Chapter 453 Intel’s Certification, Opponents’ Blockage
“What is the production capacity of their Phase II factory?”

As an advanced steel plant that was supported and built by China in the past few years, Baosteel naturally also produces special steels.

But in the beginning, the main focus was on producing ordinary steel with various advanced properties.

If Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant were to expand its production now, Baosteel might completely fall behind in the field of special steel.

This is something that is extremely difficult to accept.

“The first phase only had 20 tons, but in the second phase they increased it directly to 50 tons.”

“This scale is basically the largest in the country.”

“Even if we look at it from a global perspective, a special steel mill of this size is considered to be relatively large.”

After Li Dagang said this, Cheng Jianqiang fell silent.

50 tons?

It is directly 2.5 times the scale of the first phase.

This speed of development is really scary.

It turns out that having money means you can do whatever you want.

I dare not compare with the speed of Shenzhen City, I cannot compare with it!

“The development of our factory will naturally be arranged by our superiors. We just need to follow their instructions and do a good job of implementation.”

“Let’s not think too much about other things.”

“Most of the output from Nanshan Steel Plant is consumed within the group.”

“The impact on us is relatively limited.”

If you can’t compare, then just pretend you don’t see it.

What else to do?
Are you making things difficult for yourself?
Anyway, the overall scale of Baosteel is not comparable to that of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant.

When reporting, just emphasize Baosteel’s overall production capacity.

“oh, I understand now.”

Li Dagang was silent for a while and didn’t say anything more.

Being nosy at this time is just asking for trouble.

He didn’t have a better solution.

……

The expansion of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant has attracted little discussion except for the steel mills in the industry and the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry.

Jiang Hui also didn’t have time to pay too much attention to this matter.

Because at this time, the Intel team came to do certification for Lingnan Semiconductor.

OEM business is a relatively new business.

Whether it is TSMC or Lingnan Semiconductor, they are both pioneers in the industry.

Semiconductor giants such as Intel and AMD have not previously engaged in this type of business.

How to further expand cooperation in this area naturally requires careful consideration.

At this time, Lingnan Semiconductor took the initiative to contact various chip manufacturers and invited them to do some factory audits.

It is necessary to see whether Lingnan Semiconductor’s management and equipment requirements in all aspects meet Intel’s needs.

Just like when the BMW Group wants to introduce a new supplier, the relevant department will arrange personnel to inspect the factory.

The situation in all walks of life is actually similar.

It is impossible for the two parties to start cooperation without any understanding between them.

Especially in such a special field as the chip industry, it is impossible to hand over the chip foundry business to you without understanding the other party’s strength.

At this time, it is not only a matter of money, but also a matter of time.

The semiconductor industry has developed very rapidly in the past decade, and no one wants to fall behind.

“Boss Jiang, this time Intel has arranged for Chief Technology Officer Paul Otellini to lead the team personally.”

“We will stay in Shenzhen for a week to conduct a comprehensive audit of our factory.”

“Once the audit is passed, it is considered to have passed Intel’s certification.”

“In the future, we will enter the stage of formal OEM cooperation.”

Zhang Shaohua has been very busy during this period.

The installation of various equipment at Lingnan Semiconductor has basically been completed.

The next step is to conduct some trial production.

In order to compress the time as much as possible, trial production work and factory inspections by customers such as Intel are also carried out together.

There is definitely some risk in doing this.

But time waits for no one.

TSMC has already received some orders from chip companies such as Intel.

If Lingnan Semiconductor forms a fixed cooperation model with chip companies, the price it will have to pay will be relatively high if it wants to break it.

This is a situation that Zhang Shaohua does not want to see.

So after reporting to Jiang Hui, he made some arrangements in advance.

“Intel has faced challenges from companies like AMD in recent years, and the cost pressure should be relatively large.”

“Especially in terms of chip production based on some mature processes, Intel’s costs are much higher than AMD’s.”

“The other party arranged personnel to inspect the factory so seriously this time, and it is obvious that they are very interested in future cooperation.”

“We must seize the opportunity and strive to pass the certification in one go.”

The development route that Jiang Hui set for Lingnan Semiconductor is to carry out its own research and development and production simultaneously with foundry.

This is the path that Samsung Electronics took in later generations.

Taking this path at this time will definitely bring some pressure and challenges.

