Hu Zhengming knows the history very well but does not understand the current situation. After listening to it, he quickly grasped the key point: "Huahong Semiconductor is now equivalent to being held hostage by Neon Enterprises.
Previously, all the energy was focused on memory chip foundry, resulting in revenue being completely hijacked by the memory chip market environment. "
Zhou Xin nodded: "Yes, Huahong Semiconductor and Neon's NEC company have established a joint venture, and the joint venture will do the manufacturing of memory chips. In this joint venture, although Huahong Semiconductor's equity accounted for more than 70% , but the actual control is in the hands of Neon Enterprises."
Hu Zhengming said: “I understand, although Project 909 adopts a chip foundry model that is more in line with the current international mainstream, Huahong Semiconductor is mainly engaged in chip foundry.
However, the current situation of 909 and the current situation of Project 908 seem to be different in appearance. In fact, the fundamental reason behind them is that China's chip industry is too weak.
Even if there are advanced chip foundry companies, they still need to be parasitic in the neon chip system to survive. Neon's chip industry has experienced its peak in the 1980s and has been declining since the signing of the American-Neon Semiconductor Agreement.
Neon's semiconductor market is constantly being squeezed by Goryeo and Wanwan. They can't protect themselves, let alone help the development of China's chip industry. "
Zhou Xin said: "NEC's condition for Huahong Semiconductor is to underwrite products, which means that Huahong gave up chip foundry and became a downstream manufacturer of NEC. The other aspects are quite right."
Hua Hong Semiconductor's huge losses in the first half of this year caused huge controversy in China's semiconductor industry. There was little discussion about it from the outside world. It was comparable to an eight-magnitude earthquake in the industry.
From the government to the industry, everyone had high hopes for Huahong Semiconductor, code-named Project 909. Who would have expected that the most advanced production line would start to suffer huge losses just after it was put into production.
Industry insiders have different opinions on the reasons for the current situation.
"The reason why Huahong invests in the extremely risky product field of memory chips is that it is a must choice for joint ventures." The director of Yanda Microelectronics believes: "As the main project of '909', Huahong was originally planning to do chip foundry. However, the corporate system reform was not in place, a specific management team was not established, and the international market was not available. So we had to negotiate joint ventures with some large foreign companies, and the conditions offered by NEC at that time were the most favorable."
The general manager of Yan Dayu Huan Microelectronics System Engineering Co., Ltd. even said bluntly: "The cooperation between Huahong and NEC will not have much impact on China's chip industry. The effect is almost the same as Motorola building a new factory in China."
Zhou Xin continued: “And when we were discussing cooperation with Huahong, because the specific operations were in the hands of Neon people, it was particularly difficult to promote it.
Their willingness to help test the lithography machine is already the result of coordination.
Mphone's chip is manufactured using a 130nm process, while Hua Hong Semiconductor's manufacturing process is 350nm, which is obviously not enough.
Hua Hong Semiconductor cannot become a foundry for A1E chips, but this does not mean that I have no other options.
For the decoding chip we designed for Apple, Hua Hong Semiconductor’s process is fully capable of manufacturing chips with this precision requirement.
But when discussing cooperation with Huahong Semiconductor, Neon seemed extremely reluctant to do so. "
Neon, Goryeo and then Wanwan, semiconductor technology all imported technology from Amerikan, and then conducted self-research on this basis.
Only China cannot do this. Two years after Batumi was disbanded in 1994, Americen organized and signed the Wassenaar Agreement in the Netherlands. This resulted in the semiconductor technology exported to China having to be two generations behind.
Originally, when the 909 project was launched, it could only purchase production lines for 0.5 micron, which is the 500nm process. Later, it cooperated with NEC to obtain the 350nm process production line from NEC.
At that time, the 350nm process production line was already a rare good condition. Even if you knew it was a sugar-coated bullet, you had to swallow it.
Hu Zhengming said: “I know about the cooperation between NEC and Huahong, and it is not surprising that NEC would do such a thing.
NEC would offer such conditions back then purely because Tadahiro Sekimoto was interested in the Chinese market.
He wanted to take the opportunity to open up the Chinese market. However, after the production line between Huahong and NEC was put into production, he found that 95% of the memory chips produced by this production line relied on NEC for help.
The original calculation was that China's own market could digest these chips, but as a result, China could only digest 5%, which was far beyond his expectation.
