Chapter 457: The rise of chip giants, the industry waits and sees

With the arrival of a cold wave from the north, the temperature in Shenzhen dropped to single digits.

This is basically the lowest temperature of the year.

However, Zhang Shaohua was in a very hot mood at this moment.

“Mr. Jiang, Intel has officially notified us that they have received an order to manufacture 100 million 80386 chips.”

“The price is the same as the $80 per piece we quoted before.”

An order worth 8000 million US dollars is definitely a large order in this era.

Apart from the special case of Land Rover, it is difficult to find a few export-earning manufacturers in other parts of China that are more powerful than Lingnan Semiconductor.

No wonder Zhang Shaohua was so excited.

This is the first chip foundry order Lingnan Semiconductor has received since its establishment.

Whether or not to make money is another matter. Being able to get the production line moving is already of great significance.

During this period, Lingnan Semiconductor has been recruiting people through various methods.

It is not easy to recruit people, and it naturally takes some effort to keep them.

Especially for some technical personnel, what they value is not only the salary, but also the company’s prospects.

After all, in this era, technical talents who can work on chips are basically highly educated talents.

Even if the profits are transferred overseas, many people have ways to do it.

“It seems that the strategy we formulated earlier was successful.”

“With the support of this order from Intel, our subsequent chip foundry business will be easier to develop.”

“But $80 is a loss-making price. We must control the cost within 80 yuan before large-scale delivery.”

“The chip yield and production efficiency must be greatly improved.”

“In order to fully encourage the enthusiasm of technical personnel, the company will give generous rewards to those who make important improvement proposals.”

“There is no upper limit to the amount of these rewards.”

“If the effect is good, even a direct reward of 100 million yuan is possible.”

If it can be solved with money, it is not a big deal.

Although simply giving out bonus money is not enough to improve product yield and production efficiency.

But this can stimulate everyone’s enthusiasm and achieve some effect, which is actually very good.

Jiang Hui has never been a person who is reluctant to spend money, as long as the money is worthwhile.

“I understand. I will call the heads of various departments together for a meeting later.”

“Officially announce that the company has received an order from Intel.”

“At the same time, preparations for the production of the 80286 chip officially began.”

Zhang Shaohua knew that the next period of time would depend on his performance.

Jiang Hui has so many things to do in his daily life that it is impossible for him to stay in the factory every day to accompany the technicians to improve equipment and processes.

He will only intervene further unless there are some big problems.

……

The fact that Intel provided Lingnan with semiconductor chip foundry business could naturally not be hidden from those who were interested.

TSMC received the news immediately.

He even had the ability to know the approximate quotation level of Lingnan Semiconductor.

“Mr. Zhang, at the price of $80 per piece, I think Lingnan Semiconductor is totally losing money.”

“I heard that many factories in mainland China sell their products at very low prices in order to earn foreign exchange through exports.”

“Eventually, various subsidies were provided to keep the company running normally.”

“I feel that Lingnan Semiconductor’s approach is similar.”

Although I had been mentally prepared that this time the order might be snatched away by Lingnan Semiconductor.

But when the thing really happened, Zeng Fanchen still found it hard to accept.

It is obvious that TSMC is the world’s first chip foundry and the first foundry recognized by Intel.

How come Intel gave the chip foundry order to Lingnan Semiconductor so quickly?

As a result, TSMC will certainly face greater pressure in quoting prices when facing future chip foundry orders.

“Lingnan Semiconductor can get orders through this method, but it is not suitable for us to follow up in this way.”

“Otherwise, it will turn into vicious competition, which is a situation I don’t want to see.”

“The company will continue to improve its technology and strive to produce chips with more advanced technology.”

“By then, the chips that customers want to produce may not be produced by Lingnan Semiconductor at all.”

“Then we don’t have to fight a price war with others.”

I have to say that Zhang Zhong is still very powerful.

From the perspective of business operations, there is no problem with this direction.

But this time they encountered the freak Lingnan Semiconductor, and it is estimated that many plans will not be able to be implemented so easily in the end.

“Well, that’s the only way.”

“In the past few years, the mainland has imported a lot of second-hand chip production equipment from the United States, and the technology is generally backward.”

“That is to say, Lingnan Semiconductor’s current production line can compete with us for a while, but they won’t be able to keep up in the future.”

“As for Lingnan Semiconductor, I am also preparing to further communicate with ASML and other chip equipment manufacturers.”

