazy, they don’t follow the rules.

It's a bit like the style of big companies in the 19th century, causing people to get into car accidents, disappear at sea, and blow up laboratories...

If you are saying that it is targeting ordinary people, that’s no big deal, everyone does this!

But Zhiyun is targeting the wealthy group...his emphasis is on striking directly at the dragon's lair and beheading it.

This is so barbaric.

They are all super rich people, with a net worth of at least tens of billions of US dollars, and some even hundreds of billions of US dollars, and they control a lot of capital behind them.

It's normal to win or lose during a quarrel. There's no need to completely tear each other apart and kill each other!

Isn’t that nonsense!
But Zhiyun and his group of crazy people are just bullshit...Whenever they suffer a loss, they think about revenge and like to do things to the extreme.

In fact, in the eyes of many wealthy and powerful people in Europe and the United States, although Xu Shenxue is very capable, he is ultimately just a nouveau riche who does not know the rules.

No matter how rich such people are, they are still far from being part of civilized upper class society.

Therefore, we should try our best to keep things under control and do things within the rules.

Otherwise, if they completely pissed off Zhiyun and his gang of lunatics, these wealthy people would really have to worry about a rocket flying into their villas...

Of course, now that the matter has become quite serious and public opinion has risen to a certain level, although both parties have reached a certain tacit understanding to control the situation and the matter has come to an end, they still have to maintain the rhythm of the patent war on the surface, and reconciliation is impossible for the time being.

This drama has to go on, otherwise it will be difficult to explain to the ordinary netizens who are just watching the show, and it may easily backfire!

By the way, in this patent war, Star was inexplicably dragged into it. When Zhiyun and Fruit each launched a lawsuit war, they both chose to file a lawsuit against Star in May, accusing Star's new models of infringing their respective appearance patents.

This scared the four-star team who was watching the show on the side. He ran over with a wronged look on his face and sought reconciliation with the two companies: Big brother, second brother, you guys fight your own battles, what does it have to do with me? I just took the opportunity to grab a few percentage points of the high-end market. There's no need to get so angry!
Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth. Here, a settlement of several hundred million U.S. dollars is just a small token of respect!

(End of this chapter)