But time waits for no one, so Lingnan Semiconductor had no choice but to go ahead with it.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

“While our relationship with the United States is still relatively good, we should finalize the cooperation between the two sides as soon as possible.”

“Form a formal contract to avoid any changes in the future.”

With the changes in the international environment, many things have actually begun to undergo some subtle changes.

Zhang Shaohua has traveled abroad on business quite a lot this year and is quite sensitive to matters in this regard.

That’s why I say such things.

Of course, Jiang Hui has instilled similar words into many senior executives of the group.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for everyone to keep thinking in this direction.

“Once Intel and others have tasted the sweetness of chip foundry, more companies will surely follow this path in the future.”

“Especially in Silicon Valley, many new semiconductor companies have been established in recent years.”

“Many of these companies are not particularly large.”

“For them, the financial pressure and risks of investing in wafer fabs and chip processing plants directly are too great.”

“They are only responsible for chip design and hand over the production work to professional foundries. This will inevitably become one of the future development directions.”

“As long as we seize the opportunity, we don’t need to worry about orders.”

Jiang Hui is absolutely optimistic about the chip foundry business.

This is a path that has been proven to be completely feasible in later generations.

I have to say that it is remarkable that TSMC was the first to come up with this solution.

The founding team has a very deep understanding of the situation in the international chip industry.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to come up with such a unique plan.

“After our internal analysis, we also think so.”

“The next step will be to focus on the OEM business.”

After Zhang Shaohua said this, Jiang Hui nodded and added, “However, we can’t just rely on the OEM business.”

“Although OEM is the trend of the future, independent design and production are equally important.”

“Especially in the field of high-end chips, if we don’t have our own core technology, we will still be controlled by others in the international market in the future.”

This is the key reason why Jiang Hui has to walk on two legs.

BMW Group will also use high-end chips in the future, which cannot be achieved by outsourcing.

You need to design it yourself.

“We have invested a lot of resources in the R&D team, especially in lithography machines and wafer manufacturing processes.”

“Nanshan Equipment has combined many domestic resources to work with us to tackle technical problems.”

“Although our technology currently lags behind giants such as Intel, as long as we continue to invest, we are expected to narrow the gap in the next few years.”

When Jiang Hui heard Zhang Shaohua mention things about lithography machines and other equipment, he immediately became interested.

“Are there any new breakthroughs in our lithography machines?”

“Does ASML have any information on the next generation of lithography products?”

The lithography machine is the core equipment for chip manufacturing and must be in our own hands.”

“Although we still need to rely on imports in the short term, in the long run, independent research and development is the only way out.”

Jiang Hui attaches as much importance as ever to the localization of equipment.

If this cannot be accomplished, Lingnan Semiconductor will never become a world-class semiconductor company.

Even if others don’t understand, how could he not understand?
……

As the only competitor in the global chip foundry market, TSMC is very concerned about every move of Lingnan Semiconductor.

Zhang Zhong also has extensive connections in the American chip industry.

When Intel’s factory inspection team just landed in China, Zhang Zhong had already received the news.

“Fan Chen, Intel’s technical director Paul Otellini has led a team to Lingnan Semiconductor for an inspection.”

“If the one-week inspection is passed, Lingnan Semiconductor will have passed Intel’s preliminary certification.”

“This is definitely not good news for us.”

Zhang Zhong has very mixed feelings about Lingnan Semiconductor’s move to follow the trend and enter the semiconductor foundry industry.

On the one hand, this is a recognition of the chip foundry business that it pioneered.

On the other hand, this creates a direct competitive relationship with TSMC.

“Is it possible for us to find a way to influence Intel’s attitude?”

“Let them directly fail the certification of Lingnan Semiconductor?”

Zeng Fanchen naturally knew very well what Intel’s move meant.

TSMC just passed Intel’s certification a few months ago and has now officially started cooperation.

As a result, Intel turned around and prepared to introduce Lingnan Semiconductor into its foundry business supply system.

This approach is obviously aimed at hitting TSMC and further reducing Intel’s cost pressure.

“Although I have a good relationship with the president of Intel, it is not to the extent that I can influence his decision-making.”

“In terms of chip foundry, we are now a supplier to Intel. It is unlikely that we can stop them from cooperating with other foundries.”

