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

"It's not that easy. I have conditions. First, I need the original wafer measurement data for OPC model calibration."

After Chen Yiran finished speaking, he gently poked the grass twice with his golf club and, with a very professional posture, hit the ball into the pond next to him.

Morris Chang's expression was somewhat grim. He felt that it was unlikely that a consensus could be reached today, and he found the first condition very difficult to accept.

Ignoring the TSMC duo's ashen faces, Chen Yiran continued, "Secondly, I also need the window boundaries for each design rule. Thirdly, the TCAD calibration parameters for process device simulation."

Morris Chang and Chiang Shang-yi exchanged a glance, and finally Chiang Shang-yi, the technical supervisor, spoke up with a few words of struggle.

"Mr. Chen, this doesn't seem quite right. The raw wafer measurement data is almost a complete reflection of our actual process capabilities. With this data, we can almost completely deduce all our production bottlenecks."

The process window boundary for designing rules exposes all our yield rates.

Your request for process device simulation calibration parameters is even more unreasonable. This is a complete mathematical description of our process; with these parameters, others can even completely reproduce our process using a computing clock.

Chen Yiran retorted, "Don't make it sound like I'm being unreasonable."

First, our Tiya can be optimized directly using the raw measurement data, so it's reasonable to need the raw wafer measurement data.

Second, Tiya's OPC optimization is not uniformly distributed; it is necessary to know which regions still have rules with leeway and which have already reached their limits.

Third, as I mentioned before, we're not just doing OPC; we'll be doing collaborative optimization of all process designs going forward.

Morris Chang casually swung the club and then said to Chen Yiran, "You should know that TSMC has never given this kind of data to anyone else. The three major EDA firms only use our modified and processed models."

"I know I'm different from those three companies. Is their software any better than ours? Also, the reason I'm talking to you here is because respecting the elderly and caring for the young is a traditional Chinese virtue. Actually, I really didn't want to cooperate with you. Why did Samsung give me all their data?"

Morris Chang didn't answer, but changed the subject, and then the group seemed to really start playing golf seriously.

However, Chen Yiran could tell that Zhang Zhongmou was constantly making a decision in his heart.

Chen Yiran's golf skills were basically just guesswork. He ended up with a shockingly poor score, making the tournament both tedious and lengthy.

Morris Chang never mentioned cooperation again until the very end; he ultimately couldn't make up his mind.

Chen Yiran's condition is indeed very demanding. If all this data is given out, the contract manufacturer will be completely transparent and betting everything on the future that Chen Yiran talks about.

This is really hard to accept for TSMC, which is still number one in the industry.

They are different from Samsung. For Samsung, OPC is outdated, the rule margin is poor, and various parameters are generally unfavorable. Providing them with the necessary resources and having Chen Yiran help optimize them will give them a chance to catch up in the future.

Moreover, for Samsung, chip manufacturing is not their only industry, or even the only industry in the semiconductor division, so the risk of them taking this gamble is much smaller.

Even setting aside chip manufacturing, using DeepFlow technology in memory production alone can save hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Samsung's semiconductor division is now entirely focused on securing Chen Yiran's services.

Samsung's legal department even astutely noticed Chen Yiran's patent separation strategy. They've already begun making strategic moves in China, thinking that if the opportunity arises, it would be beneficial for Chen Yiran to acquire a stake in Samsung.

After a thrilling round of golf, the group politely said goodbye at the club entrance.

In September, Chen Yiran was originally considering returning to China, and the Chinese American Association's delegation of returnees also inquired about him.

However, he was too busy and ultimately did not go.

To achieve his goal of completing the entire EDA chain in a year, the first thing he needs to do is recruit people.

The current manpower is insufficient; at least 150 people would be needed to basically meet the requirements.

More people will be needed to cover process nodes, since the PDK is different for each different nanometer size, which requires a very large team.

But you can't get fat overnight. Putting everything else aside, he calculated that if they hired a hundred people, the annual salary expenditure alone would be nearly 20 million. Moreover, it would cause serious management chaos.

Therefore, Chen Yiran first recruited fifty people to fill urgently needed positions.

The recruitment process went very smoothly; we didn't need any headhunters this time, and we received an unbelievable number of resumes.

Because Chen Yiran's reputation in Silicon Valley has become so outrageous, the venture capital circle has started comparing him to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Technicians say he's like John Carmack and Linus Torvalds—a man who simply crushes an era with technology.

As we gradually hire more people, the company's office location will also need to change.

The current office space simply cannot accommodate so many people.

Chen Yiran found Emily, whom he had been longing to see, and asked her to help him find a place.

I took a few employees from the company and spent several days looking at several locations.

The first option was Menlo Park, not far from our current workplace. It's a four-story building with two floors vacant. The total area is about 30,000 square feet. Everyone thought this was the best option; the location is great, very close to Stanford.

