Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 294 Sanctions and Conflict

In mid-June, the outside world was abuzz because a large number of US congressmen submitted a bill to ban the sale of Zhiyun products in the United States. Many media outlets reported on it in great detail, and countless netizens also made various active discussions.

Domestic media and netizens in particular expressed anger, injustice and concern about this incident.

Even some important media representing mainstream opinions have expressed their views on this matter, criticizing some interest groups in the United States for disregarding the cooperation between the two sides and interfering with and obstructing the normal business activities of enterprises.

At the same time, affected by this incident, Zhiyun Group's stock price was hit hard, plummeting by 8 percentage points in three days, and its market value evaporated by more than 50 billion US dollars.

However, Zhiyun Group did not make any public statement on the matter at the first time. The public relations department blocked countless interview requests and inquiries. The answer to any questions about the matter was unanimous: No comment!

Of course, this is just an appearance. In fact, Zhiyun Group has also been actively responding in the past three days, but many of its responses are not suitable for public release...

In the office of the chairman of Liuhe Investment in Building A, Shenzhen Zhiyun Headquarters Park.

Ji Chenghe said: "In the past three days, we have mobilized relevant connections, and our lobbying representatives have interviewed a large number of relevant personnel. It can be basically confirmed that this is an action jointly led by multiple semiconductor companies on the other side!"

"Basically, all the big companies in the other side's high-tech industry have participated, including Intel, Qualcomm, Apple, AMD, and some semiconductor companies representing auxiliary chips represented by Texas Instruments. Electronic consumer companies have also participated."

"In the Internet industry, although Google, Microsoft and other companies told us that they would remain neutral at this time, our intelligence department has also analyzed that they have actually fueled the trend to a certain extent. They are unwilling to lag behind in the field of AI, but they cannot catch up, so they have been trying to break through."

After taking a sip of tea, Xu Shenxue said, "So, it is basically certain that the electronic consumer and semiconductor industries on the other side are conducting a concentrated encirclement and suppression against us!"

"What's the purpose? Is it just to ban the sale of our terminal products?"

Ji Chenghe said: "I'm afraid it won't be the only one this time. The ban on the sale of our terminal products is just the beginning. We have obtained intelligence that some companies, mainly semiconductor companies, want to push for a ban on the sale of our semiconductor products. They will refuse to allow any terminal products that use our semiconductor products to enter the US market!"

"However, according to the analysis of our public relations department, it is unrealistic to ban all semiconductor products. They cannot even ban many of our terminal products, such as our Nvidia graphics cards, autonomous driving computing cards, our OPA computing cards, etc. The other party currently has no similar products that can be replaced. AMD graphics cards are not very useful in the AI ​​field."

"Our semiconductor products are widely used in various industrial products such as home appliances. If they completely ban our semiconductor chips, their imports of various electrical appliances will collapse instantly."

"If they ban our semiconductor products, Tesla will have to stop production tomorrow, because the visual recognition chips they use are provided by our Zhiyun Semiconductor subsidiary, and the chips for the electric control system are also provided by Nvidia, which was acquired by our company."

"In this regard, they currently do not have any similar candidate solutions. Even if they do, their selected solution will be our OPA graphics card department..."

"Our analysis is that a complete ban is impossible, especially in the semiconductor field. They still want to rely on this opportunity and force us to give up something. In the end, they may impose various tariffs."

"It's just like the previous times, except this time the scale is bigger and their ambitions are bigger!"

Xu Shenxue: "A bunch of wishful thinking old-fashioned people still think this is their era and they can do whatever they want. What a beautiful dream."

The semiconductors under Zhiyun are not only used by itself, but also supplied to almost all domestic smart terminals, including mobile phone manufacturers, PC manufacturers, and home appliance manufacturers.

Chips produced by Zhiyun Semiconductor can be seen in domestic mobile phones, domestic computers, smart TVs, even refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.

Not only domestic manufacturers, but also a large number of international manufacturers, such as Four Star and many Japanese manufacturers, use a large number of various chips under Zhiyun Semiconductor.

Zhiyun Semiconductor involves many types of chips, not just CPU and SOC, but also a variety of auxiliary chips, many of which seem inconspicuous but are indispensable.

For example, high-computing-power graphics cards used in the field of AI are not just a hardware problem, but also an ecological problem. Even if AMD and Qualcomm next door have developed corresponding hardware, they do not have a suitable ecosystem to use for AI training.

