I, Yan Jiefang, will live to 2025 in this courtyard house.

As 03 began, the various companies and factories under Yan Jiefang's name continued to develop rapidly.

His three wafer fabs still maintain their leading position in the country, but Fab 774, SMIC, and NEC are also closely following behind, showing a gradual trend of catching up.

These three companies are either state-owned enterprises or Sino-foreign joint ventures, and all are very strong.

In addition, given their state-owned backgrounds, it would be extremely difficult for Yan Jiefang, a private enterprise, to compete with them.

He only managed to secure a place by taking advantage of his first-mover advantage.

If he cannot maintain his technological advantage, his three wafer fabs will definitely be gradually abandoned by the market.

After all, his conversation with Engineer Liu last year was still fresh in his mind, and through his observations over the past six months, he had indeed seen significant changes at the Jiangcheng lithography machine factory.

Based on the behavior of these new people, and the company's previous cooperation with that side, the possibility of bankruptcy is quite high.

The wafer fab is the core of most of his businesses, so naturally, he cannot allow any changes to occur.

Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, the construction of lithography machine assembly plants and other supporting plants is definitely imperative.

Assembling a lithography machine is no small task; it is a complex system that integrates the world's top technologies.

It is many times more difficult than ordinary manufacturing; without sufficient foundation, this task simply cannot be accomplished.

Otherwise, why was there only one ASML in the world in the previous life?

With more than six months to go before the factory is completed, there's no one else to rely on for this. The top talents in this field in China have already been specially recruited, and it's almost impossible for them to come to his company.

Even if they are recruited, they can only be one or two levels below average, and the number is not enough to rely on them to research the latest lithography machine.

Unless the sun rises in the west.

Yan Jiefang felt he should prepare in advance, so he opened his panel and began to check all the relevant skills.

Precision equipment debugging: 100/100.

Precision equipment assembly: 100/100

Lithography machine related light source system: 75/100

Photolithography machine related optical systems: 72/100

Overall control and software system: 100/100

Electrochemistry: 100/100

...

This row contains more than a dozen skills related to chip manufacturing.

After years of practice, most of their skills have long since reached the maximum level.

The only area where we are relatively weak is in the manufacturing of advanced lithography equipment.

After all, he always just takes finished products; he only learned how to manufacture equipment by reading relevant materials in his spare time.

Since we will be manufacturing our own lithography machines, we need to make up for these shortcomings.

In the entire chip manufacturing process, the lithography machine is only one part.

Thin film deposition equipment, coating and developing machines, etching equipment, ion implantation equipment, chemical mechanical polishing equipment, cleaning equipment, and post-packaging and testing equipment are all indispensable key equipment.

Other essential consumables include photoresist, electronic specialty gases, wet electronic chemicals, and sputtering targets.

Most of these, such as thin film deposition equipment, etching equipment, chemical mechanical polishing equipment, and photoresist, were already built by their company or invested in and cooperated with other companies, so the problems were not difficult to solve.

But we must also find ways to resolve the remaining issues in advance; we cannot leave any mistakes or omissions unresolved.

Otherwise, it would be handing someone else leverage over you.

To ensure everything went smoothly, Yan Jiefang locked himself in his study to meticulously plan the follow-up actions.

At the same time, Yan Xueqian and others were also mobilized by him to discuss site selection and factory construction with government departments in various places.

...

"Jiefang, our company has hundreds of thousands of employees. If there's anything, you can ask them to help you share the burden. Why do you have to carry it all by yourself?"

"How old are you? Why are you still working so hard?"

Liu Ruyan brought in a bowl of white fungus soup, placed it on the desk, looked at the thick stacks of documents, and offered some words of advice.

Yan Jiefang looked up at her youthful face and explained with a hint of helplessness:

"I also want to be a hands-off manager, but for the sake of future generations, this is something only I can do. In our family, only I can do it right now."

Looking at his somewhat aged face, Liu Ruyan felt a pang of sadness.

"Xueqian and the other two are also graduates of Tsinghua University, but they are far inferior to you when you were young."

Liu Ruyan doted on her three sons, always praising them and almost never criticizing them.

It seems she's really getting desperate this time.

Yan Jiefang pulled her to sit down beside him:

"Alright, the children are all very outstanding. It's no problem to call them the cream of the crop. They just lack experience, so don't be too harsh on them."

Liu Ruyan thought about it and agreed.

All three sons are running their own businesses, and these companies or factories are quite large and difficult to manage; they are not something that ordinary people can do.

Besides his own graphics card company, the boss also manages a large number of businesses in the Special Economic Zone, Hong Kong, and Dongguan.

The second company owns the largest sports brand company in the country, an e-commerce company, and is also building a nationwide logistics network.

The third son also manages both a car factory and a battery factory, and he faces considerable pressure as well.

Liu Ruyan sighed softly: Alas, the whole family is destined for a life of hardship.

But when she thought of her dozens of grandchildren, she felt helpless.

She wanted many children and many blessings, but this seems like too many.

We need to prepare for the future careers of so many children; it won't work without sufficient capital.

...

In mid-January, Yan Jiefang was still working in his study when a phone call came in.

I picked up my phone and saw it was a call from the Public Relations Director of the Public Relations Department on the Special Administrative Region side:

"Mr. Yan, CCTV just called. They want to invite you to participate in a program called 'Face to Face.' I wonder if you..."

Yan Jiefang calmly said a few words:

"No time."

The PR director immediately replied:

"I understand, I'll get back to them shortly."

Yan Jiefang didn't care about such a trivial matter at all. The public relations team probably thought that CCTV was an authoritative department that needed to be taken seriously, which is why they called to ask for opinions.

It's not entirely their fault. After all, these days, not many authorities and experts have collapsed yet, so it's normal for people to have some biases.

After ending the call, Yan Jiefang continued working, planning to finish all the things he needed to do before the end of the year.