Chapter 563 Acquisition of Fuda Microelectronics
Everyone went into the company office and sat in a circle. Cao Guoxing made a pot of tea and took some red melon seeds and a few packs of cigarettes.
Shi Lei gave Lu Yiming a cigarette, and Lu Yiming said politely: "Senior, I don't smoke."
Shi Lei took the cigarette in his mouth, flicked his lighter, lit it, took a deep puff, exhaled a puff of smoke, and then said, "Alas, it's really difficult to make chips these days. Not only is the technical requirement high, but there has always been a serious shortage of funds."
He said this deliberately for Lu Yiming to hear. After all, the richest man was right in front of him, so when would he cry poor if not now?
Lu Yiming came here for investment, and the two parties hit it off immediately.
Lu Yiming said directly: "I can't solve other difficulties, and I can only rely on you scientific researchers to solve them one by one. But if it's a problem of money, I think I can still solve it."
Everyone was overjoyed, especially Shi Lei, who was worried about money before. He couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Lu, are you planning to invest in Fuda Microelectronics?"
After all, rumors are just rumors and should not be taken seriously. Previously, when Cao Guoxing said that Lu Yiming might invest in Fuda Microelectronics, everyone just thought it was speculation. But now that Lu Yiming said so himself, it is naturally most likely true.
Yu Jun was worried that Lu Yiming was just acting on impulse, and if he didn't see any results in ten days or half a month, he would clamor to withdraw his investment. They couldn't stand that, so they reminded him, "You have to think it through. Xia's chip industry is still very backward, and it's impossible for this project to make a profit in a short time. Chips are large-scale investments and take a long time to show results, and they are not like fast-moving consumer goods."
Although this statement may be used to discourage investors, the fact that they dare to invest all their assets in chip research and development in this era can only prove that they really love this industry. Moreover, Lu Yiming is the youngest richest man in China, with unlimited potential in the future. Now they can rely on their eloquence to get an investment from Lu Yiming, but what about the follow-up?
If they want Lu Yiming to continue investing, they have to be frank and open with each other and put all the conditions on the table for discussion.
Lu Yiming knew this very well and said immediately: "Don't worry, I have made plans to not make a profit for ten years. No matter what, the semiconductor industry cannot be without the voice of us Xia people."
After hearing what Lu Yiming said, everyone at Fuda Microelectronics was delighted.
"Mr. Lu, no wonder he can become the richest man in the mainland at such a young age. His vision is unmatched."
"Mr. Lu, Xiaguo is lucky to have an entrepreneur like you."
Lu Yiming waved his hand and said with a smile: "Okay, everyone, stop flattering me. We are all science and engineering guys, and we don't like that. Can I go to your laboratory to take a look?"
It has to be said that as a start-up, Fuda Microelectronics has fully demonstrated the word "poor". Let's not talk about anything else, just look at this office in front of us. If it can be used to receive the richest man, it must be the best, but this office is only 30 square meters at most. Once the coffee table and sofa are placed, it is really difficult to even turn around.
However, the ambitions of this group of people are not small at all. They are determined to make domestic chips and break the foreign monopoly in the semiconductor field.
Having such lofty ambitions already makes you superior to the vast majority of mediocre people in this world.
Lu Yiming admires them from the bottom of his heart and is willing to invest in their dreams.
"Let's go. Mr. Shi and I will take you there." Yu Jun stood up and said.
Yu Jun and Shi Lei took Lu Yiming to the laboratory.
Compared to before, Yu Jun seemed much more enthusiastic at this time. While showing Lu Yiming around, he patiently introduced him: "Mr. Lu, the chip industry is generally divided into four links - design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. According to the link involved, the business model in the industry can be roughly divided into IDM, Fabless and Foundry foundry models."
"Among them, the IDM model integrates the entire chip industry chain and can independently produce chips, which requires large capital investment and has high technical barriers, and is asset-heavy. The fabless model is relatively asset-light and is only responsible for chip design, while manufacturing, packaging and testing are all outsourced."
At this point, Yu Jun sighed helplessly: "Our Fuda Microelectronics team was limited by its starting foundation. From the beginning, we chose the fabless model and mainly engaged in chip design and testing services. In the current revenue structure, the proportion of its design revenue has remained at around 90%."
Finally, Yu Jun revealed to Lu Yiming the confidential project that FuDa Microelectronics was currently developing.
"This is the 'Shenwei I' that we designed completely independently. This high-performance embedded 32-bit microprocessor will definitely set the highest level of domestic CPU development at this time once the research and development results are achieved."
Although it is still in the prototype stage, Lu Yiming is very satisfied. After all, it is still the year 2000 and there is still a chance to catch up. Although this is a road paved with thorns, Lu Yiming has no intention of turning back. Just for that sentence "far ahead"!
Lu Yiming asked: "How much is your current funding gap?"