Zhiyun Group acquired NVIDIA largely because of their exclusive ecosystem.

Then there are automotive-grade chips. Today, almost all assisted driving technologies based on vision solutions on the market are owned by Zhiyun Semiconductor. As a little-known fact, a car uses a large number of chips, whether it is a fuel car or an electric car.

Several subsidiaries of Zhiyun Semiconductor are engaged in the business of automotive-grade chips or sensors, and have occupied a considerable market share, and have an absolute monopoly in some specific fields.

The most typical example should be in the field of assisted driving. Whether it is electric cars or fuel cars on the market today, as long as they use various assisted driving technologies, such as lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, automatic braking and other technologies, don’t you think that these car manufacturers have very advanced technology?

They don’t have this technology. They all use the EYEQ series vision chips from Zhiyun Semiconductor to realize these assisted driving functions.

The EYEQ series of vision chips under Zhiyun Semiconductor are used in almost all mid-to-high-end models of major automobile manufacturers around the world.

The EYEQ3 launched to the market at the end of last year is installed on many high-end models. The greater computing power enables a series of assisted driving that looks very good.

Even Tesla finally had to give in and started using the EYEQ3 chip to develop their automatic assisted driving technology... because Nvidia, which had originally cooperated with them to develop in-vehicle computing chips, was acquired by Zhiyun Semiconductor.

Looking around, there seem to be two companies engaged in in-vehicle computing chips, namely EYEQ and NVIDIA, but these two companies are now subsidiaries of Zhiyun Semiconductor. Now Zhiyun is fighting with its own hands... There is no third party involved at all.

So Tesla simply gave up struggling and directly used the more mature EYEQ3 that can be used directly.

The new generation of Tesla, equipped with the EYEQ3 visual recognition chip and various algorithms that Tesla has painstakingly researched, and which has achieved L2 level assisted driving function, was just launched last month to compete with Hailan Automobile.

If the other party bans Zhiyun's chips from entering the US market today, Tesla will have to stop production tomorrow, and then a number of AI companies will have to face the embarrassment of not having computing power cards to use... because contemporary computing power cards are either Nvidia graphics cards or OPA graphics cards, unfortunately... both are graphics card brands under Zhiyun Semiconductor.

Then the import of various electrical appliances will also experience huge pain, because they all use some chips from Zhiyun Semiconductor to a greater or lesser extent, especially the new generation of smart home appliances.

It is precisely because of this that the analysis department under Ji Chenghe determined that although their momentum this time seemed amazing, their ultimate goal should not be a comprehensive ban, but to target their smart terminal products. At the same time, they will impose certain restrictions on their semiconductor products, such as adding tariffs, and then gradually achieve de-smart cloud...

Xu Shenxue said: "Since they want to play, then let them play. Lobbying should be done. Their congressmen are not immortal gods who don't care about worldly things. It is impossible for them to agree. Since there are congressmen who support them, there will be congressmen who oppose them. Even if the congressmen themselves don't care about worldly things, they should still care about their wives and children!"

"As for the executives of these large companies, they should win over those who should be won over and suppress those who should be suppressed. They are all smart people and should know that this kind of thing is not something they can meddle in blindly."

"For this kind of thing, we don't need to target certain groups or organizations. Our enemies have never been companies, but individuals. This must be made clear."

"Don't personify a country or a company. Don't treat them as a whole and then treat the whole as an enemy. This is extremely stupid!"

“Remember, it’s easier to solve people than to solve companies!”

After Xu Shenxue finished speaking, he took a sip of tea and said, "Some people, after their ancestors became prosperous and enjoyed a good life for several generations, have lived in peace for too long and have forgotten the cruelty of the world and the awe their parents once had for the world. Let's give them some memories and tell them what the commercial competition in this world is like."

"We must also remain in awe of this world and have the security department strengthen the protection of the group's top executives, including the protection of their families. They should not travel around abroad in the near future. Especially since Old Gu is in Europe, let him come back first."

"After all, we are not the only crazy people in this world!"

Ji Chenghe said seriously: "I understand!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Then we can give some appropriate responses on the surface. Tesla has always wanted to enter our market. We should deny it. Then we can also put some pressure on the fruit industry. The same goes for Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, etc. in the semiconductor chip industry. We should put some pressure on them. It's not just them who will ban the market. We will do it too!"

