After getting what they needed from Shao Morita, Chen Zhiwen immediately arranged for a trip to South Korea, established a subsidiary there, and then began to slowly acquire shares of Samsung Electronics Industry on the stock market. Samsung was founded in 1969 The current main business of the group's subsidiaries is the production of large-ticket items such as refrigerators, washing machines, and televisions. The most famous of them is black-and-white televisions. In two years, Samsung's black-and-white televisions will become the world's largest manufacturer.
The black-and-white TV industry is an industry that developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan look down upon. Such products have no market at all in developed countries, and profits cannot cover the income of workers in developed countries. Therefore, it has become closely related to the textile industry. The same needs to be transferred to developing countries.
Samsung Electronics seized this opportunity. Black and white TVs were no longer available in Europe, the United States and Japan, but they were very popular in Asia and South America. This backward industry also brought very huge profits to Samsung. In the mid-1970s, Samsung Electronics also began to produce color TV sets and began its own technological upgrade.
From black and white to color, this is a normal business development process. However, at this time, Samsung Electronics suddenly entered the semiconductor industry, but countless people laughed at it for overestimating its capabilities. There were also many people within the company who opposed it. Even President Lee Byung-cheol did not agree. , but the younger son Lee Kun-hee persisted, and finally began the beginning of Samsung Electronics' global dominance in the hardware field.
Even though Samsung obtained the support of American capital after the 1990s to deal with the Japanese semiconductor industry, among so many companies, only Samsung seized this opportunity, which is enough to illustrate Samsung's capabilities.
The current stock market value of Samsung Electronics Industry ranks high in South Korea and abroad, but it is far worse than that of later generations. Midea's overseas accounts are generating a large amount of cash every month. Therefore, a small part is used to acquire Samsung Electronics Industry. Stocks are also a good investment, better than leaving them in overseas banks without interest.
But this is just pure investment. You can sell it at a high price before the Asian financial crisis, and then take advantage of the Korean crisis to make another profit. However, the same principle is still the same. Just make some money by following American capital. The main thing is to turn against customers. That's a bit unrealistic.
Time soon came to August. A professional construction team hired from the United States had completed the construction of the dust-free workshop and related supporting facilities required for chip wafers and liquid crystals in the Midea Industrial Park. The LCD production lines and chip production lines purchased from the United States were also put in place. During the round-the-clock debugging phase, relevant workers were sent to corresponding factories in the United States for study more than two months ago, and several experienced engineers were also hired from Japan.
Although the investment in chips and LCDs is not high, Chen Zhiwen still attaches great importance to it. This is the first step in the Great Wall. Only if this step is taken well, the future can be said to be promising.
Hong Kong, inside an office in Midea Industrial Park:
"XCMG, how is the living environment here in Hong Kong?" Chen Zhiwen said to a middle-aged man about 40 years old wearing special work clothes.
This person's name is Xu Zhishan, a Chinese engineer who has worked for Hitachi in Japan for a long time. He is also responsible for chips, but it is not technology research and development, but production management.
In most industries, R&D is a higher-end job than production, even for industrial crown cars. However, the chip industry is completely different. The technical content of chip production management is no lower than R&D. Later generations of Huawei have this powerful With its chip research and development capabilities, it can complete self-research of its own mobile phone chips. It cannot be said that it surpasses Qualcomm in terms of technology, but it can at least compete with it. However, because it has no ability to produce its own, it has fallen into a very passive situation.
Of course, the production of chips involves a lot of equipment with extremely high technical content, and this cannot be classified as production technology. However, in any case, the production aspect is also very important. Even in the early 1970s when semiconductors were in their early stages, just a quality control Rate is the core of all investments. Only when the yield rate goes up can the cost be reduced, and then there will be opportunities to continue iterative upgrades and occupy the market. Otherwise, they will be completely eliminated in the first round.
Therefore, Midea also spent a lot of money and entrusted several top headhunting companies in Japan to recruit several engineers from Japan who had experience in chip or LCD factory management. However, most of them were Japanese, except for the one in front of them. Xu Zhishan is Chinese and comes from Wanwan. He entered Hitachi right after graduating from Waseda University in Japan.