Yu Jun thought for a moment and said, "According to the original plan, Fuda Microelectronics was going to go public in Hong Kong and issue stocks to raise 200 million yuan for research and development funds."
Lu Yiming immediately said, "Making chips, what can you do with 200 million? It's gone in the blink of an eye. I'll give you 2 billion."
"Two billion!"
Shi Lei and Yu Jun were both shocked. When they founded Fuda Microelectronics, they scraped together six million yuan by begging for help from everyone they knew. Now Lu Yiming wanted to invest 2 billion yuan in one go!
I can only say that in the mouths of rich people, money is really just a number.
However, before the two of them could finish their joy, Lu Yiming continued, "I plan to spend 2 billion to completely acquire Fuda Microelectronics and privatize the company. I don't know if the listing financing is a way to raise money, but once the consortium gets involved, Fuda Microelectronics is likely to change hands. I don't want everyone's life's work to be taken away by others."
Faced with Lu Yiming's request, both of them remained silent .
After all, this is their hard work.
Moreover, they didn't know whether what Lu Yiming said was true or false.
Although Lu Yiming's words made sense, one can never judge a person by his appearance. What if Lu Yiming was the one who came to steal the fruit?
Shi Lei asked, "Is there no other plan? We went public to raise money for research and development. Now that you are willing to invest, we can postpone the listing. I don't think it is necessary to acquire you, right?"
Lu Yiming said with a firm look: "I think it is necessary. I want to make sure the company moves forward according to the route I have planned."
Yu Jun said unconvincedly: "Excuse me, you are still a college student, and you are not working in semiconductors. How can you plan a route? What qualifications do you have to say that you are more proficient in this field than us?"
Lu Yiming said calmly: "What you see is the present, but what I see is the future. I know what the future will need. Is this reason enough?"
Seeing the atmosphere suddenly tense, Shi Lei quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Isn't it normal for young people to have more ideas than us? Old Yu, what are you talking about? But Mr. Lu, you said you know what the future will need, so can you tell me what the future will need?"
Lu Yiming took out his PHS cell phone and said, "Do you believe that future cell phones will be able to do the work of computers?"
Shi Lei was slightly stunned, then laughed dryly and said, "Well, I think you are joking a little bit, right?"
Yu Jun said rapidly: "How can a mobile phone do the work of a computer? Can a mobile phone access the Internet? Can it play games? Can it write emails? Can it program?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "See, I told you, I know what the future will need. Since the computer came out in 1946, it has only been more than 50 years, and its size has gone from the size of a factory to the size of a briefcase. So why can't it be the size of a mobile phone in the future?"
Lu Yiming didn't say anything more, and didn't want the two to ask more questions, so he continued, "I am willing to give stock options to the R&D personnel, but I must firmly control the ownership of the company. In this company, I want the R&D personnel to become the backbone of the company and let people with ideas and abilities get rich. But I have the final say in the company."
Although he admired Shi Lei and Yu Jun's contributions to Xiaguo's semiconductor industry, from a business perspective, Lu Yiming was not very optimistic about their ability to run the company. He was even more afraid that there would be some equity disputes in the future, which would lead to setbacks in the development of the chip industry.
Lu Yiming said frankly: "To be honest, the layout of the chip industry involves some of my subsequent business plans, so I will not allow any accidents to happen. Moreover, the investment in the chip industry requires at least tens of billions of funds and more than ten years of continuous investment. Instead of diluting the equity again and again, you might as well sell the company to me and then use the equity and funds to continue research and development."
"Hundreds of billions? Ten years?"
Lu Yiming's ambition shocked the two again. When they were still worrying about tens of millions or hundreds of millions of R&D funds, Lu Yiming directly proposed a scale of tens of billions, and continued investment for more than ten years, which was something they had never dared to think about before.
Shi Lei asked urgently: "Mr. Lu, are you really going to invest tens of billions of dollars to make chips?"
Their best budget was to hope that Lu Yiming could come up with 1 to 8 billion to do this project. Before, Lu Yiming said he would come up with 2 billion, and both Shi Lei and Yu Jun thought that Lu Yiming was just bragging.
After all, who doesn’t brag when doing business these days?
But now that Lu Yiming has directly announced an investment of tens of billions, they can no longer sit still.
After all, it’s tens of billions of dollars, so this is a bit of an exaggeration.
Lu Yiming had a calm expression on his face, and didn't look like he was bragging at all.
"I'm understating the amount. If you really want to make a name for yourself and catch up with Europe and the United States, I estimate that you can't even think about it without hundreds of billions of dollars."
In 2021, the global semiconductor market sold a total of 1.15 trillion chips, with a market size of US$556 billion.
In 2022, this figure directly exceeded 600 billion US dollars.
As the world's second largest economy, Xia's largest imported product is neither crude oil, known as the blood of industry, nor mineral resources such as iron ore, but chips made of sand!
For chips alone, Xia country spends , which is about 1.58 trillion yuan!
A huge business lies on a tiny chip.
