Chapter 822
As soon as Lu Yiming heard Hu Zhengming's tone, he knew that the two had reached a crucial point. In ancient times, the king had to choose his ministers, and the ministers had to choose their king. This is even more true in the modern business field.
Real high-level talents can never be recruited with money alone. You must also have enough career and achievements to make these outstanding people work for you.
Especially for a leader in the semiconductor field like Hu Zhengming, Lu Yiming valued him very much, so he said solemnly: "Professor Hu, please speak."
Based on past experience, Hu Zhengming said to Lu Yiming in a serious tone: "Process catching up is a project that requires continuous burning of money , and as long as it is not successful, it is impossible to bring profits. When I was at TSM, their annual R&D expenses were close to 10% of the annual revenue, which was quite a lot. If Yixin wants to move forward, it is impossible not to spend money, and the money spent is not a small amount."
Although Lu Yiming is already the richest man in Asia, in Hu Zhengming's opinion, semiconductors are a national-level industry. Not to mention the whole country's efforts, at least tens of billions of dollars must be invested, and success is not necessarily guaranteed. To be honest, private capitalists might as well invest in stocks instead.
If you take 10 billion to the stock market, you can easily reap the profits by manipulating the market.
But if you use it to develop semiconductors, let alone operate the business, you don’t even have the qualifications to take over.
If Lu Yiming had not been so sincere and had not already built the factory and purchased the machines, and was said to be vigorously developing a new generation of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, Hu Zhengming would never have accepted Yixin Technology's invitation.
Then, Hu Zhengming thought of Hu Weiwu again, so he continued, "I heard from Chief Engineer Hu that the R&D investment of the Loongson project last year was less than 1 billion. The revenue is far less than TSM. If the R&D investment is not increased, it will be even more difficult to catch up."
Lu Yiming immediately understood what Hu Zhengming meant - the Loongson project still had to invest more money, and the amount would be doubled!
When he was in Zhonghai, he also talked with Hu Weiwu about the current situation of Loongson. Many of the latest news were learned from Bian Bo. Loongson's R&D investment in 2004 was about 980 million yuan. This money seems like a lot, but it actually includes chip design and chip processing.
When Hu Zhengming comes to Yixin, he will definitely be in charge of research and development, and the research and development is chip processing. After all, no matter how good the design is, it is as good as nothing if you can't produce it.
If other bosses heard that the research funding was going to be doubled, they would probably be so anxious that they would jump up and down. With an investment of 2 billion yuan a year and no guarantee of making money within five years, how could those who are impatient and only want to make quick money be willing to do this?
Moreover, Hu Zhengming wanted money and even more than double it. If it were someone else, they might have quit. But Lu Yiming was different. He knew the future trend and was even more glad that he only needed to spend money to solve the problem.
As we all know, any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem.
Therefore, Lu Yiming happily said: "Okay, starting next year, Yixin Technology's R&D funding will be doubled."
Although Hu Zhengming was stating facts, he actually did not hold out any hope. After all, capitalists care about profits and returns on investment. Investing in chips requires large investments, slow results, and high risks, and there are also patent barriers from predecessors. Which capitalist with a normal mind would invest in this?
As for the country's prosperity and technological progress?
That’s none of my business.
Hu Zhengming had experienced this kind of thing several times, so he was just crying poor as usual. Unexpectedly, Lu Yiming agreed without hesitation and didn't even bargain with him.
In his opinion, the application for scientific research funds is like asking for a sky-high price and then paying it back. I applied for a doubling, and even if the boss didn't agree, a 30% increase would be great. As a result, Lu Yiming doubled it directly without hesitation.
Lu Yiming's attitude immediately made Hu Zhengming feel that his decision to return to China was the right one.
He agreed to come to Yixin Technology, more or less out of a patriotic heart, hoping that the motherland's semiconductor industry would improve. Yixin also really had the initial conditions, so naturally he didn't want to waste time standing by and wanted to personally step in to promote the development of the entire industry.
