Chapter 683 Dawn Optics
Facing Lin Benjian's slightly angry eyes, Li Qiu remained calm and said, "Don't look at me like that. I'm not kidding you, and I'm not playing tricks on you. My boss didn't tell me how much money he would invest in you. What he said was: as long as your company can manufacture the most advanced lithography machine in the world , he will invest as much money as you want. No matter the cost, there is no upper limit."
If an ordinary entrepreneur heard such words, he would probably be moved to tears, and even shout out in joy: "You are really my mentor."
However, Lin Benjian is not a rookie in society. He has rich experience. He has seen many investors in the United States and all kinds of scammers. It is precisely because Li Qiu's words are too great and glorious that Lin Benjian does not believe it and thinks that Li Qiu is just playing tricks on him.
"Heh, what if I ask for 1 billion? Will your boss be willing to give it to me?"
Li Qiu didn't think there was anything wrong with Lin Benjian asking for 1 billion. After all, every time he went on a mission, Lu Yiming paid him hundreds of thousands or even millions. In comparison, he actually felt that the 1 billion was a bit cheap.
After all, this is a photolithography machine.
"Give me a minute. I'll call my boss."
Li Qiu took out his cell phone and called Lu Yiming: "Boss, he said he wants 1 billion."
"OK."
"no problem."
"Um."
After a few brief exchanges, Li Qiu hung up the phone and said to Lin Benjian: "Congratulations, Mr. Lin, my boss said there is no problem."
This sudden change made Lin Benjian a little confused. He scratched his head and said, "What's no problem?"
Li Qiu smiled and said, "Didn't you just say you wanted 1 billion? Our boss agreed and asked you when you can sign the contract."
"WTF...your boss agreed to invest 1 billion in my startup?"
For a moment, Lin Benjian didn't know whether there was a problem .
What the hell?
I'm kidding!
Could it really be one billion?
"No, Mr. Li, I said 1 billion just as an analogy. I don't mean I really need 1 billion to start a business."
Li Qiu said: "But our boss said that he can invest 1 billion yuan in you."
“…”
Jiang Shangyi looked at the resignation letter on the table, then looked at Lin Benjian who was sitting opposite him, and was a little confused for a moment.
"What are you doing? Are you feeling wronged because I don't allow you to do that? There's nothing we can do about this. It's not that I don't allow you to do it, but our company can't directly confront those big companies..."
Lin Benjian interrupted Jiang Shangyi and said, "Boss Jiang, I understand. You are doing this for the good of the company. And I have no grievances. You have taken good care of me in TSM, and my colleagues have been very nice to me."
Jiang Shangyi was even more confused and asked, "Then why are you leaving? Are you not satisfied with the salary?"
Lin Benjian hesitated for a moment and said, "That's not the case."
"You still say no!"
Jiang Shangyi immediately felt that he had grasped the key point: "Did a headhunting company come to you? What conditions did they offer you that made you come to me to resign so soon? Tell me, what they can give you, I, TSM, can also give you!"
Lin Benjian couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "Boss Jiang, you may not be able to give me this."
"Can't give? How is that possible? Tell me, how much did they give?"
Jiang Shangyi couldn't help but laugh. In his opinion, even if a headhunter poached Lin Benjian, how much salary could he offer? Triple it would be the best, right?
Although it is a bit of a stretch to triple Lin Benjian's salary, TSM can still afford it. It's okay to just think of it as a way to save face. Lin Benjian has such talent that as long as he finishes a project, the salary will be back immediately.
"One billion."
"What the hell? A billion?"
Jiang Shangyi suddenly couldn't sit still anymore.
He stood up.
"Are you kidding me? Spending 1 billion to poach you?"
Lin Benjian laughed and said, "Haha, isn't it incredible? My reaction was similar to yours at the time. I also felt that I was not worth 1 billion."
Jiang Shangyi felt that either he was crazy or the world was crazy.
