"Mr. Zhang, please take a seat." Chen Zhiwen brought Zhang Zhongmou to his headquarters office in Galaxy Building and said with a smile: "Be casual."
"Thank you, Mr. Chen." Zhang Zhongmou said, and then sat down with Chen Zhiwen. The secretary beside him also served coffee.
"Have you thought clearly?" Chen Zhiwen took a sip of coffee and asked with a smile.
When he was in the United States, Chen Zhiwen specially arranged a meeting with Zhang Zhongmou in order to persuade him to return to Taiwan to start a business, so that he could also participate in it and enjoy the huge benefits of TSMC in the future. At the same time, the early birth of TSMC had a great impact on Midea. The group's strategic supply security goes a long way.
"We have thought about it, let's come back and start a business together." Zhang Zhongmou said: "We are traveling with 11 Chinese people who have achieved certain results in different fields of American semiconductors. I have to thank Chen Sheng for his commitment, otherwise it would not be so easy for me to convince them. .”
"11 people? That's not bad. The treatment is not a problem. We can promise them higher income than the United States." Chen Zhiwen said with some surprise.
He remembered that in the original history, Zhang Zhongmou should have brought back 6 people during his entrepreneurial period, but now there are 11, which is most likely due to the embrace of Midea. This is not only about the lack of money and treatment, but also the fact that the startup company does not If there is a lack of orders, the risk will be much lower.
Although the performance of TSMC in later generations has basically reached the limit of an electronic foundry giant, for Chen Zhiwen, it is more in his interest to grow at a faster speed.
On the one hand, we cannot build such an industry in Hong Kong. It is too sensitive and can easily be controlled by Europe and the United States. Second, Hong Kong’s local real estate will destroy a large number of industries in the future. It is a talent issue. Hong Kong does not have enough high-end electronics talents. At most, it is almost impossible to make chips for the lowest-end electronic consumer products. Even Midea's engineers who specialize in low-end industrial or home appliance chips are mostly poached from Taiwan or Japan.
In the whole of Asia, only Bayan has the possibility to build a Chinese cultural district, and the culture in East Asia is similar. People in Bayan can make the same volume as Japan and South Korea, and eventually occupy a certain level of the chip foundry market.
"Yes, there were actually 18 people originally. I talked with them for a long time, and finally 11 people joined. In addition to salary, they also have their own conditions. I have sorted it out and everything is here." Zhang Zhongmou said.
"Let me take a look." Chen Zhiwen took a list, took a serious look at it, and said: "For these houses in the Bay or the United States, cars, insurance, and round-trip air tickets to the United States are no problem. I can agree to it now. But these people want shares, almost 5% of the shares in total, are they worth it?"
"If among the Chinese, they are indeed considered to be one of the most cutting-edge in the industry, and if I were to start my own business, I would give them a certain amount of shares." Zhang Zhongmou said.
"But now you are not starting a business, but we are working together. We are not short of funds, which is still different." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "When we can use Chinese people, we will naturally give priority to Chinese people, but this does not mean that It has to be like this. We can talk about salary, benefits and other things, but there is no need to talk about shares. There is no need to discuss. As long as I am willing to pay, I can also recruit IBM's high-end technical chief engineer."
In normal entrepreneurship, when the company has no money in the early stage, in order to attract big-name talents, it is natural to take out stocks. If you travel to the Internet era, you will do this when you don't have much capital. This is normal. business logic.
But now it is completely different. The new company does not lack funds, and it does not even lack initial orders. Under such circumstances, Chen Zhiwen will naturally welcome high-quality Chinese talents to join, and even give a few shares according to their merits in the future. Yes, but not many. At most, it is a normal business model in Europe and the United States, which gives senior management talents and technicians a certain number of shares as year-end bonuses.
And these people often ask for a few percent of the shares, so it is impossible for Chen Zhiwen to agree, not even 1%, because they can directly use cash to hire other people of the same level, and at most they will have a white face. That’s all, or it’s the same as going to Japan to recruit people.
Zhang Zhongmou is a special case. He is the best management talent. He has reached the limit that Chinese people in the IT industry can reach in the United States: Vice President of Texas Instruments.
The fact that TSMC was able to develop like that in the previous life is evidence. Without Zhang Zhongmou, I and I would not be able to play in the chip processing industry. And even without me, Zhang Zhongmou may still carry out the industry in the same way as in the original history in a few years. Therefore, Chen Zhiwen and him are In a cooperative relationship, the shares naturally need to be given to the other party.
"Is there no room for you at all?" Zhang Zhongmou asked with some doubts.
