1991 Starting from the core

Cui Taiyuan's ambition made Su Yuanshan look at this person with admiration.

There has been a saying for a long time that the rise of SK is inseparable from the lady in front of him.

Well, his wife's surname was Lu, and she was once the richest daughter of the country. His father-in-law was in jail just a few months ago due to a lawsuit...

One of the reasons for the lawsuit was to help Shengjing complete the acquisition of Bangguo Mobile Communications and integrate it into SK Telecom.

Now, the price offered by Cui Taiyuan is actually SK Telecom... This is indeed a bit interesting.

Su Yuanshan believed that the ambition revealed by Cui Taiyuan was an expression of his true inner will. Because... this is the path of Yuan Xin. However, Yuanxin started early and steadily, and it has core technologies.

——Then why is he SK?

With dreams?

…

Looking at Cui Taiyuan with a half-smile, Su Yuanshan drank tea leisurely.

"Mr. Cui, I have to admit that the goal you just mentioned is consistent with Yuanxin."

"But does Mr. Cui understand the difficulty of achieving this goal?" Su Yuanshan simply said: "To put it bluntly, under the current financial turmoil, your country's consumer confidence, or the stock price and market value of companies, are not A market that we are willing to take risks to enter."

"Today, the leading wafer fabs are constantly advancing the process, while the large forces are following closely behind, trying to find a relatively stable and mature node to provide large-scale production capacity. The current node is 0.8 micron. The latest technology process of ITRS Although predictions have been made for future nodes, no one has a real estimate of how long it will take."

(Note: ITRS, International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors is a planning organization that sets R\u0026D directions, goals and forecasts for process technologies and technologies.)

Of course, Su Yuanshan said this against his will - in fact, ITRS is quite reliable, and at least he is reasonable.

During the process upgrade of the wafer factory, not all chips and all semiconductor components will be upgraded with the improvement of the wafer factory process - because there is simply no need.

Before the architecture and application requirements improve, some chips, not to mention 0.8 micron, even 2 micron can meet the demand - there are only a few logic gates in total, and advanced manufacturing processes have no use except increasing process costs.

For the wafer factories that mainly produce these components and chips, what they need is not an improvement in the process, but an increase in the size of the silicon wafer - when the packaging area is fixed, the larger the size of the silicon wafer, the more components will be produced in a complete process. The more devices there are, the lower the corresponding cost.

Therefore, for fabs seeking stability and profit, silicon wafer manufacturing and cutting processes are their key technologies.

Most of their process nodes are the largest or smallest nodes of a certain light source lithography machine. Because this is the only way to "squeeze" the longest life cycle of a product line.

There are now a large number of chips using the 0.8 micron process, such as various microcontrollers, various control chips under the YX01 architecture, and various sensors.

The next such node is 0.18 micron, and the next one is 90nm.

In the end, it will stay at 28nm for a long time - because further down, the FinFet architecture must be adopted, and the difficulty and cost will be greatly increased.

Su Yuanshan believed that since Cui Taiyuan wanted to engage in semiconductors, he would naturally understand this.

"Although flash memory particles require large-scale production like DRAM, their single-unit capacity is more important than memory and requires the support of advanced processes."

"So, if you just want to cooperate with Yuanxin to build a wafer fab and then fully enter the semiconductor field... it may be really difficult."

"Therefore, the risks and capital invested cannot be offset by exchanging SK Telecom's shares for a wafer fab as you proposed."

"Not to mention... SK Telecom's shares, and even your country's communications market, are actually not attractive to us."

"So, I hope Mr. Cui can be more honest."

…

Cui Taiyuan had been listening carefully to Su Yuanshan's words. He noticed that when it came to technical vocabulary, Su Yuanshan would explain it specially, which made him particularly helpful - because Su Yuanshan recognized the difficulty, it meant that he had thought carefully.

So, when he heard the last sentence, denying the value of SK Telecom in a tone that was almost contemptuous, he was a little stunned.

Cui Taiyuan's eyes narrowed, and he asked with just the right subtlety: "Mr. Su, do you think our market in Korea is not even as important as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand?"

"Mr. Cui, Korea and South Korea are two different concepts." Su Yuanshan said with a smile: "As for whether there are Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, it is important - we are all people under the influence of the Confucian cultural circle, and we all know the saying 'without desire, you will be strong'. "

Su Yuanshan specially said this idiom in Korean. Of course, his Korean is not much better than Cui Taiyuan's Chinese... but it does not prevent Cui Taiyuan from understanding it.

“The new, Malaysian, and Thai partners have no ambitions to become semiconductor giants.”

Cui Taiyuan's eyes couldn't help but look a bit hateful.

Su Yuanshan seemed to be deliberately irritating Cui Taiyuan, and continued cheerfully: "Mr. Cui, and... it seems that SK Telecom was involved in a case a few months ago. Frankly speaking, we really don't dare to get involved rashly. In addition, in your country The anti-monopoly policy has determined the share of the telecommunications market, which means that if you only rely on your domestic market, there will be an upper limit to the development of SK Telecom."