Ji Chenghe said: "We have been in contact with each other for the past few days and have prepared a lot of corresponding measures. If necessary, we can respond step by step!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Okay, let's handle this!"

Contrary to what the outside world believed, that the top management of Zhiyun Group was worried and turbulent, and that Xu Shenxue was so anxious that he couldn't eat, in fact, Xu Shenxue and the top management of Zhiyun Group were very calm.

On the fourth day, Zhiyun Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, notified some customers of price adjustments for some of its products.

As a result, many companies received adjustment notices from Zhiyun Group.

Musk looked at the document in front of him with a dark face: "Affected by the rising cost of raw materials, the price of vehicle computing chips has increased by 50%!"

"The cost of chips and other materials, has the price of sand increased?"

"A group of people who are more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything. They can't even produce computing chips, yet they still want to block others. Who gives them the courage?"

"With this much time, we might as well strengthen research and development and make this damn computing power card."

Similarly, some car companies such as Ford and General Motors also received such notices for no apparent reason. However, the prices of on-board computing chips and some key sensors increased, which meant that costs increased a lot for no apparent reason.

Then, while they were communicating with Zhiyun Group, they were also cursing the semiconductor guys next door, saying that they had no skills and yet wanted to sanction others...

This is a fucking sanction on others, this is being sanctioned by others...

Similarly, a large number of Internet companies such as Google and Microsoft, as well as a series of high-tech companies such as Apple and Intel, and even physical companies such as Walmart, basically all companies related to AI, have received similar notifications.

Due to factors such as rising raw material costs, high-end computing power cards from NVIDIA and OPA have all increased in price by 50%.

Then it attracted a bunch of people to complain and criticize... Bullshit price increase of raw materials, this is clearly a counter-measure.

The only thing to be thankful for is that Zhiyun Group simply raised the price of these computing power cards instead of directly cutting off supply due to production capacity impact.

Zhiyun's various computing power card chips are facing price increases from US companies. This kind of thing cannot be concealed at all, and no one will conceal it.

So, the news that Zhiyun raised prices for US companies spread all over the world that day... and then a large group of netizens were stunned at first, and then confused.

This is not what they expected.

Especially a group of domestic netizens, who were originally quite angry, and many of them shouted various extreme slogans.

Then they saw an announcement from Zhiyun Group. It was not a positive response, nor was there any outrage. They simply raised the price of chips such as computing power cards.

The price increase is not much, only 50%.

Then, a group of domestic netizens fell silent. Didn’t they say they were sanctioned by others? How did it become a sanctions against others?
I can’t understand it!

Of course, this is just the beginning. In fact, Zhiyun Group’s countermeasures are far more than that.

On the fifth day, Zhiyun Group formally filed a lawsuit, accusing Fruit of infringing on Zhiyun's patents on multiple patents, especially the fingerprint unlocking patent, demanding a complete ban on the sale of related products in China and a sky-high compensation of 2 billion US dollars.

On the seventh day, Zhiyun Group sued Qualcomm for infringing on several of its key mobile 4G patents, demanding a complete ban on the use of these patents, a ban on the sale of Qualcomm's SOC chips with built-in full-network communication capabilities, and compensation of US$ billion.

Then they sued Intel for some of its technologies, especially the new generation of Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading technologies, which infringed on Zhiyun's dynamic main frequency and multiple key patents in the field of hyper-threading, and demanded a complete ban on the sale of multiple key products including the fourth-generation Core products.

Then a group of netizens also discovered that all the above-mentioned prosecution sites were in Qianshan...

What’s more crucial is that Zhiyun Group seldom loses lawsuits locally. Even if it loses, the opponents are always domestic companies or individuals. As for lawsuits against foreign companies, it has never lost... not even once!

Of course, many lawsuits with foreign companies do not actually have a final judgment. They are basically settled, and it is rare that the lawsuits are taken all the way.

Because most of these lawsuits are actually caused by business competition. You sue me and I sue you. In the end, as long as both parties reach an agreement, they will basically withdraw the lawsuits.

As for not withdrawing the lawsuit and insisting on fighting, it is basically a situation where Zhiyun wins domestically but loses abroad...

However, most netizens don’t know about this kind of thing.

All they saw was that Zhiyun Group was frantically suing various Midea companies.

Someone did a simple statistics and found that in just a few days, Zhiyun Group had sued 23 American companies, all of which demanded a sales ban and compensation. The amount of compensation alone reached 8.3 billion US dollars!
At first glance, it seems crazy!
This reminds many people of last year and the year before last, when Zhiyun Group’s flagship products were about to be released and listed, and it seemed that there would be various patent wars with Apple, Qualcomm and other companies.