They are all Chinese, so Lei Shengli naturally attaches great importance to him. This time Chen Zhiwen came to visit the chip factory and arranged for Xu Zhishan to accompany him to receive him.
"Thank you, Chairman, for your concern. I live very well here." Xu Zhishan said.
"When can the chip factory start operations?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.
Xu Weishan replied: "In terms of equipment, the debugging has basically been completed. We have also manufactured corresponding chips according to the needs of many electronics factories in Hong Kong. However, the yield rate still needs to be controlled, and we also need time to do testing. , it is estimated that the results will be determined by October, and mass production can begin in December.”
"Okay, then it will be less than half a year." Chen Zhiwen nodded with satisfaction.
The first product of the chip factory is the electronic watch that is currently in greatest demand in Hong Kong, because it is the simplest of all electronic products and has the lowest demand for chips. If it were not for the small space of the electronic watch, then Hong Kong would The old semiconductor industry was all about hand-soldering transistors, which is still common on old radios.
Although the technology content is low, Hong Kong in the past and even Hong Kong in the history of theaters did not have chip production capabilities and could only import them from Japan. As major customers, Hong Kong electronics manufacturers were joined by several major Japanese chip factories because they had no choice. The price has gone up, but there is nothing you can do about it.
This is naturally suitable for the Midea chip factory that has just opened. The product is simple and can be said to be one of the simplest products in the history of chips. Once qualified products are produced, the volume will be huge.
In the same way, the same goes for LCD factories. The LCD chips used in electronic watches can also be said to have the smallest demand area on the market, and the quantity is also very large.
"It's just, Chairman, we are still far behind in terms of employee proficiency. With the current employee capabilities, it is difficult to control the yield rate. This is just a chip for an electronic watch. If it is replaced with a more complex chip, there will be uncontrollable problems. It’s just too much,” Xu Zhishan said.
"Then what do you think?" Chen Zhiwen nodded and asked. He knew that what Xu Zhishan said was very euphemistic. This kind of factory with high technical content has very high requirements for the quality and ability of its employees. It is definitely not an ordinary processing factory. There are a few old masters who know a little bit about technology, and then they lead a group of people who don't know anything. A novice can play with it.
Once many people are not familiar with, do not understand, or lack the ability to make chips in a timely manner, they may be scrapped in large quantities. Moreover, even experts like Xu Zhishan will find it difficult to find the source of such technical problems. If these types of problems keep popping up, the factory will be unable to produce. And if the problem is left in the hands of the clients, it will be even worse. All customers will cancel their orders, and the chip factory will definitely be ruined. Even if Chen Zhiwen has more funds, for This situation is also helpless.
"I understand that both the chairman and Manager Lei want to cultivate chip talents in Hong Kong, but this will take a long time, at least two to three years. The people you sent to the United States to study did learn some knowledge, but this is still It is far from enough. To solve the current problem, we need a large number of people with experience in chip factories to work here. They will be responsible for each node, while other Hong Kong workers can help on the side and learn slowly. In this way, the two In about 20 years, there will be a large number of experienced engineers or technicians, so there will be no problems. The same situation may be the same at the LCD factory." Xu Zhishan said.
"A large number of skilled technicians?" Chen Zhiwen said with a frown: "It's not a big problem to dig a few or even a dozen from Japan, but if there are more, it will be very troublesome and it will take a long time. From a time point of view, , it is difficult to cooperate with our production plan, and these Japanese may not seriously teach us Chinese."
"Chen Sheng, in fact, there is no need to recruit a large number of people from Japan. There is one in Wanwan next door." Lei Shengli said suddenly.
"Wanwan? Do they have a chip industry now?" Chen Zhiwen asked in surprise. He naturally knew how powerful Wanwan's semiconductors were in later generations. TSMC can compete with Samsung to many extents, even in In a few areas, it needs to be even stronger.
In his impression, these things in Bayan should have started when Zhang Zhongmou, the vice president of Texas Instruments, left the United States and returned to Bayan to establish TSMC, and it was still in the 1980s. As far as he knows now, there is nothing at all in Bayan. A somewhat famous chip company.