As a result, before Hu Zhengming recovered from his shock, Lu Yiming asked, "Then I will invest 2 billion first, do you think it is enough?"
Two billion!
Hu Zhengming was a little excited. He tried his best to control his emotions and said in a calm tone: "It's enough for now. With this money, we can start to tackle the difficulties of 90nm. This step is relatively easy. The next 65nm will be a huge test, and we will have to continue to spend money at that time."
During Hu Zhengming's tenure as Chief Technology Officer at TSM, in addition to helping TSM complete its technical accumulation for FinFETs, his most important job was to upgrade the 90nm processing technology.
This is his specialty, so he is very confident in helping Yixin Technology solve this step.
"Okay, Professor Hu, just go ahead and do it. I'll take care of the money issue."
Lu Yiming also became excited after hearing what Hu Zhengming said. Lin Benjian's extreme ultraviolet lithography machine has already taken shape and will be successfully developed in a few years. This is all thanks to the rapid development of the domestic optical field in recent years, and a large number of geniuses have emerged.
There is no doubt that these are the results of Lu Yiming's previous huge spending.
But Hu Zhengming has been in this business for a long time. Lu Yiming talks so much, but how much of it can be put into practice in the end is a question.
"Boss Lu, these 2 billion are real 2 billion, not reduced?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "It will never shrink!"
Although he said so, Hu Zhengming was still worried. Over the years, Lu Yiming had spent money lavishly, investing in the semiconductor industry and supporting the development of the software industry. The amount of money he had spent was enough to make people shudder.
Of course Lu Yiming knew what Hu Zhengming was thinking. In fact, the things that Hu Zhengming was worried about had occurred more than once in history.
He said to Hu Zhengming in a firm manner: "Don't worry, I will make chips even if I have to sell everything I have. At worst, I can just give up being the richest man in Asia. Besides, making money has never been a difficult thing for me. How about we compete to see whether you burn money faster or I make money faster?"
Lu Yiming, the richest man in Asia, has a lot of shares in well-known companies, such as Facebook and Google. If he wants to cash out, he can just sell these stocks and get money. However, cashing out is a one-time deal. After selling out, whether he can still keep his position as the richest man in Asia is a question mark.
But Lu Yiming didn't care at all. He never felt that the title of Asia's richest man brought him any value. If it was gone, it was gone.
When Hu Zhengming heard this, he was immediately moved to tears.
"In order to make chips, Mr. Lu is willing to give up the throne of Asia's richest man. It seems that he really loves the chip industry."
Lu Yi clearly changed the subject and said with a smile: "You think too much. I am just optimistic about the chip industry and plan to become the richest man in the world by relying on it."
Hu Zhengming: “…”
Boy, am I just being self-important?
Although Lu Yiming's words were too realistic, Hu Zhengming did not waver in his opinion of Lu Yiming.
Even if Lu Yi is really optimistic about the development prospects of this industry and wants to make a lot of money in the future, it doesn't matter, at least he is willing to invest. It's better than those so-called entrepreneurs who don't even shout slogans, right?
Which capitalist doesn’t want to make money?
However, there are very few people like Lu Yiming who are willing to invest, keep calm, and "play the long game to catch the big fish."
With Hu Zhengming's official joining, the framework of Yixin Technology was finally established.
FuDa Microelectronics Laboratory is responsible for chip research and development, and Yixin Technology is responsible for chip processing. This combination of two powerful forces can be said to be a powerful alliance with development potential far exceeding any domestic peer.
History has come to this point and has reached a crossroads of fate. Whether it will be a victory or a defeat in the future, even Lu Yiming himself cannot predict.
But some things have to be done by someone.
In the office, Lu Yiming was sitting with his legs on the desk, watching the latest episode of Story Time with great interest. Li Yiwen was sitting opposite him, nervously sorting out the company's documents.