“Then we’ll see if we can further restrict Lingnan Semiconductor from getting new opportunities in terms of equipment.”

Although Zeng Fanchen has accepted the loss of this order, he certainly won’t do nothing.

In the business world, absolutely anything can be done to stifle competitors.

“Well, there is no problem with your direction.”

“But our methods cannot be too single-minded. We must use all means.”

“On the one hand, we can improve our own competitiveness, and on the other hand, we can suppress the competitiveness of our opponents.”

“Then we also need to pay attention to whether other chip foundries emerge.”

“Don’t let us spend a lot of time with Lingnan Semiconductor and end up being taken advantage of by other directors.”

Zhang Zhong gave a reminder from the side.

He also reflected on his actions during this period and felt that he was being led by the nose.

As a technical expert in the chip industry, this is obviously not what he wants to see.

So later he hoped that TSMC could develop in the direction it wanted and not be easily interfered with by other manufacturers.

……

“Director, Lingnan Semiconductor’s chip foundry business has recently made a major breakthrough.”

“The American chip giant Intel gave them a chip order for foundry.”

Many of Zhao Dongfang’s colleagues are now working at Lingnan Semiconductor.

It is not that difficult to find out some information.

So after Lingnan Semiconductor officially announced internally that it had won Intel’s foundry order, Zhao Dongfang quickly received the news.

“A chip giant like Intel actually values ​​Lingnan Semiconductor?”

Wang Honggui found this matter hard to accept.

Although we knew before that Lingnan Semiconductor had passed Intel’s certification, there might be specific cooperation in the future.

But when things became a reality, he still felt very uncomfortable.

I guess many domestic chip companies have this sour grapes mentality.

“I guess Lingnan Semiconductor’s offer is extremely cheap, otherwise Intel wouldn’t consider it.”

After thinking about it, Zhao Dongfang could only come up with some reasons related to chip prices.

After all, most of China’s export-earning companies in recent years have relied on price advantages to win.

“We also do this by making the price very low and selling at a loss.”

After Wang Honggui said this, Zhao Dongfang did not respond.

Things obviously can’t be that simple.

If this is really the case, many domestic chip companies are willing to accept orders at a loss.

After all, in the past ten years, China has introduced dozens of second-hand chip production lines from the United States and other places.

We bought back almost all the production lines that had been eliminated.

However, except for the early 1980s when these manufacturers relied on these production lines to earn foreign exchange through exports, the business in this area has become less and less.

“Director, didn’t we consider giving some of our remaining production capacity to others for OEM work?”

“I think we can take the initiative to contact relevant semiconductor companies in the United States and Japan to see if they can arrange personnel to come to our side for exchanges.”

“If a special factory audit is required, we can also provide that.”

Since Lingnan Semiconductor’s performance is so outstanding, Zhao Dongfang must want to learn from it.

Anyway, there is no extra cost for learning.

“I definitely support taking the initiative in this matter.”

“But how should we take the initiative?”

“We don’t know which semiconductor companies’ doors are facing which direction.”

“Whether it’s Intel or Texas Instruments, they won’t even bother with us, right?”

Wang Honggui complained in distress.

This is also a common situation in many domestic factories.

Not only do they not know how to find overseas customers, sometimes they don’t even have any idea how to expand domestic customers.

Especially in some military-to-civilian enterprises, everyone originally believed that they had to rely entirely on their superiors to arrange production and sales.

Then due to confidentiality reasons, you cannot ask more questions about the relevant information.

If you ask too many questions, they might investigate you.

Once this habit is formed, everyone will be completely at a loss when it comes to expanding the market after the military-to-civilian transition.

It is very difficult for everyone to change their consciousness.

“Why don’t we go talk to Lingnan Semiconductor and see if they are willing to share some information with us?”

After Zhao Dongfang said this, Wang Honggui’s face suddenly turned ugly.

Zhang Shaohua, the current head of Lingnan Semiconductor, had conflicts with Wang Honggui in the past.

Now that I have left the system, I am doing very well.

If I were to go and communicate with others at this time, I wouldn’t know how they would ridicule me.

Even if Zhang Shaohua said nothing, he still felt very uncomfortable.

“You can go and communicate with the sales department first to see how they respond.”

Finally, Wang Honggui handed the task to Zhao Dongfang. Since you proposed the matter, you should implement it.