When I chatted with Yang Chonghe via email recently, I also talked about NEC’s operations. The most crooked thing about NEC is that it cuts off the industrial chain.
For example, Neon bought all the unpackaged chips produced by Huahong NEC, took them to Malaysia for packaging, and then brought another chip from Malaysia to Yanjing for packaging.
Firstly, Huahong NEC is not allowed to master the core technology, and secondly, Huahong NEC is not allowed to form a complete industrial chain. Huahong NEC is just equivalent to a processing department of Japan's NEC located in China. "
After listening to this, Zhou Xin suddenly realized that his connections were far inferior to those of Hu Zhengming, and Guan Jianying could not find out such detailed information in China: "No wonder Hua Hong Semiconductor dared not do it when there was an order. It turned out to be because it was completely incapable of chip foundry." Wrapped in neon.
Therefore, if there is an order that can allow them to reverse the current huge loss situation, they also have to look at the eyes of the Neon people.
Not only did Apple's decoding chip help them turn a profit completely, it was also a huge profit. And once this order is completed, it will be a long-term business cooperation.
Moreover, the decoding chip does not have high technical requirements. I never figured it out before, but now I finally understand it. "
Zhou Xintou is a bit big. SMIC’s ownership structure is complex, and marketization and profit demands make it difficult to advance cooperation with SMIC.
Not to mention that when SMIC was established, the chip industry was at a trough caused by the Internet crash, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index continued to fall.
If Mphone's A1E chip orders are given to SMIC, we guarantee that they will face the west, and they will not face the east.
But the problem is that Hua Hong Semiconductor cannot manufacture chips using the 130nm process, and neither can SMIC.
Hu Zhengming said: “So it is best to cooperate with TSMC, and Huahong can be used as an alternative.
I'll see if I can solve this problem after I go back. I still have some energy in China.
As a famous entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, you have a huge amount of capital, and you can affect more than just your companies.
Mphone's chip can be used as a bargaining chip, Apple's decoding chip can be used as a bargaining chip, and you can also help Xinxin Technology to obtain chip OEMs from other companies.
NVIDIA's chip foundry can also be used as a bargaining chip.
The other is Intel. The most important thing is to convince Intel, as long as Intel is willing to support us.
The first thing I want to do after returning to China this time is to cooperate with Intel to develop a chip specifically for the Chinese market, focusing on cost-effectiveness.
Then we cooperate with computer manufacturers in China, focusing on low prices.
But there are many things that need to be done, such as understanding the consumption power and actual demand of the Chinese market, predicting future situations, etc. "
Historically, Intel has often launched special supplies for China. As early as 2006, Intel launched a number of 533MHz FSB residual products. These residual products were mainly supplied to the Chinese market, focusing on The price is just a low.
"In the field of chips, Intel is the most important player at the moment. From Samsung to TSMC, the positive cycle of the chip industry is formed, and they are all riding Intel's express train."
After Zhou Xin chatted with Hu Zhengming, he found that the other party had formed a complete idea and a clear set of playing methods.
This made him feel relieved. There was no problem with Guan Jianying's ability, but there were too many things to do, and it was obviously not something he could do alone.
In addition, in China, personal connections are too important. Compared with Hu Zhengming, who has been dealing with Chinese academia and industry since 1985, Guan Jianying can be said to have no connections in China. The only one he can rely on is Shen. In terms of sea market.
After Hu Zhengming returned, he greatly improved all aspects of Xinxin International's work.
"Zhou Xin, you don't seem to be in a good mood?" When she returned home, Li Jingyi, who was reading a book, looked at Zhou Xin, who seemed to be looking at her mobile phone. In fact, she didn't do anything with her fingers and her eyes looked dull.
After Zhou Xin glanced at the other party, Li Jingyi, who was wearing home clothes, always gave him the feeling of a good wife and mother, "Professor Hu promised me to return to China as the chairman of Xinxin Technology and be fully responsible for all my business in China. "
Li Jingyi asked curiously: "Then why are you not interested?
Isn't this something worth celebrating?
Didn't you always want to persuade Professor Hu to go back and help you?
