Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 126 Nativism
"How about it, are you interested?"

Every big company has a bunch of useless businesses that are neither good nor worth abandoning.

The equity-for-manufacturing model proposed by Yasuo Tarui on behalf of Masato Takeshita is aimed at this part of the market.

"It's a very interesting proposal. We at NEC can take a 20% stake."

Hirotada Sekimoto didn't quite believe that wafer foundry could succeed, but he was still willing to give face to Yasuo Tarui and Masato Takeshita and give it a small try.

As for why not choose TSMC, which has more experience?
The reason is simple,
Japanese companies all have a very strong local mindset.

Although both Xinghai Foundry and TSMC are wafer foundry companies, NEC would rather invest in Masato Takeshita, who has no relevant experience, than give in to Taiwan.

For many Japanese companies, this is a matter of principle.

"Okay, nice to work with."

Yasuo Tarui was given full authority. After careful consideration, he readily agreed to NEC's request.

All things are difficult at the beginning. Once we can deal with NEC, the leader in Japan's semiconductor industry, it will be easier to negotiate with the remaining three companies.

As expected, with NEC's successful start, Sony, Fujitsu and Toshiba all became very easy to talk to and chose to pay money to join.

Of the three, Eastar was the strongest, ultimately holding a 10% stake, while Sony and Fujitsu were slightly weaker, with each company holding 5%.

"Don't you feel bad about it?"

After signing the contract, NEC's Hirotada Sekimoto asked curiously.

The wafer factory was purchased for more than 1 million yuan, but in the end, only 1% of the shares could be sold for less than 40 million yuan.

Few people are willing to do this kind of loss-making business.

"There is no such thing as a loss or a profit. Exchanging shares for market share is always the best choice for a new company."

The flash memory business has not yet started, and Xinghai Foundry is very dependent on orders from other semiconductor companies. Now there is an opportunity to tie up with these companies, so it is naturally not to be missed.

TSMC has the support of the United States, so if Star Ocean Foundry wants to survive, it can only rely on the Japanese semiconductor market.

However, Xinghai’s OEM business cannot be too exclusive of European and American companies.

Sooner or later, he will also bring in shareholders from Europe, the United States, and even China to better check and balance Japanese semiconductor companies.

Shareholders can make money through Xinghai Semiconductor, but they can never control the company.

“It’s a smart choice. Only those who are willing to share can achieve greater success.”

Hirotada Sekimoto did not look down on Masato Takeshita at all, and even admired him even more.

NEC has been able to develop so well thanks to the sharing in the past.

After signing the contract, Xinghai OEM immediately received a small number of orders from four companies.
Although these orders have high requirements and are difficult to produce, they have indeed solved Xinghai's urgent needs for OEM.

"How's it going, Xiaochi-san? Is everything ok?"

Masato Takeshita did not know much about the internal affairs of wafer foundry, so he specially promoted Atsushi Koike three levels and put him in charge of the production department of wafer foundry.

In this way, the wafer factory will have its own people and will not be fooled too badly.

As for fully controlling the wafer fab, it will take some time to accumulate experience.

"This type of chip is very difficult to make and basically no money can be made."

In Atsushi Koike's opinion, orders for these chips should not be accepted as the profits are too slim.

"It doesn't matter. The most important thing for Xinghai OEM now is to complete the running-in and improve the yield rate. As for profits and other things, there is no need to consider them for the time being."

"Yes, understand!"

Xinghai Foundry focuses on wafer foundry and its business will only become more and more sophisticated.

Sooner or later, Xinghai's foundry yield rate will surpass that of semiconductor companies with a full industry chain layout.

That day will also be the day when Xinghai will make money from OEM. "Xiao Chi-san, who do you think we should send to the United States to set up a branch company so that we can get more orders?"

"In the United States, that's unlikely, right?"

During this period, semiconductor companies led by Intel were frantically targeting Japanese semiconductor giants, and it was impossible to give orders to competitors.

“It’s certainly impossible for the big giants, but what about the small chip design companies?”

Small companies basically take advantage of whoever provides the milk. As long as your price is cheap, it doesn’t matter if it’s a Japanese company or even if the product is from the Soviet Union.

Now that the Japan-US trade war is so serious, Americans are still desperately importing Japanese cars.

Of course, this requires the wafer foundry to have a certain degree of fame.

In the past, TSMC established a branch in the United States very early, but it was unable to win orders for a long time because the company was not well-known in the early days and could not win the trust of chip design companies.

Xinghai Foundry will not have this problem. With the endorsement of a Japanese semiconductor giant, it will easily be recognized by chip design companies.

"Small and medium-sized chip companies are indeed a good choice, and they can also help us improve our foundry capabilities."

The orders from small and medium-sized chip design companies are complex and scarce, which puts a great test on Xinghai's process capabilities. If it fails to do well, it will lose money.

However, there are also many benefits to doing so.

First, the more chip companies Xinghai Foundry attracts, the more difficulties it will face, and the stronger its chip foundry capabilities will be.

Second, some chip design companies that stand out will provide huge orders to Xinghai for foundry.

The most typical case is NVIDIA.

After Nvidia grew stronger in the 21st century, although it could build its own factory or place orders to other wafer foundries, it still chose TSMC.

The reason is simple,
TSMC's technology is deeply embedded in Nvidia's genes.

Whether Nvidia builds its own factory or looks for other foundries, it cannot achieve the same results as TSMC.

Masato Takeshita does not ask the company to incubate NVIDIA, but even if it incubates Kingston, it would be very nice.

"Well, I think Itabashi Daigo-san is good. President, do you think it's okay?"

"No problem, then it's Banqiao-san."

Masato Takeshita was not familiar with Itabashi Daigo at all, but adhering to the idea of trusting people he employed, he decisively agreed to Koike Junyoshi's proposal.

It's just an American branch. It doesn't matter even if I meet the wrong person.

The wave of wafer foundry had to wait until the 90s, and everything now is just laying the foundation.

"Thank you, President. I..."

Atsuyoshi Koike was very moved and vowed to do a good job in the wafer foundry business to live up to Masato Takeshita's trust.

"It's just a small matter. Running the wafer fab well is the most important thing."

Masato Takeshita smiled and waved his hand, interrupting the young man's possible expression of loyalty.

He promoted Junyoshi Koike more because of his talent rather than any other nonsense.

Of course, the young person’s Waseda background is also very important.

If he were a graduate from another university, he would definitely not be promoted directly to the position of vice president in one step.

"President, rest assured. I will develop our company into a global giant. In the future, semiconductor design companies around the world will come to us for production orders."

"Well, I believe in your ability."

Masato Takeshita also has this confidence that Xinghai's OEM is not inferior to others.

(End of this chapter)