Amid the uproar, a document soon came down. To ensure data security, it required American companies such as Apple to store their operational data, including user data, in data centers in China, and the data must not be allowed to be photographed!
At the same time, there is also news that Apple’s new model’s application for network access permission was rejected. As for the reason?
There is no reason, it’s just that it doesn’t comply with the regulations. As for which regulations it doesn’t comply with, you can figure it out yourself.

Then a group of people heard the news and shouted "Come on!" But many people overlooked that Zhiyun's new S14 mobile phone has not passed the FCC certification in the United States... That is, the Communications Commission certification.

Radio application products, communication products and digital products must obtain FCC approval to enter the US market, otherwise they cannot be put on the market.

The current situation is basically that Zhiyun Group and various high-tech companies in the United States are engaged in a back-and-forth relationship. You block me today, and I block you tomorrow. You sue me, and I sue you. If you want to say who is at a disadvantage, it is really hard to say who is at a disadvantage. After all, the various means used by both sides are actually just verbal. The sanctions against Zhiyun are only in the initial stage and have not yet been implemented. Zhiyun products are also being sold normally in the US market.

At the same time, fruit products, Intel chips, etc. are also sold normally in China.

The real practical measures came from Zhiyun... Zhiyun Group's strong price increase on computing power cards has made many companies uncomfortable, especially Internet companies and Tesla in the United States. Some car companies have begun to stockpile Zhiyun's computing power cards. Even if the price has increased by 50%, they can still be sold.

If the situation continues to escalate, won’t Zhiyun simply cut off supply and stop production?
This also led to a situation where many companies in the United States rushed to buy various high-performance computing power cards and automotive-grade chips, which directly caused a large-scale shortage of these products under Zhiyun in the market. In particular, Tesla not only placed large orders with Zhiyun, but also bought various products in the outside market, especially EYEQ3 chips, even second-hand pieces, and forced the market price to rise several times.

Internet parent companies such as Google and Microsoft are frantically buying OPA1500 graphics cards and Nvidia's high-end graphics cards. This year, Zhiyun just launched the OPA1500 graphics card. This graphics card uses 28NLP technology and has an upgraded architecture. Its computing power has increased by 1000% compared to OPA, making it the most suitable high-end graphics card for AI training.

As a result, the prices of high-end graphics cards on the market have skyrocketed several times, especially the OPA1500, a high-end graphics card that was just launched on the market this spring. Although ordinary game players have never seen it and basically have never used it, it has not affected the price of this high-end graphics card which was launched at 4999 yuan. Now it has risen to more than yuan in Huaqiangnan.

Many people who purchased this graphics card found that its value actually increased after using it for a period of time not long after they purchased it.

This is ridiculous.

The rush to buy Zhiyun's computing chips by Internet giants such as Midea and car companies has directly led to drastic market fluctuations, which has had a huge impact on companies in other countries and regions.

People didn't have to worry about Zhiyun's supply interruption or price increase, but as people rushed to buy the products, they found that the prices of these products on the market had become extremely high.

For a time, there was a very rare gap in computing chips, with everything from high-end graphics cards to automotive computing chips out of stock.

This shocked netizens around the world.

This situation is not quite what they expected.

At the beginning, when the news of sanctions came out, many people felt that Zhiyun was a weak party and might suffer a great loss.

But unexpectedly, Zhiyun's series of countermeasures instantly broke people's cognition. This Zhiyun doesn't seem to be a soft persimmon...

Even powerful high-tech companies like the United States seem unable to control them.

Especially a group of netizens in China, they were quite angry at first, and then felt very aggrieved, and expressed their support in various ways, but when they came to their senses, they found that Zhiyun didn’t seem to need their support... They have a lot of countermeasures, and they don’t need you, the netizens who are just watching the show, to worry about it.

Even if we look closely at some of Zhiyun Group's countermeasures, they are quite powerful and threatening... After the price of computing power cards increased, they were not unsalable. Instead, they were snapped up by manufacturers, causing the prices of these products on the market to double.

A price increase notice directly led to a large-scale shortage of computing power cards.

This makes many people feel complicated.