God have mercy on him. He couldn’t even come up with 1 billion yuan himself, let alone give it to Lin Benjian.
Now he finally understood why Lin Benjian was determined to resign. This was not really a job hopping, this was actually finding a golden thigh.
If he wasn't too embarrassed, he would have asked if he could go with them.
After all, he was the COO of TSM and received a high salary every month. Jiang Shangyi still had a lot of feelings for the company, so he still tried to keep Lin Benjian and said, "Ahem, I think you still have to think clearly. Starting a business is very risky, and 1 billion yuan is not necessarily safe."
Lin Benjian shook his head and said, "Boss Lu said that if we make 1 billion, we will split the profits 20% to 80% and if we lose, it will be his."
Jiang Shangyi: “…”
"Ahem, do you have Mr. Lu's phone number?"
"Yes, what's wrong, Mr. Jiang?"
"It's like this, I also want to get to know this Mr. Lu. After all, more friends mean more paths."
Half an hour later, Jiang Shangyi personally sent Lin Benjian to the company's gate and reluctantly said to him, "Old Lin, please come back to the company more often and have some tea and chat with me."
When they meet again in the future, maybe I will have to call him Mr. Lin. After so many years in the workplace, Jiang Shangyi deeply understands that you should not look down on anyone. After all, you never know when and by whom the skirt of the goddess of luck will be gently lifted.
A few days later, Lin Benjian arrived at Zhonghai by private plane.
Lu Yiming drove his luxury car to greet him in person, and gave him a warm hug as soon as they met: "Welcome to Zhonghai, I have prepared a welcoming banquet, please come this way."
Lin Benjian was flattered and quickly said, "Mr. Lu, you're too polite."
"Haha, of course I should."
Sitting in the car, Lu Yiming smiled and asked Lin Benjian, "How is it? Mr. Lin, have you thought of a name for the new company?"
Lin Benjian asked in surprise: "Should I come up with the company name?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Yes, I said it before, I only invest, I don't care about other things."
Although Lu Yiming had said this before, Lin Benjian had never expected that Lu Yiming could be so thorough in being a hands-off boss.
After thinking for a while, Lin Benjian said, "I think that this is the darkest time for both myself and the current domestic lithography industry. Why not name our company Poxiao, Poxiao Optics, which means breaking through the darkness and welcoming the dawn."
Lu Yiming said approvingly: "This is a good name."
For Lin Benjian, dawn symbolizes his breaking through the dark years in his life, while in Lu Yiming's view, dawn is the new hope for Xia Country to break through the blockade and establish an independent semiconductor industry chain.
If you want to do big things, you can't save money.
Therefore, Lu Yiming was very generous to Lin Benjian and continued, "Don't worry, I don't make any profit requirements for Poxiao Optics. The only requirement is a technological breakthrough. Xiaguo must master the complete fourth-generation lithography technology independently. The initial investment is 1 billion yuan, and the subsequent investment will be based on the situation. Believe in my determination. No matter how much it costs, I will make the lithography machine."
After hearing Lu Yiming's assurance, Lin Benjian finally felt relieved.
After all, this is the promise made by Asia's richest man, so it carries a lot of weight.
Lin Benjian also plans to use Lu Yiming to realize his entrepreneurial dream. How can being an employee be as satisfying as being your own boss?
Not to mention that Lu Yiming is the only one willing to support immersion lithography technology now.
The two of them hit it off immediately.
Within a few days, Poxiao Optics, with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan, was established quietly.
All this was done quietly and very low-key. After all, he didn't want to fire a gun into the air and attract the attention of the "fellow villagers" before even entering the village.
Developing lithography machines is equivalent to digging into the nest of the United States. It is not much different from digging for oil from the United States, so it is better to keep a low profile.
However, as the richest man in Asia and the only top billionaire in China with a net worth of over 100 billion yuan, Lu Yiming is like a firefly in the dark night, so conspicuous and outstanding. Even if he wants to keep a low profile, it depends on whether others will let him.
