After the layoffs, I became a tech godfather

Chapter 219 Success has no magic, it's all about hard work!
The topic gradually veered off course, with more and more people asking questions unrelated to chips, and becoming increasingly sensitive about them.

It's not that many things can't be discussed, but given Hao Cheng's current identity and position, he can't easily bring up many issues if he's not confident in his abilities, as it could easily cause significant trouble for others.

He quickly checked the time and ended the press conference.

"Yes, Mr. Hao!"

"Goodbye, Mr. Hao!"

Everyone waved and stopped pressing Hao Cheng for more questions. They had already revealed too much today. The reporters present had already prepared seven or eight news items in their minds!

This includes EDA, Xiaosha upgrades, traditional chips, new chips, and finally, the very controversial evaluation of Fuyao.

In a short time, major official media outlets released related news in quick succession, leaving interested people overwhelmed with information.

In particular, the progress of EUV lithography machines and related production line processes has been announced, and there is jubilation all over the country.

It's still the first month of the lunar calendar. As an old saying in the Central Plains region goes: "If it doesn't end in the first month, then we're still celebrating the New Year."

Suddenly, the fireworks and firecrackers went wild again. Not to mention other places, in Linzhou High-tech Zone where Hao Cheng was located, they didn't stop all night.

"Honey, tonight I'm going crazy for you!"

On the third-floor platform of the villa, Ning Hui gently embraced Hao Cheng, resting her chin on his shoulder, gazing at the dazzling lights in the distance, feeling immense pride in her heart.

"This time it really isn't."

Hao Cheng dared not take credit for the work. Although Xiao Sha had done a lot of work in the final micro-environment debugging of EUV, the hardware for EUV had already been determined long ago.

After Xiao Sha got involved, he only made suggestions for optimization in certain modules and played a role in the final system debugging.

All of this is absolutely inseparable from the accumulation of knowledge and experience by the relevant companies over the years.

Huawei, Shanghai Microelectronics, SMIC, GigaDevice, Huahong Changdian, Harbin Institute of Technology, Institute of Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc...

"I really want to be a 'Bright Sword' (a legendary swordsman) for a while," Hao Cheng thought to himself as he looked at the list. He wondered if he hadn't worked hard enough for these companies after all these years.

They say they can't build it even if you give them blueprints; ASML is pure nonsense.

Ultimately, the reason is that there is no market and no leader.

For a considerable period of time, the development of lithography machines in China was in a very awkward position because the path we were trying to take had already been taken by others, and they had already gone very far.

In addition to circumventing patents, they also have to deal with dumping and the embarrassment of having no market.

If you break through the 48nm barrier, then ASML will work with wafer foundries to quickly bring in 40nm production lines at low cost.

And just when you break through 24nm, 32nm production lines come in.

You are 32, it introduces 24.

Moreover, because these are mature products, their costs are lower than yours, and their prices are more favorable.

This will turn your R&D into a bottomless pit, but you'll never generate any revenue.

In that case, who could possibly persevere?

Even the country can't do it!

Therefore, the development of lithography machines in China has been halted and restarted several times throughout history.

It wasn't until Huawei took over that the domestic EUV industry chain was connected—because Huawei couldn't use other companies' production lines anymore. Even if the domestic industry was lagging behind and the costs were high, at least it had them.

When the Kirin 9000S was launched, many people were very surprised: why did Huawei manage to get 14nm and 7nm right away, which had been a problem for so many years?
Is there any magic? Actually, there's no magic at all, it's all just sweat!
Besides Huawei's own unique characteristics, market and supply chain confidence are also crucial.

For example, when the domestic industry chain was working on the 7nm multi-lithography industry chain, both upstream and downstream companies had a concern: "The cost of developing this is so high. It has no advantage over ASML and TSMC at all. The cost is two or three times that of them!"
Who would we sell it to?
But now Huawei is playing that role: follow me, let's do it! Don't even mention two or three times, Huawei can bear five times the cost. As long as we can get it done, we can ignore the cost first. Only when the product survives can there be a future.

Once the market has cycled and leaders have emerged, everything else falls into place naturally.

Even without Xiao Sha, EUV would not be in mass production later than 26 years.

Once this cycle is formed, there will be two complete chip industry chains in the world.