"There are not only chips, but also LCDs, but they have just been established." Lei Shengli said: "This was also some time ago. Xu Sheng accidentally learned from a friend that as early as a few years ago, the Bayan government We began to prepare to develop the chip and LCD industry, but because of the low efficiency of the government, this matter has been slowly progressing. Wanwan is also relatively economical in foreign exchange. We talked with many factories for a long time, and it was not until last year that the production line was finalized, and production began this year. , much lower than our efficiency.
But one thing is that the Gulf government has long ago sent hundreds of electronic engineers to intern at some large factories in the United States. These people have studied in American factories for several years. "
"Is there such a thing? This is really a blessing for us." Chen Zhiwen almost laughed happily.
If you are really sleepy, give me a pillow. There are many things that money can solve, such as purchasing production line equipment and purchasing technology patents. As long as it is not the most advanced, it is generally not a problem. But when it comes to technical personnel, it is a headache. It is not difficult to recruit people if you have money. , but it is very difficult to recruit a team, and it is even more difficult, almost impossible, to recruit all aspects of engineers in the chip or LCD workshop. This may be much more difficult than acquiring this company.
Especially here is Hong Kong, a desert of high-tech industries. To recruit people, you can only go overseas. Moreover, the culture and language are different from Japan, which has better technology. But Wanwan is different. At least everyone is Chinese and speaks Cantonese. Although it's not the same as Hokkien, it's basically the same language, so you can get used to it with a little bit of tweaking.
"I went to investigate this matter. These people were sent to IBM, Intel, HP and other factories for internships. They are high-tech engineers specially selected by Wanwan. They all understand English. Their experience in the past few years must be very good. Rich, but they have signed a training agreement with the Bayan government, and if they want to leave, these people need to pay a lot of liquidated damages," Lei Shengli said.
"How much does it cost per person?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"It's almost 10,000 US dollars per person. This price is very high based on the commodity prices in Bay Area. It is estimated that the Bay Area government is also worried that these people will be retained by American companies." Lei Shengli said.
"How much are their salaries at Wanwan?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.
"My friend is actually one of this group of engineers. Their salary back in Bayan is about NT$10,000 a month. This is actually a very high salary in Bayan, but they still think it is too little. Maybe he was used to the salary of his colleagues in the United States, so he accidentally contacted me. He originally wanted to use my relationship to go to Japan," Xu Zhishan said.
"So it makes sense." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
The value of talents in high-end industries has nothing to do with their location. Their value has always been in line with international standards, because they can also find very good jobs in developed countries. This is also the reason why many talents from the mainland in later generations went to Europe and the United States. It was not until the mainland's economy reached a certain scale and price control was low that it became easier to retain talents.
"So we can start here. The liquidated damages of 10,000 US dollars are a bit expensive, and we don't need hundreds of people here." Xu Zhishan said.
"Ten thousand dollars per person doesn't matter. Let's do this. You arrange for the headhunting company over there in Wanwan, or your friend at XCMG, to get the information about these people first and understand the abilities of each of them. Then you can After a comprehensive selection, we will recruit those who we think we need, and we can negotiate their salary." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
With US$10,000, in Hong Kong, where house prices have almost doubled, one can easily buy a fully paid house in a non-prime area, or pay a down payment in high-quality communities such as Taikoo Shing and Whampoa Gardens. This is a lifetime requirement for many Hong Kong people. The dream is just a drop in the bucket compared to the chip industry.
It is difficult to find hundreds of such talents who are proficient in English and have a foundation in the electronics industry in Hong Kong. They can be selected by the Gulf government and sent to the United States. They are basically professional in this aspect, and in chips Several years of experience from big manufacturers are hard to come by. If the Taiwanese government hadn't come forward to arrange for so many people to intern at factories like Intel and HP, wouldn't it have been a pipe dream?
"There is another problem. These are the core personnel of Wanwan's semiconductor industry. If we poach people on such a large scale, they may be dissatisfied," Lei Shengli said.
"If you are dissatisfied, you are dissatisfied. What can they do to us?" Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "As long as we don't do anything bad and dig some of them over, it won't be a big deal. Just have a balance."
(End of chapter)