What did 130 billion in assets mean in early 2002?
You know, the brothers Liu Yongxing and Liu Yonghao, who are ranked second, have a net worth of only 8.3 billion, and Lu Yiming's assets are more than 15 times theirs!
The key point is that it only took Lu Yiming three and a half years to transform himself from a poor student with only twelve dollars and thirty-five cents in his pocket to the richest man in Asia that everyone admired.
Nowadays, countless people across the country are closely watching Lu Yiming's every move, wanting to know what stocks he buys, analyzing his investment strategy, and even secretly observing which industry he wants to invest in.
Therefore, Dawn Optics was targeted by some interested parties almost as soon as it was established, causing a lot of uproar in the outside world.
Seeing that keeping a low profile didn't work, Lu Yiming simply acted in a high-profile manner. With a wave of his hand, he announced the convening of the company's founding meeting and even invited Quwen Tianxia to conduct a text live broadcast directly on the official website.
Due to the limitations of the current network, any images you want to refresh on the web page will be stuck, so live video streaming is definitely out of the question. It would be good enough if text streaming could be smooth.
Looking back to the past, even during the Olympic Games, I and my classmates would use feature phones to log into WAP to watch the text broadcast of the NBA.
Poxiao Optics settled in Zhonghai High-tech Industrial Park, covering hundreds of thousands of square meters, with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan. At the founding conference, the park was crowded with people and lively.
At the press conference set up outdoors, CEO Lin Benjian first delivered a speech, read out the company's mission and vision, announced the company's development plan, and spoke eloquently for half an hour.
However, everyone's interest was obviously not in him. They were more interested in interviewing Lu Yiming because they could often get a lot of useful information from Lu Yiming.
As soon as the media question-and-answer session began, all the reporters pointed their cameras at Lu Yiming, scrambling to ask him questions.
"Mr. Lu, may I ask why you are investing a huge amount of money in an optical company at this time? What kind of product do you plan to make?"
Lu Yiming said calmly: "I want to build a photolithography machine."
Nowadays, ordinary people don’t even know what a photolithography machine is, let alone what it is used for.
However, after all, there were many people coming, and there were still some people who understood this aspect, and they were immediately shocked by Lu Yiming's ambition.
"Boss Lu actually wants to be attacked by a photolithography machine?"
"This is a high-tech product that is monopolized by Europe and the United States and is known as the jewel in the crown of industry."
"Isn't the crown of industry made up of fucking jewels?"
Another reporter immediately asked: "Mr. Lu, many people now say that graphene has the potential to win this year's Nobel Prize, and the industry also believes that it is a revolutionary material. Why don't you invest money to commercialize graphene as soon as possible?"
"Yes, Mr. Lu, haven't you already made graphene? Why are you wasting so much money on developing photolithography machines?"
Lu Yiming said calmly, "Graphene is the next generation of semiconductor materials. As for now, how to mass produce it is still a problem that bothers all of humanity and is difficult to achieve in the short term, so lithography machines still need to be made. In addition to investing in Dawn Optics, I will also do my best to promote the development of optics in Xia Country. Compared with Europe, America and island countries, we in Xia Country lack too much homework in this regard and must make up for it. Dawn Optics is a very promising company. My 1 billion is not invested in the present, but in the future."
There was an uproar at the scene, and everyone looked at Lu Yiming in surprise, deeply shocked by his speech.
Without waiting for the reporters to continue asking questions, Lu Yiming continued, "I will contact the top 20 universities in the field of optics in the country, and invest more than 300 million yuan in cash each year to train professionals in the field of optics. As long as they meet the requirements and pass the approval of Future Capital, we will issue scholarships. At the same time, we will also invest a huge amount of money to cooperate with optical research institutions across the country to develop new technologies. Conservative estimates are no less than 3 billion yuan."
"Three billion!"
Everyone was shocked by Lu Yiming's generosity.
"Mr. Lu, is this amount of money this much per year, or in total?"