He said dissatisfiedly: "If you continue to do this, Future Capital will go bankrupt within four years!"
His interests are highly tied to Lu Yiming. If Lu Yiming fails, he will also be in trouble.
Lu Yiming calmly moved the story away from his face and said with a smile: "Four years? Better than I expected. I thought it would go bankrupt in three years. It seems that my operation is not extreme enough."
Li Yiwen said gloomily: "Are you still in the mood to joke around here?"
Lu Yiming joked: "People who love to laugh don't have bad luck."
Li Yiwen glared at him and said, "Isn't that nonsense? Which unlucky guy can laugh like that?"
Lu Yiming retracted his legs and said with emotion: "Don't worry, if we don't have guns or cannons, the enemy will make them for us. Don't underestimate the strength of the leeks in the United States."
The subprime mortgage crisis will come in a few years. By then, if we can go to the United States to make some money from the national crisis, won’t we have the funds for the construction of semiconductors?
Lu Yiming believed that as a beacon of civilization and a country of freedom, the hospitable Da Piaoliang would surely not let him return empty-handed.
Li Yiwen shifted the topic to Hu Zhengming: "After Hu Zhengming came to Yixin Technology, he quickly integrated the entire technical team successfully, and the cohesion was unprecedentedly strengthened. Where did you find such a talent?"
Lu Yiming was very proud and said, "Having Professor Hu as the CTO of Yixin Technology will surely be enough to intimidate any talented person who comes to Yixin. After all, he is a technical expert who once served as the CTO of TSM. His academic achievements and academician honors are needless to say. He can convince other technical personnel who have been poached and even help us attract more talents in the industry."
Liang Mengsong is Hu Zhengming's disciple, and Lu Yiming was able to poach Hu Zhengming through Liang Mengsong's relationship.
In the semiconductor industry, many talented people know each other. In a sense, it can be said that "pulling out a radish brings out mud". Once you dig up a top talent, you can follow the clues and dig up other talents as long as you can afford the price.
It is rare to find someone like Hu Zhengming who is both good at technology and management. During his time at TSM, he was responsible for upgrading the 90nm process, which is exactly the next process direction of Yixin.
It can be said that based on the power that Yixin itself can provide, Hu Zhengming can lead the company to conquer 90nm sooner or later, and even with some effort, he may be able to catch up with the current world-class 65nm process level.
It's difficult, but worth trying!
A few days later, Lu Yiming went to Yixin Technology as usual. When talking about this matter, he asked Hu Zhengming, "Professor Hu, what is the possibility that our product can catch up with the world's top level?"
Hu Zhengming was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "There is still a huge gap between the R&D capabilities of Yixin Technology and TSM. As for technology introduction, I'm afraid it is unlikely. We can only catch up on our own. But we are working hard, and our opponents are not sleeping either. TSM will not let us grow."
With the factory going into production, Yixin Technology has acquired the ability for small-scale mass production, and a stage with room for development has gradually been built.
Can it catch up with the world's best in the future?
Can they go head-on with the industry giant TSM ?
Although Lu Yi knew that the road ahead was extremely tortuous and that he would not only face fair competition in the free market but also unwarranted suppression from Da Piaoliang, he felt more excited every time he thought of this.
Being hysterically suppressed by the most powerful force in the world is definitely a badge of honor. The most beautiful thing in the world is the affirmation from the enemy.
Hu Zhengming said very rationally: "The biggest problem facing Yixin Technology at present is the market. Our current chips are still at a backward level. We cannot expect our partners to cooperate with us under the banner of patriotism. This is simply impossible. What other companies want is profit. We can't sell our products and make money to continue to invest in research and development. It is impossible for you to spend money alone."
"Even if we really persevere and invest our own money to bring our products close to the world's advanced level, as soon as they lower the price, our customers will leave again. This has happened many times in history. For example, in the field of shield machines and high-speed railways. When our technology was not good enough, they sold it at a very high price. Once our technology caught up, they lowered the price and sold it. Our products still couldn't be sold. After all, they have cost advantages and technological maturity advantages over products with similar technical levels."