Of course, some are happy while others are sad.

Compared to the jubilation back home tonight, it was a completely different scene for Asma, who had just returned to work after afternoon tea.

Eindhoven, Netherlands, ASML headquarters.

The atmosphere at this moment couldn't even be described as oppressive; it was downright eerie.

The sky was overcast, the scenery was bleak, and the wind howled, as if the entire city was about to fall into darkness.

ASML knew this day would come sooner or later, from the moment it got involved in precision manufacturing, from small-scale operations to adjustments in lithography machines and production lines.

They also knew that once China's EUV technology was developed, their deaths would be inevitable.

As for competition? Any technology that China has mastered, no matter how advanced, will be rendered dirt cheap by them. And this time will likely be no exception.

"What are their costs?"

"There are no specific figures, but given their industrial base, as long as they can manage it, the cost of mass production will only decrease. Based on preliminary estimates from other industries, it should be about one-third of ours."

"One-third, huh? So, are their production lines only producing chips for Huawei?"

"It is."

This is a question-and-answer session between ASML's President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Management Board, Christopher Foucault, and their Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer (CCO), James Kumen.

James Culmen's final answer to Fouquet's question was simply a summary of the current situation.

But how could we possibly supply only Huawei?
At this moment, these two were even considering whether their downstream wafer fabs and downstream chip companies—Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia—could withstand this wave from the Chinese market.

If we can hold on, we can withstand another wave. But how?
It's obvious to anyone with eyes to see that although only Kirin's mobile phone chips have achieved significant production volume in China, Baiju Technology's plan to support Unisoc as a replacement for Qualcomm and MediaTek is not hidden and is quite blatant.

This can be seen from the choice of chips used in Xiaosha robots.

In the PC chip market, the Wintel alliance of Intel and Microsoft has long held sway, making it extremely difficult for any other player to break through. Even AMD, with its significantly smaller market presence, has struggled to gain a foothold.

The others are nowhere to be seen, especially the relevant Chinese chip companies, which at most have a small share in the domestic IT innovation market and through government procurement.

But now, times have changed.

In China, Windows has already been completely overtaken by Ultrasurf – according to statistics this month, Ultrasurf's market share in China has even exceeded 80%.

The Wintel alliance is in turmoil. Win is already gone, so how long can Tel survive?
Who will replace it? If we're talking about the x86 instruction set and architecture, only Hygon and Zhaoxin have the license.

There are several other companies using ARM or other architectures.

However, so far, Baiju Technology has not shown any inclination.

Regardless of Baiju Technology's inclinations, the fate of Qualcomm, Intel, and Nvidia being replaced in 2025 is already predetermined.

“In the future, the entire market will be directly divided into two parts: China and outside of China.”

Fu Ke was deeply worried. The Chinese market was enormous; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it accounted for half of the world's market. Losing it all would be a huge loss!

Photolithography machines are specialized and sophisticated equipment with high technological content, but the total market size is actually very small.

How small?
In other industries, there's no such thing as a first or second place. In this industry, only the top player survives; the second-place player is immature, clinging to life, barely hanging on.

The market is so small that it can't support two lithography machine companies.

"Huff...huff...huff!" Fu Kai let out a few breaths, finally thinking of the European Union: "I don't know what those people are thinking. The crisis is right in front of us, and they still haven't taken any action!"

Fuke was furious. It was one thing if it was just the Chinese market, but if they couldn't even protect their core business in Europe, they would go bankrupt.

Take mobile devices as an example. There are many manufacturers in the world, but apart from Apple and Samsung, almost all other mainstream manufacturers are Chinese brands.

Including Europe and Africa, they already hold a significant market share. If all of these chips were produced by China, the situation would become extremely serious.

Fukai strongly hopes the EU will introduce a restrictive policy to ban the inflow of Chinese chips. The Netherlands had already made this suggestion to the EU a month earlier, when Baiju Technology had just revealed its chip-related information at a press conference.

However, the European Commission seems to have many concerns, and those damned Frenchmen keep interfering.

……

"At this point, the only thing we can do is to unite as one, otherwise we will only face certain death."

At the EU headquarters, a meeting is also underway. Ursula von der Leyen has been pushing for EU integration, ensuring that the EU makes the same decisions and speaks with one voice.