"Unless they are irreplaceable in the entire industry and our joint venture chip company must need them in the future, then we can give them shares and negotiate." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
Chen Zhiwen will not be stingy with real top talents. However, in this society, people who rely on technology to make a living are unlikely to be replaced by others. In the future, with the explosion of Internet technology, technicians will either start their own businesses or have to work part-time. On the contrary, high-quality management talents can rely on their own abilities to become CEOs of companies with great potential. Then many years later, they got very high shares, such as Microsoft's Ballmer and Google's Eric Schmidt.
Zhang Zhongmou’s hesitation is actually normal, because he has no idea what kind of enterprise he will build in the future. This is actually normal. When Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Tengxun were established, they did not expect that there would be It is rare to have such a foresight on the future scale. It may be Internet retail companies such as Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com, because their purpose is to monopolize the entire market, and it can be seen in the early stage that the potential is very huge.
When Zhang Zhongmou believed that his company would not be very large in the future, he was naturally willing to give some people shares.
"That's not the case." Zhang Zhongmou paused and said.
"That's enough. Can you talk to them again? If you are capable enough, it's not a problem to add a little more salary." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
"Okay." Zhang Zhongmou nodded and agreed. In the future joint venture, Chen Zhiwen will indeed have a greater say. Not only will the other party's shares be higher than his, but more importantly, the entire joint venture will rely on Midea for all initial orders. In this case, even if there is no affiliation, you still have to be obedient. Besides, what Chen Zhiwen said makes sense, but his thinking is a bit too simple.
"Have you contacted the Taiwanese side?" Chen Zhiwen asked again. In addition to Zhang Zhongmou's own abilities and connections, the most important thing for TSMC's success is the support of the Taiwanese government. If the Taiwanese government cannot be brought in, Even if a factory is built in Wanwan, there is a high probability that it will not be able to develop in the future.
"I have sent people to contact me before, and Wanwan said they can cooperate, but they want 40% of the shares." Zhang Zhongmou said.
"It's too much." Chen Zhiwen thought for a moment and said, "Let's do this. I'll ask Midea to mobilize a professional negotiation team from Hong Kong to accompany you to the Bay Area. The shares can be given to the Bay Area Government, but 40% Too much."
TSMC has many financing opportunities in the future, because it needs financing to attract large capital from all parties. Now the Taiwanese government is going to take 40%, so it’s unclear how its shares will be diluted in the future. In any case, he must at least It is guaranteed that for a long time in the future, its shares will be above 16% and it will have 20% of the voting rights of a board of directors.
This is a question of balance. You need to ensure your own interests, and you also need to allow the Bayan government and the founder of Zhang Zhongmou to obtain sufficient benefits, and then the three parties will work together to expand the scale of the enterprise. But now even the Bayan government does not dare to Just imagine how big TSMC will be in the future. Similarly, the same goes for Samsung Electronics today. Lee Kun-hee, who has unlimited ambitions for the future, also has no idea of the scale of Samsung Electronics in the future.
This can be regarded as one's own advantage, and one must ensure one's own interests in TSMC.
"That would be even better. As long as we reach an agreement with Wanwan, our new company can be established immediately." Zhang Zhongmou nodded.
Although they are forced to give up a lot of shares to Chen Zhiwen and the Bayan government, this is the price that entrepreneurs without capital must pay. Even if Apple is now in full swing in the United States, the shares of its first founders are already very low. . There is no way, the business society is like this. If you do it yourself, the company's development will inevitably be slow and difficult, while competitors can develop rapidly with the help of other people's capital, and the final result will be death.
Now with Chen Zhiwen's capital, factory infrastructure, high-performance equipment production lines, and recruiting a large number of technical talents are no longer a problem. With the help of the Bayan government, it can unlimitedly borrow from Bayan's existing electronics industry foundation and its international reputation. Although some of its effects are not very big, they are much stronger than those of Hong Kong.
"Yes, my orders are ready for you at any time. As long as you can make chips with qualified technology and suitable prices, I can also give you orders for game consoles." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The chip company he founded, I only dare to put it on the home appliances with the lowest requirements, but I still have confidence in Zhang Zhongmou's ability. Moreover, Midea now has a quotation program for core components. Important components such as chips will also be gradually introduced from less to more. It is guaranteed that there will be no batch problems.
"Thank you Chen Sheng." Zhang Zhongmou said with a smile.
"What's the name of the company? Have you decided?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.
Zhang Zhongmou nodded and said: "I have thought about it, let's call it TSMC."
(End of chapter)