In order to monopolize the memory stick market, South Korea's Samsung Group once launched a brutal price war, which caused a bloody slaughter in the entire DRAM market.
Don’t think that only domestic companies like to engage in price wars. Foreign companies will be even more ruthless in price wars.
In order to stabilize the morale of the troops, Lu Yiming said: "As long as Loongson goes into production, we will be able to get official orders and some R&D subsidies."
However, Hu Zhengming did not buy into this at all: "We cannot really grow and develop Yixin Technology by relying on these. We must have a stable market as our rear base."
The current chip market is mainly focused on the PC side. In this regard, Lu Yiming does not think that a newcomer like himself can shake the market share of traditional giants such as Intel.
Obviously, Hu Zhengming thought so too.
Lu Yiming said: "Don't worry about market share. I don't take Intel seriously at all and have never considered it a competitor."
Hu Zhengming was puzzled: "If you want to make chips, who else can be your competitor except Intel?"
Lu Yiming confessed to Hu Zhengming: "No, that shouldn't be said. Intel is just one of my rivals, and computer chips are just a part of the chip. In addition to computer chips, I also value mobile phone chips. In the future, mobile phone chips may be as important as computer chips."
"Mobile phone chips? What other chips do mobile phones need?"
The feature phones we use today only require a circuit board to solve all the problems, and there is no need for chips at all.
Strictly speaking, a chip is also a circuit board, but it is a "very large-scale integrated circuit". It is not a concept.
Lu Yiming briefly talked to Hu Zhengming about smartphones.
Hu Zhengming was immediately astonished: "Your idea is really brilliant!"
At present, mobile phones have not yet entered the smart era, and the requirements for chips are not high. If Yixin Technology enters the market early, it can be said that it will start from the same starting line as traditional semiconductor companies. This advantage is huge!
Even better, it can bypass the "Maginot Line" that Intel has set up around the PC chip field and directly create a new blue ocean market.
Hu Zhengming was impressed by Lu Yiming's strategic choice and said, "In this way, Yixin Technology is likely to stand out from the crowd."
After learning about Lu Yiming's new confidentiality plan, Hu Zhengming thought about it carefully and then said, "According to what Mr. Lu said, I think the chip research and development and processing ideas need to be adjusted."
The chips designed before were mainly based on the needs of the PC. Now that Lu Yiming has informed him of the smartphone strategy, Hu Zhengming naturally has to adjust the direction and focus of research and development.
Lu Yiming raised his eyebrows and asked, "Do you want to change it?"
Hu Zhengming explained: "There are two main architectures in the current chip field, one is Intel's X86 and the other is ARM. The design of the two chips focuses on different points. ARM focuses more on lower power consumption, while the x86 architecture focuses more on performance. For computers, since computers are large in size and have a large corresponding space, they are still okay in terms of heat dissipation. Therefore, when choosing an architecture, you only need to choose a chip with higher performance. For mobile phones, the size and space are relatively small, so the heat dissipation capacity is not very strong. Therefore, when choosing an architecture, you should pay more attention to the heat dissipation performance."
"I think Yixin Technology can first develop a chip specifically for smartphone needs based on ARM's architecture."
Lu Yiming thought about it. The A-series chips of previous Apple mobile phones were all independently developed, so they were able to develop their own performance to the extreme. The performance was at least one generation stronger than that of their peers. It can be seen that the chip research and development and design capabilities that were achieved with a lot of money are still very strong.
With the successful cases, Lu Yiming naturally did not hesitate: "The first and second generation of cat phones can use the ARM architecture, but I hope that the third generation and later cat phones can have a dedicated chip architecture, and the performance strength must be unique."
Hu Zhengming said awkwardly: "It's possible, but..."
"But what?"
"It costs extra money."