"Similarly, whether Yuanxin invests in True Corp, Taian Electronics, or Xinfei Communications... we are not simply buying individual stocks and waiting for appreciation. Instead, we are actually leading these telecommunications companies. development and ultimately achieve a win-win situation.”

"Excuse me, if we take a stake in SK Telecom, can we lead the development of SK Telecom? Or in other words, compared to SK Telecom, how is our experience in the communications field at FarCore?"

Seeing Cui Taiyuan's eyes constantly changing, Su Yuanshan smiled again: "If you just want to exchange the shares of SK Telecom with the shares of a wafer factory at equal value..."

"Then maybe I just have to say sorry."

…

Cui Taiyuan remained silent for a long time.

He admitted that Yuanxin is very strong - although Yuanxin has not been listed and has not announced financial reports, judging from the financial reports released by the non-core business companies it separated from, once Yuanxin is listed, the overall market value of its system may not increase instantly. It can exceed 100 billion US dollars.

And the young man in front of him... In addition to Yuanxin, he also has another huge semiconductor company, Xinghai.

Compared with Yuanxin, SK, which almost monopolizes Korea's petrochemical industry and is known as the third largest chaebol in Korea, has just experienced a financial crisis and is facing a power transfer...

It's really too weak.

What's more, SK still wants to enter the field where Yuanxin is good at.

Cui Taiyuan knew that his move was tantamount to seeking skin from a tiger, so he could not show his trump card from the beginning.

Silent, Cui Taiyuan suddenly smiled.

"Mr. Su, let's not talk about SK Telecom first, let's talk about the semiconductor field first. You must admit that Korea does not have a say in the semiconductor field, right?"

After saying that, Cui Taiyuan looked at Su Yuanshan - at this moment he even made a decision. If Su Yuanshan denies this, then he will turn around and leave.

The negotiation stage can belittle the opponent's advantages and magnify the opponent's disadvantages. This is understandable and even natural.

But we cannot ignore the facts.

Respecting facts is the prerequisite for cooperation. Cooperation can be sought through concessions, but cooperation cannot be sought through humiliation.

"Yes, I admit it." Su Yuanshan was very honest this time: "In fact, Korea has great support for the semiconductor industry."

Cui Taiyuan suddenly felt relieved.

Fortunately, this man is reasonable.

So he picked up the tea cup again, took a sip and continued to smile: "Yes! If an industry wants to rise and develop, in addition to technology, it also needs soil."

"Korea has this kind of soil."

Cui Taiyuan looked at Su Yuanshan and said calmly: "Frankly speaking, in the past ten years, the world has underestimated the potential of the mainland. As for Yuanxin, it is taking advantage of the momentum to rise."

"Therefore, Mr. Su should understand that in Korea, which has better semiconductor soil and environment, a great semiconductor company should also emerge."

Su Yuanshan looked at him with a smile but not a smile...

Become a great semiconductor company...

——Samsung and LG have all been wiped out, but this guy hasn’t even sharpened his ink yet. Now he comes over to Yuan Xin with an ink stick and says, come on, let’s draw a world famous book together...

However, Cui Taiyuan also looked at Su Yuanshan with a half-smile: "Mr. Su, I think... if Yuanxin wants to become the king in the Asia-Pacific region, it can not only be achieved by shorting the stocks of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics."

Su Yuanshan's eyes suddenly froze! I can't help but complain that Qin Si plays too arrogantly...

Cui Taiyuan stared into Su Yuanshan's eyes and said sincerely: "SK is willing to develop in the semiconductor field, and also hopes to obtain the support of Yuanxin, because this is in the common interests of both of us."

Su Yuanshan lowered his eyes and quickly got to the point: "How to cooperate? In which fields?"

Cui Taiyuan said without hesitation: "With the wafer factory as the center, we will fully engage in and integrate the semiconductor industry chain in South Korea, accelerate expansion, and defeat Samsung and LG in all fields."

"How to integrate?"

"Mergers, acquisitions."

Su Yuanshan's eyes quickly became sharp: "Who operates?"

Cui Taiyuan smiled slightly: "Of course it is operated by SK Telecom. SK Telecom will be SK's clarion call to enter semiconductors and digital products."

…

Su Yuanshan exhaled slowly.

In silence, Su Yuanshan looked at Cui Taiyuan.

He still underestimated this guy a little bit...

He is worthy of being the leader of the chaebol who has been in prison for the longest time... This spirit of seeking wealth in danger...

Well, it’s worth learning.

But, there is still a problem.

"Why do you think Yuanxin is a good partner instead of other companies?" Su Yuanshan stared at Cui Taiyuan.

"Because the blueprint and fields planned by Yuanxin cannot be provided by other companies." Cui Taiyuan felt much more relaxed at this time and laughed: "Moreover, judging from the current domestic mood and situation, it seems that cooperation from the west cannot be accepted. "

"So, Mr. Su, I hope you can carefully consider our willingness to cooperate."

…

Having said this, Cui Taiyuan has handed Su Yuanshan a trump card.

——He will make full use of the power of Yuanxin, so that Yuanxin can theoretically participate in this comprehensive monopoly war launched by SK against his own country with up to 49% of the shares.