For you, Professor Hu is completely trustworthy, and he is the top talent in the field of integrated circuits. With his help, it should be easier for China to develop its own semiconductor industry. "
Zhou Xin asked Hu Zhengming not to mention resigning, but to return to China to settle down before resigning to Berkeley via email. He would then serve as Hu Zhengming's plenipotentiary representative and help him discuss with the school whether he could retain his position.
Before, Hu Zhengming returned to China in the name of academic exchanges. He saw a lot of mysterious deaths of Chinese scientists on the news. When a scientist of Hu Zhengming's level returned, Zhou Xin was worried about what would happen if the target was exposed in the first place.
Although the current situation is far less severe than twenty years ago, it is always right to be careful.
Zhou Xin said: “Because I have lost one of the people I know well in Silicon Valley, parting always makes people sad.
The only people I know well at Berkeley are Professor Hu and Senior Brother Zhang. Senior Brother Zhang went to Texas Instruments. Although he came to Silicon Valley very frequently, when he came to Silicon Valley, either I was not there or I was not free, so it was rare for everyone to see him.
As for Professor Hu, we see each other almost every week. He has been very helpful to me both academically and when I first came to Silicon Valley. We are both teachers and friends.
He replied to Shen Hai to help me, but for many years we could only contact each other through WeChat. "
Zhou Xin also wanted to poach Zhang Zhongbo back. The problem was that Zhang Zhongbo was very happy working at Texas Instruments.
Zhang Zhongbo used to make digital signal processors. Later, after the Mphone became popular, major mobile phone manufacturers began to have a demand for semi-smart phones. Therefore, Texas Instruments is also conducting research and development in response to market trends, and plans to develop a mobile chip that better supports Internet applications.
Zhang Zhongbo was transferred to this new research group.
This also made Zhou Xin less eager to poach him, and it would be good to stay at Texas Instruments for a few more years.
Li Jingyi consoled her: "No one can have everything they want."
Zhou Xin sighed: "Yeah, it's just because there are too few people, so I can't find the right people to do many things.
I feel more and more that I should learn from Lord Mengchang and support three thousand diners, so that I won't have to worry about not having talent on hand.
What you just said is so true that no one can always have everything they want. Even things that were agreed upon before will change later.
You still remember Senior Brother Li, right? Robin is the one who makes the search engine. "
Li Jingyi nodded: "Remember, what happened? He came to our house for dinner several times.
Every time he comes to my house for dinner, I feel that when you talk, he looks at you affectionately. If he is a woman, he will definitely be interested in you. "
Zhou Xin raised his head and said, "What you paid attention to is so strange.
Last year, Google wanted to merge with Baidu and annex Baidu. At that time, the investors behind Baidu, represented by Goldman Sachs, put pressure on Baidu and wanted Baidu to accept Google's conditions.
Robin came to talk to me at that time and expressed that he did not want to accept the merger and wanted my support.
Of course I support him. We have such a good relationship, and I haven't paid much attention to the benefits of Google and Baidu's merger and listing.
At that time, everyone agreed, I supported him, and I helped him block the pressure from Goldman Sachs. One year later, Baidu firmly dominated Google in the search engine market.
I also asked Baidu to build the search engine built into Mphone.
As a result, Robin came to chat with me recently and said that after thinking about it, he still planned to merge with Google. After the merger, the listing can enjoy a premium far exceeding that of Baidu's independent listing. "
Li Jingyi was surprised: "How could such a change happen?
He used to reject it, but now he has achieved staged victory in the search engine battlefield, and now it is abnormal to give up. "
Zhou Xin said: “Because this time Baidu merged with Google, Robin will serve as chairman and CEO of the merged search engine company.
So Robin was moved.
Originally, the current search engine market share is about 43% for Baidu, 38% for Google, and then other companies.
Baidu has always been ahead, but its lead is limited. The premium that can be enjoyed by listing will not be very high.
It is different from the merger with Google. After the merger, their share of the search engine market can be said to be similar to that of the Windows monopoly operating system market.
The new Baidu-Google will be seen as the Yahoo of the new era. Storytelling is the most important thing in the capital market. Baidu alone does not have many stories to tell, but it will be different after merging with Google.
Furthermore, Baidu is annexing Google, not Google annexing Baidu. "
I've been too busy with work recently, so I've been a little lazy in updating, and I'll slowly get back to it later!
Another very important reason is that these chapters are really difficult to write, and some specific information is too hard to find.
(End of chapter)