Zhang Zhong was self-aware. He knew that Zeng Fanchen’s approach was completely detrimental to Intel’s interests and that he could not handle it.

If TSMC were at its peak, it might have had the ability to counter Intel.

That’s definitely not possible now.

It’s not even appropriate to try.

Because it will easily cause a backlash from Intel.

The foundry business has just begun. If it causes dissatisfaction from Intel, it will be an unacceptable loss for TSMC.

“Then maybe we can try to find a solution from other places and see if we can ruin Lingnan Semiconductor?”

After hearing what Zhang Zhong said, Zeng Fanchen felt a little disappointed, but he had not given up yet.

Kicking out competitors directly is obviously the most comfortable way to deal with it.

“It’s hard!”

“Lingnan Semiconductor must have attached great importance to this factory inspection.”

“Intel will send its technical director to lead the inspection team, which shows that it attaches great importance to this work.”

“It will be a great thing for Intel when our two factories compete within the system.”

“So as long as Lingnan Semiconductor’s performance this time is not particularly bad, it is likely to pass Intel’s certification.”

“At that time, Intel will outsource some of its outdated products to Lingnan Semiconductor, and its own factories will focus on high-end products.”

“This can fully reduce their own cost pressure and control risks.”

Zhang Zhongmou put himself in the role of Intel’s president and quickly figured out the meaning behind this matter.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that TSMC actually had very little room to maneuver this time.

“If there is no way to prevent Lingnan Semiconductor from becoming Intel’s foundry, then we can only work hard to improve our own strength.”

Zeng Fanchen sighed and felt a little regretful.

This is obviously not a good result.

But he also knew that he couldn’t change it.

“Well, our current chip manufacturing process is similar to Lingnan Semiconductor.”

“But they started production later than us, and as long as we continue to import more advanced equipment, they will always lag behind us by half a beat.”

“When that happens, everyone will have the impression that Lingnan Semiconductor’s technology is not as good as ours, and future work will be easier.”

Faced with this situation, Zhang Zhongmou had obviously made some arrangements.

He was determined to establish TSMC in the hope of becoming the world’s largest chip foundry.

The emergence of any enterprise cannot stop their determination.

Sure enough, in Shenzhen, under the leadership of Intel’s technical director, Otellini, all the review work went smoothly.

In particular, Lingnan Semiconductor’s response efficiency and positive attitude left a deep impression on Otellini and others.

Not every factory has that kind of vigorous and enterprising spirit.

“Jiang, Zhang, the development speed of your Lingnan Semiconductor is much faster than I thought.”

“I also admire the attitude of the technicians in learning advanced technology.”

“I heard that some technicians started working at around 7 in the morning and didn’t rest until around 11 at night.”

“In order to save time, we even lived directly inside the factory.”

In recent years, Otellini has carefully visited and inspected Lingnan Semiconductor’s wafer fab and chip factory.

Each process inside has been carefully confirmed.

Although these are relatively mature processes, Otellini did not relax.

American workers and managers of this era were still more hardworking than those in later generations.

Not everyone leaves work at the end of the day as everyone imagines, regardless of whether you have finished your work or not.

Through this inspection, Lingnan Semiconductor naturally learned a lot.

After all, if everyone wants to communicate the details of the process settings, in-depth communication is inevitable.

Intel’s technicians are obviously very professional in this area.

Because these processes of Lingnan Semiconductor are outdated compared to Intel’s own factories.

So the people at Intel were not particularly on guard.

This is obviously related to the honeymoon period between America and China in the past few years.

The overall atmosphere is very good.

“Otellini, we at Lingnan Semiconductor are determined to become the world’s largest chip foundry and provide the most professional services to our customers.”

“In the past few years, China’s semiconductor industry has had a generational gap with the rest of the world, but I believe this gap will continue to narrow.”

“When it comes to cooperation in the field of mature processes, Lingnan Semiconductor is definitely the most suitable choice.”

Jiang Hui has also personally accompanied Ou Dening in various inspections these days.

This attitude is absolutely beyond reproach.

You know, Jiang Hui’s current net worth is much higher than Ou Dening’s.

In a capitalist society, money is everything.

The fact that Jiang Hui, such a wealthy man, personally accompanied Ou Dening on the inspection was something that made the other party very satisfied.

“Although there are still areas for improvement in some aspects of Lingnan Semiconductor’s management, overall it has met our basic cooperation requirements.”