Similar arrangements exist in many companies.

If this happens more and more often, fewer people will be willing to take the initiative to stand up.

Zhao Dongfang felt helpless after hearing this.

But I can only bite the bullet and try.

……

“President, Intel has officially started cooperation with Lingnan Semiconductor.”

As the head of Samsung Electronics’ marketing department, Jin Tai was the first to learn about the moves of Intel and Lingnan Semiconductor.

The topic of chip foundry has been discussed several times within Samsung Electronics before.

Although Samsung Electronics has no plans to enter this field in the short term, the movements of Intel, the industry leader, are certainly worth paying attention to.

“Do you know what type of chips Intel is using for foundry?”

Li Jianxi was not surprised by the news reported by Jin Tai.

After all, some of the actions between the two sides had been reported before.

“We have heard that Intel will outsource all 80286 chips.”

“TSMC received an order for similar products a few months ago, and Lingnan Semiconductor should be no exception this time.”

“Intel’s own factories are now mainly producing 80386 and more advanced next-generation products.”

Jintai’s investigation work was quite thorough.

Some of the staff within Samsung Electronics were previously poached from Intel.

Even within Intel, there are some people who have connections with Samsung Electronics, but their level is not very high.

“It seems that Intel is really going to outsource the production of all mid- and low-end chips to foundries as reported by the outside world.”

“We only maintain the production capacity of high-end chips internally.”

“But this is based on the special situation in the United States. Their labor costs are very high, but their work efficiency is not that high.”

“So if the cost is spread over each chip, it will be relatively high.”

Intel is the industry leader, and their situation is definitely something that all chip manufacturers need to study and analyze carefully.

Just like Tesla in later generations, it is a benchmark for electric vehicles.

No matter which car company wants to launch an electric car, it will compare it with Tesla’s related models to see where the gap lies between itself and others.

“Yes, this should be an important reason why Intel is interested in chip foundry.”

“Zhang Zhong from TSMC also saw this potential, so he set up a chip company that only does foundry work.”

“However, the situation of Lingnan Semiconductor is different from that of TSMC.”

“In addition to chip foundry business, they also have their own chip design and production business.”

“I feel that Lingnan Semiconductor may pose a greater threat to us than TSMC in the future.”

“Especially if we want to enter the Chinese market in the future, Lingnan Semiconductor is likely to be a huge obstacle.”

For Samsung Electronics today, the main markets are domestic, America, Europe and the United States.

The presence of the Chinese market is still very weak.

After all, China and Goryeo had not yet established direct diplomatic relations at this time.

“Pay more attention to the subsequent development and changes of Lingnan Semiconductor, and then make some targeted strategic adjustments.”

Li Jianxi was not completely arrogant and thought that Lingnan Semiconductor posed no threat to him.

But he felt that it was unnecessary for him to come up with some response plans immediately.

……

“Leader, there is good news from Lingnan Semiconductor. Their foundry business has achieved a breakthrough.”

“Intel has officially placed an order for 100 million computer CPUs with Lingnan Semiconductor, requiring them to be delivered in batches within 1989.”

Yao Yiming naturally had to report such important news to Liu Tianwu as soon as possible.

This event is not only of great significance to Shenzhen, but also a landmark event for the development of China’s semiconductor industry.

Perhaps decades later, everyone will still remember that Lingnan Semiconductor won its first chip foundry contract this year.

This provides a significant boost to the development of China’s semiconductor industry.

“The result came out so soon?”

“It’s really great.”

“I’ve always been worried that their pace of development is too fast, and orders will not be able to keep up with production capacity, resulting in a lot of waste.”

Liu Tianwu knew that the second phase of Lingnan Semiconductor’s factory was under construction in full swing.

The total investment in the second phase’s factory buildings, equipment, etc. exceeds 1 million US dollars, which is much higher than the first phase.

At the same time, Nanshan Equipment is also working hard to tackle key chip production equipment such as lithography machines.

The R&D investment in this area is also a huge expense.

As for the various costs incurred by recruiting professional and technical personnel from all over the country, they can be ignored.

After all, even if a person is paid a sky-high salary of 10,000 yuan a year, it would only be 10 million yuan a year.

Compared with various equipment investments, this is nothing.

“Mr. Jiang is still as cautious as ever in his work.”

“Even though everyone thought his plan was very radical at first, in the end he was able to prove to everyone with facts that his choice was right.”