If he could make money from this market with an annual scale of over one trillion by spending 100 billion, even if it only took up the domestic chip market share, Lu Yiming would probably wake up laughing in his dreams.
To some extent, Lu Yiming is more enthusiastic than Shi Lei and Yu Jun, and hopes that the chip project will succeed more.
Shi Lei said excitedly: "Mr. Lu, are you serious? Are you really planning to invest 10 billion in the next ten years?"
Lu Yiming said: "This condition can be written into the contract. If I can't do it, I will return the shares of Fuda Microelectronics with both hands."
After receiving this affirmative reply, Shi Lei immediately pulled Yu Jun aside and whispered, "I think the company can be sold to Lu Yiming. After all, Fuda Microelectronics is in our hands, and we can't get 10 billion in research and development funds anyway."
Yu Jun said angrily: "Let alone 10 billion, we can't even get 10 billion."
Both of them are relatively pure scientists. Rather than starting a company to make money, they prefer to explore in the research field. Otherwise, they would not engage in such a "hopeless" job as chip research and development.
"So you sold the company?"
"Um."
After the two men finished discussing, Shi Lei said to Lu Yiming, "Since you are so sincere, Mr. Lu, we agree with your suggestion and can sign the transfer agreement immediately. But we have one requirement. The initial R&D funds you promised must be in place immediately and R&D cannot be interrupted."
Seeing the two nod, Lu Yiming was very happy and promised immediately: "Of course there is no problem. My demand for chips is more urgent than yours. So, I can tell you clearly that as long as the contract is signed, I guarantee that the initial 2 billion funds will be deposited into the account on the same day."
Lu Yiming's words made Shi Lei and Yu Jun very happy. Yu Jun laughed and said, "Then we can now contact the manufacturers to place orders for some of the instruments and equipment that we couldn't afford before. We can also schedule some consumable experiments that we couldn't afford before."
Seeing that the two had already started to study how to spend money, Lu Yiming did not stop them. Instead, he said, "Don't be afraid to spend money. As long as you can get results as soon as possible, it's worth spending any amount of money."
In this era of rapid technological change, efficiency and speed are the lifeline of an enterprise. Lu Yiming knows very well that if he wants to compete with foreign companies, he must not save money on scientific research.
" Not only do we need to buy equipment and conduct experiments, we also need talent! The company wants to expand its existing research team. Please recommend some talents in the semiconductor field. If you can poach them, poach them directly. If you can't handle it, I will do it directly."
"Okay, Mr. Lu, to be honest, we have long wanted to expand our team, but the current number of people is really not enough. But unfortunately, we are short of money, we don't even have the money to do experiments, let alone to recruit people. Since you are so determined, Mr. Lu, we won't say much."
Shi Lei took out a piece of A4 paper from his pocket. It looked like it had been folded many times. The slightly yellowed paper even had frayed edges.
“This is the talent we are optimistic about.”
Yu Jun said: "We will try to invite other people if we can, and if we can't, we will find someone else, but we must invite Professor Huang Lingyi."
At this time, Professor Huang Lingyi is already a 64-year-old woman, but she is still working on the front line of scientific research.
After returning to China in 1990, Professor Huang Lingyi devoted herself to studying the design methods of various integrated circuits, starting from the establishment of layout libraries and timing libraries, to the impact of parasitic parameters on performance, clock tree generation, global planning, timing-driven routing, etc. The design methods of full customization, standard cells, and macro cells have been studied. Users include Huawei's program control chips, the Institute of Computing Technology's fuzzy control chips, etc., and two invention patents have been approved.
Lu Yiming was also well-known for this technical expert in the semiconductor industry. He said, "Okay, I'll go and invite her myself. It says here that she is in Guangxi Province, right? Once we sign the contract and complete the formalities, I'll leave right away!"
Huang Lingyi, now 64 years old, has retired from her job.
However, despite her retirement, she is not a person who can sit idle. Not long ago, she attended an International Invention and Patent Exhibition. This exhibition, held in Nuremberg, Germany, was founded in 1949 and this year Xia Guo was invited to participate for the first time.
About thirty-two people from all over the country went there. Others' booths were those of a company, but Xia, as a sovereign state, could only have a crowded and narrow booth here. This shows how big the technological gap between the East and the West was at that time.
Even with the whole country's strength, Xia State cannot compete with some private companies in developed countries such as Europe and the United States in some high-tech fields.
About halfway through the bus ride to the airport, Huang Lingyi was informed that the patent she submitted was awarded the silver medal, and she was very happy. But after all the excitement, she calmed down and thought carefully: Where is the chip that is actually used?
Although when designing, it is like an old man who climbs up a mountain with trembling legs, looks up and sees another higher mountain blocking the way forward, then grits his teeth and stubbornly climbs up the higher mountain step by step.
But what is sad is that the chip has been designed, but is useless and locked in a drawer. So what if it wins an award?
There is no place for your skills.
