The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

The summer in Shenzhen is quite hot.

When air conditioners had not yet become widely used in thousands of households, summer was quite unbearable.

However, as the head of Lingnan Semiconductor, Zhang Shaohua was in a very good mood.

"Mr. Jiang, we have officially received an inquiry from Intel for 1.8-micron chip manufacturing."

"According to our current investigation, as long as our prices are more competitive than TSMC's, we can snatch some orders from them."

"After having the cooperation case with Intel, it will be much easier to find other customers to manufacture chips in the future."

In the semiconductor industry, Intel is undoubtedly a well-deserved giant manufacturer.

Its every move will have a relatively large impact on the entire industry.

Especially with the rapid development of the personal computer business, Intel's size is also increasing rapidly.

Some people speculate that Intel's influence will be comparable to that of IBM in the future.

"1.8-micron process chips should be the mainstream mature chips in the industry in the next two to three years."

"We must seize the time to expand production capacity in this area and train our technical talents."

"For the next 1-micron chip factory, we also need to start making some plans in advance."

"Once the conditions are ripe, we will start the construction of the new factory immediately."

This is not the first time that Lingnan Semiconductor has cooperated with Intel. Jiang Hui was not surprised to receive recognition from the other party this time.

Looking at the issue from Intel's perspective, it certainly does not want all of its foundry business to be handed over to TSMC.

In this way, it is easy to turn Party A into Party B.

Bringing Lingnan Semiconductor in to compete with TSMC will not only further reduce costs, but also enable better control of the supply chain.

This is a win-win situation.

In addition, European and American companies generally adopt a professional management system, and people are very concerned about the performance in financial reports.

This will directly affect people's income.

And handing over more chips to foundries for production will obviously be beneficial to further improving Intel's financial report.

"Well, I'm already preparing for this."

"Currently, several domestic manufacturers such as United Microelectronics are also preparing to introduce 1.8-micron process technology."

“By then, we will not only have to compete with TSMC, but we will probably also have to compete with other domestic manufacturers.”

Zhang Shaohua also expressed his concerns.

Domestic manufacturers are also supported by Nanshan Equipment to a certain extent.

Whether or not to support it actually depends on a word from Jiang Hui.

“A bit of competition doesn’t hurt.”

"Allowing the entire industrial chain to develop will also be beneficial to our development."

Lingnan Semiconductor and Nanshan Equipment have a leading advantage, and they will not be able to maintain their advantageous position if this is the case.

That doesn't make sense.

Jiang Hui also wanted to put some pressure on them, otherwise he would have to help every time and he would not have so much time.

……

"Mr. Zhang, Intel has officially given Lingnan Semiconductor a batch of 1.8-micron chip foundry orders."

"It seems like they are deliberately trying to drag Lingnan Semiconductor into a fight with us."

Zeng Fanchen came to Zhang Zhong's office in a depressed mood and reported some bad news.

"Intel has made a decision so quickly?"

"It seems that they are very determined to further improve their financial situation."

The last time Zeng Fanchen told Zhang Zhongmou that Intel had arranged a team of experts to go to Lingnan Semiconductor to confirm the 1.8-micron process technology, Zhang Zhongmou realized that TSMC could not have the sole control over the foundry business in this field.

But he didn't expect that this day would come so soon.

“American companies are often the ones that care most about financial reports. They need to report their performance to Wall Street and to shareholders.”

“And the bonuses of those executives are also closely tied to financial performance.”

Zeng Fanchen has also studied and worked in the United States, so he has a relatively good understanding of the business style of companies there.

It is precisely because both of them have a deep understanding of American companies that TSMC has been able to develop so rapidly in recent years.

But I didn’t expect that a company called Lingnan Semiconductor would pop up along the way and follow TSMC’s pace in every aspect of its development.

Even the group behind them has stronger financial strength.

The boss is also willing to invest money in the semiconductor industry.

This is a bit troublesome.

"We need to find ways to further reduce the processing cost of the 1.8-micron process and then quickly expand the production capacity of the 1-micron process."

“We can’t let Lingnan Semiconductor be on par with us. We have to make them keep catching up from behind.”

"This will also allow customers to reach a consensus that TSMC's technology is more advanced than Lingnan Semiconductor."

Zhang Zhong knew that he had no way to change the choices of customers like Intel.

The only way to deal with this situation is to improve our own competitiveness.

"Well, I will call a meeting with the heads of relevant departments to discuss these two topics."

……

"Grove, I have a bold idea that can reverse the current supply situation of lithography machines."

Christophe has been busy collecting various information about the semiconductor industry and visiting major customers during this period.

At the same time, understand some of the dynamics of competitors.

In order for ASML to completely surpass Nikon and Canon and become the world's largest lithography machine manufacturer.

He felt the need to make some big moves.

"what idea?"

Grove was under a lot of pressure during this period.

Although ASML's situation has changed a lot compared to a few years ago, it is not yet time for it to make money without doing anything.

Companies like Intel mainly purchase their lithography machines from Nikon in Japan and have no cooperation with ASML.

As for Japan's semiconductor companies, they will not easily purchase lithography machines from ASML.

"We can launch a customer co-investment plan and bring in major semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung Electronics to invest in our next-generation lithography technology."

"Based on our current equipment level, we are better than Canon and Nikon in terms of technology reserves above 0.5 microns."

"In the future, if we want to bring lithography technology down to the 100-nanometer level, our technology route is undoubtedly the most suitable."

"Canon and Nikon's traditional technology route is very difficult to achieve this kind of processing. The structure of the lithography machine will also be very complicated, and the cost will inevitably be very high."