They originally thought that their own children were bullied by other kids and wanted to show their support and help, but they found that Zhiyun was a very fierce fighter. He could kill each kid with one punch, and he could fight a group of kids alone, and the fights were very back-and-forth.

Then you’ll have a very strange feeling, as if you’re a little redundant… and you don’t feel like you’re involved anymore.

Well, since you, Zhiyun, are so good at fighting, I won’t worry about it anymore and will continue playing games and reading novels...

All of the above are just some superficial confrontations between companies that ordinary people outside can see, but in fact, it is not these things that can truly determine the confrontation between the two sides.

But there are many confrontations in secret!

------

Gu Zhiming, who was on a business trip in Europe, hurried to the airport under the escort of a group of security personnel after Zhiyun launched a counterattack, and then returned to China on a special plane.

No one outside knew that someone in Gu Zhiming's security team was injured.

After returning to Shenzhen, Xu Shenxue saw Gu Zhiming and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Don't go out recently. Just stay at home!"

Gu Zhiming sighed and said, "Really, I have been working in the supply chain for my whole life, but I have never experienced anything like this!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Sex scandals are normal, low-key and not eye-catching!"

Gu Zhiming was terrified when he thought about it. He was just staying in the hotel, but a waitress insisted that he had violated him and even called the police. There were also several seemingly enthusiastic strong men and hotel security personnel who surrounded Gu Zhiming and wouldn't let them leave.

Gu Zhiming, the person in charge of the security team, immediately combined the secret notification from the company's headquarters security department with the current situation, and forced his way through without saying a word. He even engaged in a violent conflict with the people on the opposite side and used weapons, resulting in injuries on both sides. It was like a gang fight and the scene was very intense at one point.

After the security team helped Gu Zhiming break through the siege, they immediately sent him to the airport and took off urgently on the company's special plane.

We have to leave. If we are left behind, it will be hard to say how the situation will develop later. Who knows what kind of tricks the other party has prepared?

If he underestimated the other party, he would easily be led by the other party. At that time, Gu Zhiming might even be charged and imprisoned, or at worst be detained for a long time.

When encountering such a thing, the security team's attitude is that the best strategy is to run away, and the best thing to do is to take Gu Zhiming home as soon as possible.

Xu Shenxue said, "You should be thankful. These people haven't changed their minds yet. They always think about creating scandals and cases, and then making news in the newspapers, and then suing lawyers and other messy things. I guess they didn't expect our security personnel to force their way through."

Gu Zhiming said: "Yes, I saw the obvious surprise on the faces of several people on the other side at that time. I guess they didn't expect us to be so decisive!"

As he spoke, Gu Zhiming looked at Xu Shenxue and asked, "Is the situation a little tense recently?"

Gu Zhiming is usually only responsible for supply chain affairs. Although he is one of the senior executives of the group, he is not very clear about some of the more secretive things in the group. These matters have always been handled by Ji Chenghe and the people in the security and intelligence departments. He only has some guesses, but he doesn't know the details.

Xu Shenxue smiled and said, "Don't worry, everything is under control. Go back and have a good rest, and come back to work in a few days!"

After Gu Zhiming went back, Xu Shenxue thought about it and found Ji Chenghe: "It's impolite not to reciprocate. Give them a small gift as a greeting!"

Ji Chenghe said: "Well, we have already started preparing, and we will see the results soon!"

----

A few days later, a young man from an old American conglomerate who had just taken over part of the family business was involved in a tragic car accident on his way home.

A drug addict was driving a stolen truck, speeding wildly after being high, then lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the young man's car who was waiting at the traffic light.

The accident caused the drug addict to die on the spot, while the younger generation successor of the family was seriously injured and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Naturally, this kind of thing was not widely reported in the news. Only some local news simply reported the car accident information.

After all, they are not public figures. Although many people have heard of the family's name, it has been hidden under the surface and not many people know about it.

However, it caused a huge shock in the wealthy circle. It was a bit ridiculous that such a heavyweight young generation was seriously injured by a drug addict.

Xu Shenxue also saw this message, and then smiled at Ji Chenghe and said, "I said that some people have been in a greenhouse for too long and have no sense of crisis at all. They always think that the law and money can solve all problems."

"Such an important successor, but he didn't even bring any security with him and drove himself to and from get off work. Tsk tsk... now he got into a car accident."

Ji Chenghe responded, "Yes, these people have been floating in the sky for too long and have forgotten what the real world looks like!"