Yao Yiming now admires Jiang Hui more and more.

He is obviously one or two years younger than me, but look at his achievements?

Of course, he also knew that there were only a few people like Jiang Hui in the whole country.

There is no need to compare yourself with him.

Among his peers, he is already very outstanding.

The next step was that he was transferred from Liu Tianwu’s secretary position to at least be the head of a county.

This starting point has already surpassed 99.99% of people.

“The city must attach great importance to the resettlement of migrant population.”

“Especially in terms of high-end talents, we must do our best to provide relevant services.”

“Not only Lingnan Semiconductor has this demand, but other companies will also have this demand.”

“Otherwise, high-end technical talents will feel at ease working in Shenzhen, and it will be difficult for us to implement our ideas of developing high technology in the future.”

With the rise of BMW Group, Liu Tianwu has been constantly adjusting Shenzhen’s industrial positioning.

At the beginning, the industries in Shenzhen were mainly engaged in processing of imported materials, and most of them were small factories invested by the port city.

The upper limit of this kind of development is definitely low.

BMW Group allowed Liu Tianwu to see a different side.

In particular, the emergence of Lingnan Semiconductor stimulated Liu Tianwu even more.

Shenzhen’s future industrial planning will focus on the development of various fields with relatively high technological content, such as the automobile industry, equipment industry, semiconductor industry, and new materials industry.

To achieve this goal, it naturally requires some effort.

“Don’t worry, leader. I will communicate with the relevant departments and ask them to submit some policy proposals as soon as possible.”

“Whether it’s household registration management or medical care, home purchase, education, etc., we will do our best to provide services.”

“Even for the exchanges and movement of people between the port and the city, we will make some special countermeasures.”

Yao Yiming is now full of energy.

He had a feeling that the time for him to be exiled was not far away.

In the future, I will be able to apply what I have learned in Shenzhen to other places and achieve different results.

……

“Mr. Jiang, the lithography machine we ordered from ASML has been officially shipped.”

Ever since Nanshan Equipment and Lingnan Semiconductor jointly launched the research and development project of lithography machines, Zhang Shaohua has been worried that there might be problems with the lithography machines purchased from ASML.

After all, Lingnan Semiconductor is doing this to a certain extent in order to abandon ASML.

If someone causes trouble, the arrival date of this batch of equipment may be affected.

Fortunately, ASML is not that powerful now. Facing pressure from Canon and Nikon, they are catching up.

Therefore, as long as there is an order, we are willing to deliver it actively.

Unlike the later generations, who are indifferent and don’t even want to make money.

“When the equipment arrives, you will work closely with Nanshan Equipment to install these lithography machines.”

“Then we arranged for personnel to take special photos and records to avoid the situation where we cannot put it back together after we dismantle it ourselves.”

Jiang Hui’s reminder was obviously not spoken casually.

In later generations, many Chinese factories dismantled imported equipment and reassembled it, only to find that for some reason there were a number of extra bolts, nuts and other parts.

Jiang Hui himself even dismantled some home appliances, and ended up with too many parts.

If some unimportant parts are missing, it may not cause any big problems.

However, if a part is missing at a critical location, there may be major problems with the processing accuracy of the equipment.

In extreme cases, the device may become unusable.

This is definitely not the situation Jiang Hui wants to see.

If such a situation occurs with the lithography machines purchased from ASML, it will definitely be a huge blow to the subsequent research and development of its own lithography machine projects.

The confidence of relevant technical personnel will be affected.

“No problem. I will personally lead the team to follow up on this project with Lin Qiaosheng from Nanshan Equipment.”

“We will strive to enable our Phase III factory to use domestically produced lithography machines.”

Zhang Shaohua is well aware of the importance of lithography machines.

If this equipment cannot be produced domestically, the future development of Lingnan Semiconductor will always be hung with a sword of Damocles.

This is hard to accept.

“The lithography machine project should be kept as low-key as possible before it is officially put into production.”

“The relevant confidentiality work must also be done well.”

“Especially some of the ideas and opinions I have explained to the core technical personnel, please do not disclose them to the outside world.”

“Especially when it comes to publishing papers, you have to be cautious.”

Some of the things Jiang Hui knows may prove to be the direction for future success.

In order for Nanshan Equipment to catch up as a latecomer, the information cannot be leaked in advance.

Zhang Shaohua certainly understands this.

(End of this chapter)