A year ago, Wu Shiqiang lived a day-to-day life at 700 Wilshire Avenue in downtown San Francisco, California. It was hard to imagine that he would give up his job at the San Francisco Branch of China National Bank and return to China a year later.
You must know that the work of the San Francisco branch was managed by his family after a lot of effort.
Giving up this opportunity requires a high degree of determination. Although leading an investment institution to start from scratch sounds attractive, the uncertainty is too high.
The main reason is that he has no decision-making power about investment, and Zhou Xin only put a small amount of money in the company's books as working capital.
Once his performance fails to satisfy Zhou Xin and Zhou Xin stops providing funds for the company's operations, the company will soon be unable to survive.
In other words, this company, and even his career, are completely dependent on Zhou Xin's financial support. This dependence on individuals is the biggest uncertainty.
But he was tired of his ordinary life in San Francisco. In just over a month, the life he encountered around Zhou Xin was completely different.
From Google, which built its chassis with Lego bricks, to the ambitious Chinese engineer Robin, to the products launched by NewPay, which quickly swept the entire Amerikan, he was excited by the booming development of the Internet.
Wu Shiqiang has been working in San Francisco, which is the core area of the entire Bay Area. He can hear the entrepreneurial myths from Silicon Valley every moment, let alone witness Zhou Xin's entrepreneurial myths with his own eyes.
This is faster than any previous startup myth in Silicon Valley.
At the same time, from his own experience, Wu Shiqiang can also deeply feel the changes that the Internet has brought to the world.
Therefore, Wu Shiqiang decided to return to China without much hesitation, invest in Chinese Internet companies, and help the development of Chinese Internet companies, which is also meaningful.
On the eve of returning to China, Zhou Xin said when sending him to San Francisco International Airport: "When you go back this time, you should not only pay attention to China's Internet industry, but also pay attention to the integrated circuit companies in China.
Maybe they are crude, but you need to find their shining point.
And we need to form a set of mechanisms on how to invest in integrated circuit companies and ensure that they will use the funds for research and development and the products themselves, instead of being spent in inexplicable places by the founders of the companies.
The Internet industry is an early investment to create profits. This is the means, and investing in companies in the integrated circuit industry is the purpose.
Compared with domestic and foreign countries, there is actually not much difference in the Internet field. Our gaps are mostly concentrated in basic computer technology fields, such as pure technical fields such as databases and operating systems.
We need to consider investing in these more fundamental technologies.
But not now. During this period, income is still the main focus. "
Originally, when Zhou Xin only mentioned integrated circuits, Wu Shiqiang thought that because his major was integrated circuits, he hoped to invest in some domestic integrated circuit companies.
Later, when he heard about operating systems and even databases, Wu Shiqiang realized that the other party hoped to narrow the gap with foreign countries in the entire field of computer software and hardware technology.
Because Microsoft in the operating system field and Oracle in the database field are like two insurmountable mountains, this is not a gap that China can cross.
In 1999, wasn't it equivalent to wasting money on investing in Chinese companies that were engaged in operating systems or databases?
Through this period of getting along with Zhou Xin, Wu Shiqiang knew that the other party had a straightforward style and would not be angry because of his doubts, so he asked: "It is difficult for us to make profits by investing in operating system or database companies. .”
Zhou Xin nodded and said: "I know, don't think about the profits when investing in such companies. At least for now, it is impossible for these companies to beat Microsoft or Oracle.
It cannot even occupy a small segment of the market.
Even Apple has been losing money in recent years. You must know that the Mac system has a history of more than ten years. How much market share does it have in the operating system? "
"Mac OS's market share is less than 2%. I have been paying attention to Apple as a company. They have been in trouble recently."
"Yes, so the operating system developed by China cannot even survive.
Well, we are partners and we need full mutual trust, and I can tell you more facts.
That is, we are an investment institution. Emerging Investment is not an investment institution that belongs to me alone, and we will not only use my money to invest.
You screen suitable companies in China, and I will help you raise funds in Amerikan. We need a beautiful report card, and then I can raise enough funds in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
While we use these funds to invest in Chinese Internet companies, we will invest part of them in less profitable areas.
Although China's integrated circuit companies have a weak foundation, they still have the possibility of making money.
Investments in operating systems, databases, and some industrial software fields are purely money-losing, but we can have a foundation and cultivate talents in these underlying computer technology fields.
Using money from Silicon Valley and Wall Street to cultivate Chinese Internet talents and talents in the integrated circuit field is an overall strategic plan for emerging investments. "
Zhou Xin never thought that he could achieve a breakthrough in the entire semiconductor industry by himself.
The persona he built at Amerikan, as well as emerging investments, were all designed to better raise funds in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
Originally, overseas capital would also invest in China's Internet companies on a large scale. These investment institutions have made a lot of money during the two decades of China's Internet boom.
Now emerging capital is taking away part of this pie and allocating some of it to the field of integrated circuits and basic computer technology, lowering the yield of the entire fund.
For example, all the money from Silicon Valley and Wall Street was invested in Internet companies in China. Calculating the rate of return on all this money, the average rate of return can be 20%.
With the addition of emerging capital, the overall rate of return on this money is only 10%. The other 10% is invested in the field of integrated circuits and basic computer technology to cultivate talents and accumulate energy for China.
As for key technology nodes, such as photolithography machines, EDA design software, semiconductor materials, etc.
Wu Shiqiang became even more excited after hearing this. Coming to America was forced by life. Everyone hopes that they can have a better life.
This does not mean that he does not want China to become better. Wu Shiqiang is not sure how much change Zhou Xin's design can bring to China's integrated circuit and computer technology fields.
One thing is for sure, that is that this will definitely be a positive change.