The housing nearby isn't expensive either; you can rent a studio apartment for around two thousand.

However, Chen Yiran really disliked sharing a building with others, feeling extremely insecure, and rejected the idea outright.

The second option is Palo Alto. The buildings here are very beautiful, and the surrounding area is quite prestigious. Opening a business here basically means you're not short of money.

However, the annual rent is three million, and the housing prices in the vicinity are not very friendly to employees.

So in the end, Chen Yiran chose the least innovative location: Santa Clara. This location choice was, arguably, very unoriginal; the EDA and chip industries were all around. Nvidia's headquarters was only a ten-minute walk away.

It's a detached two-story house with 40,000 square feet of living space. It also has a very large parking lot, which is a big plus.

The price was reasonable, and in the end, it was negotiated down to just one million US dollars a year, which was still thanks to the financial crisis.

A month later, Chen Yiran moved into the new office with her 64-person team.

This building can be considered a truly high-quality office building; in China, it would be classified as a Grade A office building.

Catherine was setting up the front desk. The area was very spacious, and Catherine even brought her old TV from home so she could play games on pay leave.

Chen Yiran looked at the game disc on the table and said helplessly, "Try to put in some effort. How can you play games at work? You've been promoted; you're now the Vice President of Operations! Show some work attitude!"

"I'm the VP of Operations, and I don't have a single person under me! You can't even afford to hire a receptionist, yet you make me do it on my own. Besides, haven't I been working hard enough? Lately, I've been doing everything from being the company's receptionist to handling administrative tasks. I've also been helping you organize resumes and materials, and I've even done HR work. I've been handling the finances all along; when we were looking for a new office, I even had to offer myself to a real estate agent to get a lower price!"

"That's Emily! You're not losing out!"

"You lecherous devil! I knew you'd been having some bad ideas about my Emily! I heard you and Hannah are breaking up? I'll introduce you to a new girl later, so you can stop trying to seduce my Emily."

Chen Yiran gave a fake sigh. He and Hannah didn't have any core conflict. It was just that his company was on the right track and he had been a little busy these past two months, so he hadn't been able to take her out to play during the summer vacation.

However, Hannah is someone who needs constant emotional support and couldn't accept that, so the two naturally broke up.

Chen Yiran urgently needs a cute and cuddly girl to push.

"Okay, if you know anyone as pretty as Emily, introduce them to me."

Catherine made a move to hit him, but Chen Yiran dodged and ran upstairs.

Not all the staff have arrived yet. Some of the people recruited over the past month are still working remotely and will arrive within a few days.

Chen Yiran walked through the second-floor lobby and into Gao Dewei's office.

When Gao Dewei saw him come in, he said irritably, "Our genius is here. How long are you going to stay in my office this time?"

Why are you being so sarcastic?

Gao Dewei was furious: "What do you think! We've moved to such a big place, and you still haven't gotten yourself an office? How can you be so lazy? The next few months are a critical time for our company!"

My 5% stake—whether it becomes a 747 or a small Cessna—it all depends on this gamble. Could you please do your part and help me achieve financial freedom?

Chen Yiran quickly changed the subject: "You're one to talk! You haven't even made any money yet and you're already getting cocky, thinking about playing with airplanes. Tell me, how is this set up in the company?"

Gao Dewei pointed to an area on the second floor: "That's where Lin Zhiwei, Amit, and I are. The Placement team and the GPU team each have one chip, so they don't interfere with each other. And the OPC product line is under Zhou Feng's control, over there."

"We should have enough manpower in the short term, right?"

"That's enough. We can pretty much keep the development pace of the three product lines stable. Actually, I feel that remote work is quite efficient, and KIKI is being developed very quickly. We can definitely release a commercial version next month."

"Okay, after Kiki receives her payment, around the end of the year, we'll hire a few dozen more people, and that should be enough for the entire technical staff."

Gao Dewei nodded and said, "Pretty much. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Big Three now have five or six thousand employees. In reality, they only have less than a thousand core technical personnel. Moreover, 20% of them are dedicated to maintaining legacy code."

We have 150 people, and if our boss can put in some effort and act like a genius, it'll definitely be enough. My suggestion is to get all the equipment set up first, based on the final configuration; running more tests is always beneficial.

"Alright, go talk to Catherine. Is everything alright now? If not, I'm leaving."

"There is indeed something. You mentioned before that you would give out bonuses at the end of the year, but now there are so many people. If we only give them to the long-term employees, the new employees might feel a bit awkward. I suggest you think about implementing a reward system, and in these last three months, let's work together to give everyone a final push."

"Okay, everyone can come to work the day after tomorrow, right? I'll give a pep talk the day after tomorrow. After that, we still need to go all out."

Two days later, Chen Yiran did give a pep talk, but something unexpected happened immediately.

In his past life, Chen Yiran had heard of a Wall Street tycoon who approached him not to discuss investment, but to make a huge deal.