----

The various competitions and turmoil between Zhiyun Group and major US technology companies are still ongoing, and these overt lawsuits and mutual strangleholds will not stop anytime soon.

However, such turmoil has caused the stock prices of these high-tech companies, including Zhiyun, to generally fall.

Especially Zhiyun's stock price fell sharply, and it has fallen below ten points in total... But there is no need to be afraid, because Xiannvshan Holdings under Xu Shenxue and the secret financial company under Liuhe Investment shorted their own companies.

After a wave of stock price declines, Xu Shenxue's net worth shrunk a lot as Zhiyun's stock price fell. But in fact, Xu Shenxue made a lot of money by secretly shorting the stock.

Sometimes a company's stock price drop is not all bad...

There is a lot of confusion in public opinion, with all kinds of opinions.

It is worth noting that when Zhiyun was fighting with companies such as Apple and Qualcomm, Sixin and some third-party companies were carefully avoiding the war while secretly expanding their market share.

Samsung released this year's new Galaxy phone and carried out large-scale marketing and publicity in the US and Chinese markets, and its market share has actually increased significantly compared to previous years.

Mainly in the US market, Zhiyun's mobile phones were affected and sales declined, and Sixing took the opportunity to fill this gap.

After all, in the high-end smartphone market, even in the United States, Apple is not the only one. Although Apple has a high market share, there is always a demand for Android phones in the local area. Previously, only Zhiyun phones occupied more than 10% of the high-end market share in the local area, and now the four-star Galaxy phones are gradually taking over Zhiyun phones' market share in the United States.

In June and July, Zhiyun's share in the high-end market in the United States gradually declined from 11% to 3%.

For the first time, the market share of six-star mobile phones in the high-end mobile phone market in the United States has exceeded 10%, reaching 12%.

This is not only the case in the US market, but also in the Chinese market. Apple's mobile phones have been hit hard by this wave of sales. Even though they have not been banned yet, their sales have actually collapsed. They can no longer maintain their previous market share of more than 10%. In just two months, their market share has collapsed to only 5 or 6 percentage points. The extra market share has been divided up by Zhiyun and Sixing.

Sixing took advantage of the fight between Fruit and Zhiyun to reap all the benefits, and he got the best of both worlds.

There is no way around it, because whether it is Zhiyun or Fruit, although they are very strong in the basic markets in various places, no matter what, it is impossible for them to get 100% of the market. There will always be some consumers who choose high-end mobile phones of other brands.

Zhiyun was able to take advantage of this opportunity to increase its domestic high-end smartphone market share to 90%, which is already quite good.

The increase in sales of four-star phones is also good for Zhiyun, because this year's new four-star Galaxy series, not only the domestic version but also the versions sold in other countries, actually use the W707 chip from Zhiyun Semiconductor.

This is a high-end chip specially designed for the four-star Galaxy series and flagship models of other mobile phone manufacturers. It uses quad-core 2.4-bit, single-core 78GHZ, dynamic main frequency technology, AP graphics processing core, and a series of advanced technologies.

The performance is quite powerful, and the low power consumption control is extremely good. Low power consumption has always been the strong point of Zhiyun CPU chip design. In addition, the 28NLP process is originally focused on low power consumption, so the low power consumption of this chip is very good.

It is also equipped with a new generation of B46 full network baseband.
Finally, in order to win the four-star order, the price of the entire chip was relatively low, resulting in a good price-performance ratio.

At the same time, Quadstar's own chips are not very good this year, and they don't even want to use them. Although Qualcomm's 801 chip is also very good, the integrated communication baseband is affected by Zhiyun's key technology. In order to bypass the patent, the signal is relatively poor, especially on TD-FTE.

Plus, the price is also high... They spent a lot of research and development funds to develop this full network access, and they can't make back their investment unless they raise the price.

Then, Zhiyun Semiconductor launched a price war with the W707 chip... My products are better than yours, and the price is lower than yours.

As a result, a group of mobile phone manufacturers, including Six Star, rationally chose Zhiyun Semiconductor's products.

When doing business, making money is king.

Then there was a fight between Zhiyun and other companies such as Fruit. The US imposed various restrictions on Zhiyun, and Sixin took the opportunity to expand its sales.

What was the final result? The sales of Zhiyun's S series mobile phones in the United States decreased, but the four-star mobile phones that replaced them still used Zhiyun Semiconductor's chips.

Block Zhiyun chip?