However, regarding Baiju Technology and Xiaosha alone, they have held seven meetings in the last five weeks, and not a single issue has been agreed upon.

However, just three days after this meeting, new problems have arisen.

As the French representative Costa predicted at the time: it is best to make a decision on matters concerning White Horse Technology immediately, otherwise new things will arise before you can make a decision.

In just a few days, they have already conquered the EUV lithography machine, another top industrial gem in industrial history!
The proposal to ban chips was put forward by the Netherlands a month ago.

I originally thought that even if a decision had to be made, it could be delayed for at least a year. After all, it is not an easy thing. Even if ASML were to rebuild one, including production and debugging, it would still take eighteen months.

After all, it's a behemoth worth 3 million euros and weighing nearly 10 tons.

However, once everything becomes associated with Baiju Technology, everything changes.

"The French viewpoint, as I've said before, is to reject advanced productive forces. What are your thoughts on this? America's refusal is because it's the leader and unwilling to be subordinate to others, which I can understand."

Costa said, "But we're just lackeys, what's the big deal? It doesn't matter who we follow, right? Knowing the boss is dying, are we going to die with him? Are you guys really that loyal?"

Loyalty? That's a joke!
Not to mention the relationship between countries, which is inherently equal, Europe is also an independent entity, not a vassal of anyone, and there is no distinction between them and America.

At this point, how come there are still people considering the issue from the perspective of their "master"?

Costa was incredibly blunt: "Furthermore, if we ban ordinary chips today, what about chips for metacognitive architecture in the future? Even if we decide to ban them, how will it be implemented? Will everyone using Huawei or other Chinese brand phones be automatically charged with a crime and imprisoned for 20 years?"
"Should we still remove all the equipment from Huawei, ZTE, and other countries? I think there's no point in discussing this anymore! And to the Netherlands, don't blame me for being blunt, ASML is doomed, and your meddling here won't change that."

The French representative shook his head, not intending to say anything more. Repeating something three times makes it lose its meaning; this group of people is a complete mob.

One White Horse Technology has already caused them a huge headache, and you think this is the end? Just wait and see. Dealing with White Horse Technology will take more than half of the EU's energy, and they'll need to hold meetings at least twice a week.

They don't need to do anything else; they can just keep "arguing" about Baiju Technology all day long. And the process of European unification? With this group of people, they won't achieve any unification even in three hundred years.

……

After the meeting, Costa, who had benefited from the situation domestically, posted a composite image of the EU headquarters and ASML logo on social media, with the caption: "Seven meetings in one month. Between banning White Horse Technology and welcoming White Horse Technology, some people chose to lie down. Wake up, Europe."

The related content didn't generate much buzz on the internet; it was all too commonplace for them.

However, when the relevant content was reposted on the Chinese internet, it instantly became a hot topic: "Isn't that ASML? Don't worry, even if we had the blueprints, we still couldn't build it. Rest in peace... no, don't worry!"

"Ban it, it should be banned! You won't be able to buy it in Europe. I'll bring you two when I go on my trip, no more, just cover my travel expenses!"

"You're so cunning, I couldn't even escape it in Antarctica. Contact me, I'll help you with your shopping."

"Yeah, what's so great about Xiaosha? Let's just ban it! It's useless anyway, really, it's not useful at all!"

If it were any other company, there might be some concern domestically, but Baiju Technology and Xiaosha? Ha! Ban them? Can you even ban them?
International students in Europe know this best. Right now, centered around Chinese and people of Chinese descent, the spread of Xiao Sha is rapidly reaching exponential speed, even under the extremely unreliable circumstances of not having an official English version and having to use translation software to translate back and forth!
In fact, some people are already using the original Chinese version of the Boundless system to a very high degree.

……

"Sizzle~Boom!" Hao Cheng, having watched the last wave of fireworks, carried Ning Hui downstairs, saying, "It's a bit cold, let's go back to sleep."

As for what happened in Europe, Hao Cheng did not comment, which made his meaning clear: do whatever you want, I don't have time!
Indeed, the final confirmation process for the Class B cooperation project is about to begin, and a whole host of things are waiting to be done.

(End of this chapter)