“Many customers can actually understand this.”

"We take this opportunity to turn each customer into our shareholder."

"Then ASML's development is not only our own business, but also our customers' business."

"When the time comes, we won't have to worry about the lack of sales for the lithography machines we develop."

"We can take this opportunity to become the world's largest lithography machine manufacturer." "Then it would be normal for us to ask shareholders to help us suppress other competitors."

Christophe expressed his thoughts excitedly.

In his opinion, this idea can definitely achieve the goal.

The prerequisite is to actually implement it.

It may become a classic business development case in the future.

"Your idea is too bold."

“Shareholders may not agree.”

Grove knew that in order to attract Intel and other semiconductor companies, he would have to give up a considerable stake.

Even if a customer only has a few points, if there are more customers, you will have to give up a lot of shares.

It is unknown whether current shareholders are willing to do so.

The key is that some shareholders may think that this plan will harm their interests, which will be difficult to deal with.

As the president of the company, he is responsible for the interests of shareholders.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep the position under your butt.

"If the cake is small, you won't feel full even if you eat the whole thing."

"After making the cake bigger, even if you only eat half of the original size, you will still be full."

"I think it's most appropriate for us to attract customers while Nikon and Canon haven't adjusted their technology routes."

"Otherwise, when Nikon and Canon also have technical solutions in this regard, the situation will be disadvantageous to us."

Christophe added a little anxiously.

For this project, we must act as soon as possible to avoid any further complications.

"I'll discuss this with the shareholders first and see what they think."

"You can also ask the customers if they are interested in this solution."

"Otherwise, it would be meaningless if we just went through all the trouble."

Grove was more cautious and decided to find out the situation first.

"Well, I will contact them further to confirm."

……

"Mr. Jiang, I got a message that ASML is contacting various customers, hoping to get them to invest and become shareholders of ASML."

"In this way, shareholders will give priority to ASML when purchasing lithography machines."

"Then ASML will also have a certain influence within these semiconductor companies."

“I think this is not a good thing for us.”

Lin Qiaosheng knew that ASML must have regarded Nanshan Equipment as its competitor and he wished that Nanshan Equipment would go bankrupt tomorrow.

The other party tried every means to get information about Nanshan equipment, so he was naturally not idle either.

"ASML has made a good plan. If it succeeds, it can push them to the leading position in lithography machines."

"However, I think this matter is not that simple, and the current conditions are not that mature."

"Of course, we certainly can't just watch them succeed."

Jiang Hui has the impression that ASML later did indeed bring together semiconductor giants such as Intel, TSMC and Samsung Electronics to become its shareholders.

But that was after entering the 21st century.

Since the investment in various advanced lithography machines is very large, ASML does not want to bear the risk independently, so it pulls everyone to become shareholders.

The starting point at that time was very different from that of now.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Nikon and Canon will definitely have objections to ASML's move and don't want to see them succeed."

"I wonder if Lingnan Semiconductor can take the initiative to contact Nikon and Canon and tell them the news?"

Nanshan Equipment is a competitor of Nikon and Canon, so if you proactively contact them, it may not be a good fit.

But Lingnan Semiconductor is different.

After all, they are potential customers. We have had some contact before and there are existing contact channels.

"Not only should we proactively disclose this news, we can also expose this matter to some Japanese media and let them add fuel to the fire."

"At the same time, we also need to make the purpose behind this plan clear to everyone."

Jiang Hui didn't expect ASML to react so big and take so many actions.

It seems that the emergence of Nanshan Equipment has brought them a lot of pressure.

Logically speaking, Canon and Nikon are ASML's biggest competitors, but they have taken so many actions after Nanshan Equipment achieved a breakthrough in lithography technology.

This is worth pondering.

"Mr. Jiang, I'm worried that one of the reasons ASML did this is to prevent Intel and other customers from giving their foundry orders to Lingnan Semiconductor."

"This will indirectly hit the continued development of our lithography machines and the development of China's semiconductor industry."

Lin Qiaosheng directly stated his guess.

This speculation is entirely possible to become a reality.

"Well, try to find out what's going on at TSMC."

"If the other party responds positively to ASML's proposal, then your guess is likely to be true."

Jiang Hui knew very well that among all the semiconductor companies in the world, TSMC should hate Lingnan Semiconductor the most.

And ASML hates Nanshan Equipment the most.

A lot can be interpreted from the actions of these two competitors.

Invisibly, the entire semiconductor industry has been in turmoil due to the actions of companies such as ASML, Nanshan Equipment and Lingnan Semiconductor.

"We have already managed to bribe several technicians at TSMC, although we may not be able to obtain confidential information."

"But through some of the content they shared, we can still deduce something."

"Lingnan Semiconductor may also need to pay attention. It is very likely that competitors such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics will also try to poach or bribe some technical personnel."

Lin Qiaosheng used to work in a state-owned enterprise, and some of his projects were related to military industry.

Therefore, the awareness of confidentiality is relatively strong.

In his opinion, there is room for further strengthening of the confidentiality construction work of Lingnan Semiconductor and Nanshan Equipment.

Although there may be some conflict between confidentiality and freedom, they certainly cannot be left unattended.

"Your reminder is very timely. I will ask Zhang Shaohua to take charge of this matter."

"The company should also keep an eye on the dynamics of some core technical personnel."

Jiang Hui can fully understand that some people sell out factory information for money, but he cannot accept it.

The various treatments I give are already very good, and are definitely the best in China.

If some people are still not satisfied, they can choose to leave.

But if you stay in the company and then betray your employees, then that's embarrassing. (End of this chapter)