Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

After New Year's Day, Chen Yiran received several pieces of good news: the deal with Intel was finally reached.

Ted finally succeeded; Intel purchased all of Black Plum's licenses outside of mainland China for $50 million.

In Beijing, the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) also released a report on Shougang NEC. It comprehensively outlined the overall status of the production line, the proportion of equipment that could be retained, and suggested upgrade directions.

The situation was better than Chen Yiran had imagined.

Although the cleanroom's class and maintenance conditions are based on 1990s standards, some HEPA filters still need to be replaced.

However, thanks to Shougang's industrial foundation, the ultrapure water system and special gas pipelines have an excellent foundation. The power system consumes a lot of electricity, but in accordance with Shougang's tradition, the design redundancy of the power distribution room and transformers is unusually exaggerated.

The lithography equipment is still the Nikon stepper lithography machine installed in 1996. Its accuracy has dropped significantly, but it can still be used for photomask manufacturing to make use of its remaining capabilities.

Etching, thin film deposition, and ion implantation can only be used for low-level foundry work, but they still have a lifespan of a few years.

There are two recommended upgrade options: a conservative one and an extended one.

A conservative approach would be to retain 60-70% of the equipment and continue using 6-inch lines to produce 0.35/0.18 micrometer analog and power devices.

The radical solution, Chen Yiran's idea, is to build a new 12-inch production line in the existing factory area. The 6-inch line can be retained for employee training and process validation.

Of course, there was also bad news: the list Jasmine provided was so difficult to even schedule a meeting with, let alone recruit them.

Ideal is full, the reality is very skinny.

The Chinese American Association was quite effective; they managed to contact everyone on the list. However, the people Chen Yiran valued most either disdained to come or were under non-compete agreements.

Zhang Rujing was not one of those people. Although he greatly appreciated the younger generation's long-term vision, working for someone else was not an option for him at his level.

Liang Mengsong is now free, but he's already gone to South Korea. Samsung's top management values ​​him highly; it's said that Lee Kun-hee personally invited him to South Korea. Compared to a small, outdated factory, anyone with a brain would choose Samsung.

Lin Benjian is the technician that Jasmine admires most. He is now the vice president of TSMC, in charge of the lithography department with more than 700 employees. Even if Chen Yiran can trick him into joining, he will have to wait for a two-year competitive job application period before he can officially start working.

Surprisingly, Chiang Shang-yi, whom he had met once before, gave an initial response.

Chiang Shang-yi returned to TSMC after retiring and didn't have a non-compete agreement. After two years, he's feeling a bit exhausted, as TSMC is on the front lines of competition.

Chen Yiran offered him much better terms, only requiring him to do the packaging part, which he was best at. Moreover, he would start from scratch and wouldn't have any performance pressure.

Chiang Shang-yi ultimately decided to visit Beijing after the Lunar New Year to decide whether or not to come to the mainland.

Jasmine's idea, however, received very positive feedback.

Since Richard Chang's departure, SMIC has been plagued by internal strife and management chaos in the past two years. Many middle and senior managers have jumped ship, and there are no non-compete agreements. It's like a supermarket where anyone can buy and sell at will.

Wang Ningguo and Yang Shining represent two opposing factions; one is currently the CEO of SMIC, and the other is the CTO.

One of them is from the mainland, and the other is from Taiwan; one is more technically oriented, and the other is more operationally oriented. They are now locked in a fierce battle.

However, it is said that SMIC's shareholders are already very dissatisfied and may take drastic measures this year, such as firing one of them or firing them all.

Both of them are now thinking about finding a way out.

After receiving all the information from Huamei, Chen Yiran decisively gave up on the two people; they were too annoying to deal with people who caused trouble every day.

Of course, some senior executives at SMIC dislike getting involved in office politics, but they have no choice but to participate.

For example, Qiu Ciyun and Ji Minghua are on the Jasmine list.

Chiu Tzu-yun came to mainland China from TSMC following Chang Ju-ching and is very prestigious. He contacted Chen Yi-ran by phone once and immediately indicated that he could come.

He was very frank and explained his reason for leaving: he had received information that the board of directors might appoint him as CEO of SMIC this year.

He really didn't want to take on this mess. In comparison, Chen Yiran had the technology and the investment. Moreover, starting from scratch was more appealing to him. He personally enjoyed the feeling of building a factory from the ground up.

He even brought in another person on the list, Ji Minghua, the former vice president of SMIC.

Ji Minghua also resigned in October 2010 because he didn't want to get involved in office politics.

He originally wanted to go to GlobalFoundries, but now that he has the opportunity to stay in China, he is very excited. He has a strong sense of Chinese identity and really hopes to stay and develop his career on the mainland.

Ji Minghua is no ordinary person. He is a disciple of the big boss Hu Zhengming and a fellow apprentice of Liang Mengsong. He is definitely a technical expert.

Finally, the three of them held a conference call. After receiving assurances from Chen Yiran that he would continue to invest, the two confirmed that they would come to Beijing to start working after the Chinese New Year.

At this point, Chen Yiran had finally assembled a team. Although it couldn't be called a royal flush, it was at least at the level of four A's.