Any product using Zhiyun chips cannot enter the US market?
They themselves will have to explode first...Google, Microsoft and a host of other Internet companies will be able to blow the heads off of the people who proposed this plan!
A bunch of useless guys, unable to compete with others, unable to make computing power cards, yet still have the nerve to play the blockade. Without Zhiyun's computing power cards, use your brains to train AI for me.

This is what happened with Tesla. They tried to find AMD, Intel, and even Qualcomm to make a car-grade computing card or something. But the results were worse than the last, and the fees were more unreasonable than the last.

The product hasn't even started development yet, but an exorbitant price has already been quoted.

How could Musk tolerate these rubbish playing with semiconductors? He simply set up his own chip department.

Those semiconductor guys are unreliable, so we have to rely on ourselves to develop automotive-grade computing chips... Otherwise, if Zhiyun Semiconductor cuts off the supply in the future, we will have to stop production.

Then Google was similar. It also had brief contact with the two GPU giants, AMD and Intel, and then while cooperating with them, it quietly set up its own AI chip department.

Those who play with semiconductors are really unreliable!
This is not a question of money or whether it is a scam, but that they can't do it and can't even come up with a good technical solution. It's better to expect Zhiyun to supply usable computing power cards than to expect them to develop them!

In the end there was no choice but to do it myself!

While doing this, they are also complaining about those semiconductor companies, saying that they have no skills at all and just mess around every day. Even if they want to sanction them, they should first develop the computing power cards and be able to compete before imposing sanctions.

Now there is not even a hair left, and you are going to impose sanctions... Brothers, please understand clearly, now it is not us who are sanctioning Zhiyun, but Zhiyun who is sanctioning us.

A bunch of fools!

Being in the same camp with them makes me tired...

----

Without mentioning the various reactions from the outside world and the movements of various companies, in mid-July, Xu Shenxue came to the brand new Factory No. 17 of Zhiyun Microelectronics' Shenzhen Production Base, which exuded the smell of money everywhere.

It is also the most advanced and top-level wafer foundry in China, and the only one that can produce wafers using the 18-nanometer process, under Zhiyun.

In order to develop the 18-nanometer process, including the construction of this factory and the research and development of the 18-nanometer process, testing yield improvement and other expenses, Zhiyun Group has spent more than 5 billion US dollars.

Most of it was spent in Factory No. 17.

When Xu Shenxue walked in the factory, he had the illusion that he was walking on money... Every inch of the place was paved with a large amount of money.

Various factories with extremely high specifications, almost reaching the pinnacle of human technology.

There are also extremely expensive top-level lithography machines that cost tens of millions of dollars each, as well as other types of core equipment that cost millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

For places like this, if the technology matures in a few years, the construction cost may drop significantly, and may still be tens of billions, but the unit will be changed from US dollars to Chinese yuan.

However, at present, the cost of building such a factory, which integrates the most advanced industrial technology, is extremely high, and the premium is very serious.

But if you want to compete for advanced top-level technology, you have no choice but to do this... Wait a few years and the cost will be greatly reduced, but by that time, the 18-nanometer technology will not be valuable, and you will not be able to grab the most profitable and most in-demand mobile phone SOC market in the current chip market.

As of 14, analysts believe that the mobile phone SOC market will exceed billion US dollars. Several major mobile phone SOC design companies and related chip manufacturers are competing hard for this key market.

Mobile phone SOC has a huge feature, that is, it has very high requirements on process technology, and it is aiming for the top and second-top processes.

In this case, even if the 18-nanometer technology is developed in a few years, you won’t be able to eat meat, and you won’t even be able to smell it!

Not to mention, the chip market itself is nothing. The huge Zhiyun smart terminals behind this chip market, especially the S series mobile phones, are the real behemoths.

This is a super product with annual revenue exceeding 150 billion US dollars!
Even without talking about the S series of mobile phones, the A series of mobile phones, which also use top-level chips, are also a super single product with revenue of 30 billion US dollars!
Adding the two together, the market is $180 billion!

In order to maintain this huge market, Zhiyun Group has launched a three-year, US$30 billion semiconductor process investment plan.

To some extent, Zhiyun Group's strength in the semiconductor field and its continued huge investment plans are also one of the main reasons for this round of new sanctions conflicts.

The consumer electronics industry and the upstream semiconductor industry have a limited market and limited money. If Zhiyun takes it away, they will get less.

Conflict of interest, it's that simple!
(End of this chapter)