“We will list the specific improvement points later and arrange for several engineers to stay and assist you in making the improvements.”

“Later, our purchasing department will contact you about the specific business of chip foundry.”

“I believe there will be opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in the future.”

Ou Dening did not beat around the bush and directly stated the situation.

According to him, Lingnan Semiconductor has passed Intel’s certification this time.

This is definitely a good thing.

……

“Director, do we have passed the certification?”

After Ou Dening and his group left Lingnan Semiconductor, Zhang Shaohua immediately felt much more relaxed.

In the past month, he has been under tremendous pressure.

This certification marks the beginning of the first cooperation with the chip giant.

If Intel’s certification is not passed, subsequent certification by other chip giants such as AMD, IBM or Texas Instruments will also be full of variables.

It is hard to say whether these giants will continue to arrange people to come here.

On the other hand, after passing this certification, Intel is implicitly endorsing Lingnan Semiconductor.

Just like when purchasing and R&D personnel from later car manufacturers went to inspect factories, they liked to ask suppliers whether they had a record of supplying Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, and GM.

If so, then everything will be easier.

Because it means that there are already colleagues helping you pass the test.

It is likely that you will only need to go through the process this time and focus on confirming some of the projects that you are more concerned about.

Nothing big will happen.

On the contrary, you have to take it easy.

It’s hard to tell where this factory has some major shortcomings.

If it is not discovered during the factory inspection, but discovered later, it will be a big trouble.

“Passed!”

“Otellini’s attitude is already very clear!”

“The next step is to see what type of chips the other party will quote us and whether we can impress them with the price.”

Jiang Hui also breathed a sigh of relief.

With a good start, the rest of the work will be easier.

Otherwise, relying solely on BMW Group’s own orders would not be enough to support the rapid development and growth of Lingnan Semiconductor.

Unless the BMW Group immediately enters the consumer electronics industry and launches various products that require a large amount of chips.

However, this development pace is somewhat inconsistent with Jiang Hui’s layout.

He still hopes to develop at the pace he set before.

“As for the price, I am still quite confident.”

“Except for the higher cost of equipment, we have advantages in other aspects.”

“Especially in terms of labor, our labor costs are much cheaper than those of TSMC or Intel itself.”

Zhang Shaohua said with confidence.

However, Jiang Hui did not dwell on this issue for the time being. After all, he had not yet received any formal inquiry.

“You need to make good use of the few engineers Intel has left behind.”

“If we don’t squeeze out the best in them, we would be irresponsible to ourselves.”

The people who can be brought out by Otellini to participate in the factory inspection must have very sophisticated skills.

Perhaps his innovation ability is not particularly outstanding, so his status within Intel is not particularly high.

But the basic skills are definitely very solid.

This kind of engineer is actually the most suitable to guide Lingnan Semiconductor.

If the other party is willing to give some good guidance, Lingnan Semiconductor’s production efficiency and yield rate will probably be improved to a higher level.

So even if it requires paying some price, Jiang Hui is willing to do it.

You can’t find such people anywhere else.

“I will make arrangements later and formulate a special response plan based on what I have learned about them during this period.”

“With Odening’s instructions, we have someone dedicated to meeting their needs.”

“I just don’t believe that we can’t squeeze out all their abilities.”

Zhang Shaohua gritted his teeth and prepared to put in a lot of effort to do this.

Jiang Hui can see the value of these people clearly, so he is naturally not stupid.

In fact, during the review process during this period, Zhang Shaohua had already felt the gap between Lingnan Semiconductor’s technical personnel and those of the other party.

Of course, these gaps are not unbridgeable.

With the positive learning attitude of the company’s current employees, Lingnan Semiconductor will be able to gradually catch up with the international advanced level in a few years.

If it continues to work hard in the future, it is not impossible to become an international chip giant.

“After Otellini returns, Intel will surely continue to release news to the public.”

“By then, more and more semiconductor companies will know that we have passed the certification.”

“We also need to pay attention to the movements and reactions of TSMC and Samsung Electronics.”

Jiang Hui has never relaxed his vigilance against TSMC and Samsung Electronics.

These two competitors will be among Lingnan Semiconductor’s main rivals in the next 20 to 30 years.

There is no harm in getting to know the other person in advance.

(End of this chapter)