CEO and General Manager, Qiu Ciyun, oversees the overall situation.

Ji Minghua, CTO, is in charge of technology.

Chiang Shang-yi, as an advanced packaging consultant.

Besides these big names, Chen Yiran also wanted to recruit someone who wasn't on Jasmine's list, namely Zhao Yuanzheng, whom she had met at the last DAC conference.

Unlike those big shots, Zhao Yuanzheng's resume can be found online.

Chen Yiran had no choice but to hire a headhunter, which took several more days, to obtain Zhao Yuanzheng's general resume.

Zhao Yuanzheng, 36 years old. He graduated with a master's degree in microelectronics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He first worked as a process integration engineer at Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore for three years. In 2005, he returned to China and joined SMIC's Shanghai plant.

During his six years at SMIC, he rose from an engineer in the process integration department to a senior engineer, and was involved in several mass production node ramp-ups from 0.18 microns to 65 nanometers, following the entire process from initial process verification to final yield improvement.

However, he was stuck at the senior engineer position. There were not many vacancies at the manager and deputy manager levels at SMIC to begin with, and the management had been fighting amongst themselves for the past few years, so people in the engineering field were tightly controlled by factional affiliations.

The headhunter added a note at the end of the report: this person has submitted his resignation to SMIC, and his latest status is that he is preparing to go to Singapore and has applied to the company he worked for the first time, Chartered Semiconductor Singapore.

This is exactly the kind of person Chen Yiran needs; the previous bigwigs were all experts in operations and R&D.

However, we also need people like Zhao Yuanzheng who adjust parameters on the production line, improve yield, and do the dirty work.

Following Chen Yiran's instructions, the headhunter first contacted Zhao Yuanzheng. Zhao Yuanzheng was quite clear: he wanted more money and also wanted to bring his family.

When she called Chen Yiran, she was very frank: "Mr. Chen, let me be frank. I don't really want to go to Singapore, but the salary in China is just not high enough."

My wife also works in the chip industry; she's a yield improvement engineer. We both got chartered semiconductor jobs in Singapore, and after working there for three years, we can buy an affordable HDB flat there—it'll be enough for our combined salaries from two or three years.

But if we stay in China, not only will the salary be lower than there, but housing will also be a huge problem. Whether it's Shanghai or Beijing, where Shougang Electric is located, housing prices are just too high. It's not that the two of us can't afford to buy, but we'll likely have to take on a mortgage for over ten years.

Chen Yiran smiled. Now he had a huge sum of money in his hands. As for talent, as long as money could solve the problem, it wouldn't be an issue.

"First of all, after Chartered Semiconductor was acquired by GlobalFoundries, its ceiling is much lower, and its future is not very clear. Regarding the salary issue you mentioned, I can guarantee it will be half again as much as the Singaporean group, how about that? Your wife can come along too, we are short of talent right now."

Regarding housing, the Shijingshan district government offers talent subsidies, and the company will also provide some subsidies. And don't worry, you should know my earning power; the company won't be short of money for the next few years.

"How much is the subsidy?"

"I asked about it a couple of days ago, and it should be 300,000. Based on your abilities, I can help you apply for it. As for your wife, I need her resume. I will do my best to help. If the district government doesn't approve it, I will personally make up the difference."

With this 600,000 yuan, plus the extra salary from both of you, the pressure of buying a house will be much less. And although Beijing is the capital, the cost of living is still much different from Singapore, so the financial burden of living here will be much lower.

"What about the household registration issue? You need to help me resolve the household registration issue, otherwise it will be very troublesome for my child to go to school later."

"Haha, the district government is happy to give you a 300,000 yuan subsidy as part of your talent introduction program. The household registration issue will be much easier to resolve then. I won't lie to you, Shijingshan District is currently in a period of transformation and is very welcoming to highly qualified talent."

Zhao Yuanzheng fell silent on the other end of the phone, and Chen Yiran didn't urge him.

After all, this could be a life-changing decision that will determine the course of one's future; it would be problematic to agree immediately.

After all, Zhao Yuanzheng is different from the three people with whom he has already reached an agreement; those three are all elderly men. For them, choosing a job is more about realizing their self-worth.

Zhao Yuanzheng has a family to support, so the uncertainty of coming to Beijing is actually greater than going to Singapore.

Singapore's public housing policy is indeed very attractive.

A few seconds later, Zhao Yuanzheng said somewhat embarrassedly, "Well, actually, I still have some technical aspirations, and I'd rather work for you. However, I can't make that decision at home. Could you please wait a moment? My wife went to pick up the kids, and I'll give you an answer when she gets back?"

"Alright, if she has any concerns, she can ask me directly."

Chen Yiran felt that Zhao Yuanzheng had been secured; if not, they could just offer more money, it shouldn't be a problem.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Zhao Yuanzheng called, saying that he had not only come but had even exceeded expectations.

"Mr. Chen, my wife and I are both willing to come. But there's another problem. I'm not going to Singapore alone this time; I have five brothers with me. What do you think of this?"

"Come on, everyone, go back to SMIC and find some of your old colleagues. If you can recruit more people, do so."