"Of course it's every year. What can three billion yuan do?"
Facing the reporter's questions, Lu Yiming smiled calmly, "I am very optimistic about the future of the optical industry. Not only will it be used in lithography machines, but also in future cameras, video cameras, and mobile phones. All lenses must be domestically produced. Look down at your video cameras and cameras. Which one uses a domestic light source? None. As a great oriental country with a quarter of the world's population, it doesn't even have a camera brand. Is this reasonable?"
Everyone looked down at the devices in their hands, and a sense of shame suddenly arose.
"Yes, there are absolutely no domestic products in this area. This is really wrong. We don't even have room for choice."
Someone asked: " But it's hard to make photolithography machines, right? There are nearly 200 countries in the world, but only two or three have photolithography machines. The same is true for cameras, there are only Canon SOMY and so on. You invest so much money, what if you can't make it?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "If we can't make photolithography machines, we won't necessarily lose money. Let me ask you a simple question. How many students and teachers in schools across the country wear glasses now? There will be more and more in the future."
"Do you know how much profit glasses make? I've done some research and the gross profit is over 95 percent!"
"I saw many friends wearing glasses at the event. How much did you pay for your glasses?"
"Look for yourself. The frames are made of a few grams of metal, some are even made of plastic, and there are a few small screws and a shaft. Is there any high-tech content? No, as long as you have patience, anyone can grind it out with sandpaper. You can imagine how easy it is to process it with machine tools."
"The lens is even simpler. It's just a piece of glass. You just need to grind it into the shape you want. This can also be done with instruments."
"Now all I have to do is get the equipment to grind the mirror. That should be easy, right?"
"Not only that, but also the special lenses needed for satellites and various instruments and equipment in the field of scientific research all require excellent optical products. And these products are now in the hands of foreign capital, which is equivalent to the lifeblood of Xia Country being held in the hands of others."
The gross profit margin of glasses exceeds 90 percent?
This data is really shocking.
The next day, just after the press conference, Lu Yiming received a call from Wang Hongsheng.
"Hello, Principal Wang."
Lu Yiming was still very surprised when he suddenly received a call from Wang Hongsheng. He didn't know why Wang Hongsheng came to see him.
Wang Hongsheng said, "I saw you said yesterday that you would contact the top 20 universities in the field of optics in the country to offer scholarships to professionals?"
Lu Yiming said: "Yes."
Wang Hongsheng said: "We have an optics major at Fudan University, and it is well-known nationwide. As the saying goes, good things should be kept in the family. Instead of spreading your 300 million yuan everywhere, why not keep it all in Fudan University and provide centralized support?"
Lu Yiming saw through Wang Hongsheng's little thoughts at a glance, but he didn't blame him. After all, he was the head of a school and he must be thinking about the interests of Fudan University.
However, it makes no sense to only invest in Fuda when planning in the field of optics. The key lies in the entire industry, from top to bottom, to form a complete industrial chain. Otherwise, it will be useless no matter how many billions are invested.
Wang Hongsheng was very upset because Fu Ri University did not actively seek Mo Xin Technology, which resulted in the discovery of graphene having nothing to do with Fu Ri University. So he called Lu Yiming to communicate with him as soon as possible.
Lu Yiming explained: "If you want to make a lithography machine, optics is an absolute threshold that cannot be avoided. And this discipline is useless if you fight alone. You must form a system to compete with European and American powers."
The so-called system is actually a large-scale selection system based on the survival of the fittest.
Just like in football, there are youth training and various professional leagues. Those who pass through layers of selection and finally reach the top must be first-class talents.
The optics majors of the twenty universities are equivalent to the youth training camps in football. Lu Yiming uses scholarships to attract top talents to join, and then cooperates with domestic optical laboratories to develop projects and send students majoring in optics for intensive training. In this way, step by step, we can know who the real steed is.
As long as the base is large enough and the influence is wide enough, outstanding talents can always be selected.
