Rebirth of the Wild Age

In the factory located in Zhangjiang Park, a batch of equipment that has just been shipped back to China is being debugged.

Zhang Rujing led Song Weiyang all the way. He didn't take the initiative to talk to the employees, and the employees completely ignored him, and they were all busy with their work.

Song Weiyang laughed at himself: As early as a few years ago, I wanted to start a chip manufacturing company. At that time, I had a little money, so I wanted to play cutting-edge technology on a whim. After asking Academician Ni carefully, I was so scared that I quickly dismissed the whimsical idea. .”

Hahaha! Zhang Rujing laughed happily.

A staunch nationalist like Academician Ni wants to make independent chips and operating systems, but he dare not say that he will open a chip factory, so he can only design chips for OEM.

There are three difficulties: one is money, the other is people, and the third is machines.

Among these three difficult factors, money is the best solution. If the government really wants to do it, it can scrape together tens of billions.

What is really difficult is talent and machines. The Chinese government has spent all kinds of money in order to develop semiconductors in the past 20 years. But without qualified talents, no matter how good the teachers and students of Tsinghua University and University of Science and Technology of China are, it is impossible to master relevant technologies out of thin air. At that time, those who were responsible for the introduction of technology were all grown up in the 1960s and 1970s. What knowledge could they have learned back then? Even if you spend money to introduce technology, you can't fully understand the technology by looking at other people's drawings every day, let alone further technology research and development.

Leaders who want to make a difference think about it. Since there are no excellent talents, let's spend time to cultivate them slowly. Therefore, we continue to spend money to introduce technology and equipment, enter into joint ventures with multinational companies, and accumulate technology and talents while engaging in production practice. This idea is feasible in other industries, including many manufacturing industries, and it has indeed succeeded.

However, there is a thing called Moore's Law, an organization called Batumi, and an agreement called Wassenaar Agreement.

The content of Moore's Law is: when the price remains unchanged, the number of components that an integrated computer can accommodate will double approximately every 18-24 months, and the performance will also double.

The Batumi and Wassenaar Agreement stipulates that the export of the most advanced high-tech equipment to China is restricted, and the technical equipment that can be approved for export is usually two generations later than the most advanced (plus the introduction time and landing digestion, the technology that China has obtained usually three generations behind).

The superposition of these things has led to China's introduction of a large number of backward technologies and equipment. It may be barely enough for the first one or two years, but these technologies and equipment have been completely eliminated before they have had time to digest. As a result, the state's support project failed. After a few years, the government was still not reconciled, and spent billions of yuan in the introduction of technology and equipment, but it was quickly eliminated.

So, a few years ago, Song Weiyang didn't understand farts. With a little money in his hand, it was like making chips. After he knew the truth, he quickly dismissed the idea. Among other things, he can't buy the equipment. It's useless to buy things that are two or three generations behind!

Now Song Weiyang was very curious, staring at the equipment in the factory and asked, Mr. Zhang, how did you get these advanced equipment?

Zhang Rujing smiled and said, Guess.

Song Weiyang said: I heard a rumor that you asked five churches in the United States to guarantee that SMIC's chip technology would not be used for military purposes, and finally obtained the export license for these devices.

Hahahaha, Zhang Rujing smiled crookedly, this statement is very imaginative.

Song Weiyang tentatively asked, Goldman Sachs is quietly exerting force?

Zhang Rujing nodded and said, Goldman Sachs and Walden made guarantees, and even paid for lobbying for some American departments.

That makes sense. Song Weiyang figured it out instantly.

Last year, Zhang Rujing was forced to leave Shida Semiconductor and declared that he would start a company in mainland China. When the news spread, many companies in mainland China, Wanwan, Singapore, and the United States even took the initiative to contact Zhang Rujing to send him money, raising 1 billion U.S. dollars in two months.

Among them are Goldman Sachs and Walden, both of which have huge influence in the United States. It is relatively simple for them to help obtain high-end technical equipment.

Among the top ten shareholders of SMIC, Goldman Sachs holds the first share, Walden holds the second share, China Science and Technology holds the third share, Shanghai Industrial (state-owned enterprise) holds the fourth share, Handing (USA) holds the fifth share, Vertex (Singapore) holds the sixth shareholding. To put it bluntly, it is a joint venture company of international origin.

The team of more than 300 people brought by Zhang Rujing is not all from Wanwan, there are also programmers from Singapore, and even from Texas Instruments. Among the company's executives, there are also international friends such as Americans and Italians. In the future, they will join the returnee faction and the Tumu faction (Tsinghua University), plus the founding veteran Wanwan faction. There are many and chaotic factions. Only Zhang Rujing can control the scene.

When SMIC suffered a lawsuit and its future was hopeless, many foreign employees left automatically. Shareholders such as Goldman Sachs also reduced their holdings one after another, and domestic companies took the opportunity to increase investment, completely turning SMIC into Chinese blood.

Under such circumstances, after each new president takes office, the primary problem is not to grasp technology and the market, but how to control the company's power and balance factional struggles. The strong president directly persuades me, and if I don’t obey, I will get out; the weak president can only be a peacemaker, and it is difficult to develop in the friction; the most useless president directly destroys SMIC.

Moreover, the three major shareholders are not at ease, because the shareholding ratio is too close, no one can really control the company, and they can play with each other's brains.

Song Weiyang stood in the factory workshop, and suddenly had an idea, that is to let nature take its course and let SMIC experience a big setback. Only when the company is at its most dangerous moment, foreign shareholders such as Goldman Sachs, Walden, Handing, and Vertex will be willing to sell their shares, and Sinotech will have the opportunity to control SMIC.

You know, Zhang Rujing's ability is too strong, with a start-up capital of 10 billion yuan in his hand, he actually made SMIC the fourth in the world in two years. If this kind of hen that laid golden eggs hadn't been suppressed maliciously, how could those foreign shareholders be willing to sell it?

And if Sinotech cannot be a controlling shareholder, how can it ensure the long-term and stable development of SMIC?

Then let TSMC sue for infringement, sue SMIC to the point of bankruptcy, and China Technology will spend money to take over the deal, and by the way, keep Zhang Rujing, the president who can calm the scene!

Another thing is to pay attention to the absorption and cultivation of talents. One is to recruit turtles, and the other is to make blood by yourself.

As we said earlier, there were no relevant talents in China in the 1990s, but after 2000 they suddenly appeared.

These talents are not created out of thin air. They must finish their undergraduate studies in China, go to the United States for further studies, and work in multinational companies for several years before they can master truly practical cutting-edge semiconductor technology. It takes at least 10 years for these students to go abroad to return to China, otherwise what comes back is a half-finished product!

In other words, it must be a talent who went abroad in the 1980s, and only after returning to China can he prop up the sky of China's semiconductor industry.

Historically, most of the bigwigs in China's chip manufacturing industry returned to China after 2000, and many of them were poached by Huawei and ZTE.

After 2000, there was a wave of sea turtles returning to China, because in this year the Opinions on Encouraging High-level Overseas Students to Return to China was promulgated, calling on state-owned enterprises and institutions to independently introduce sea turtles. If these sea turtles host scientific research projects after returning to China, and the projects are internationally advanced or urgently needed in China, the state will directly provide supporting funds for scientific research.

After returning to China, these sea turtles hold important positions and can continue to receive US green cards, which was absolutely not allowed before. If you return to China to work for a period of time and give up your US green card, you can still serve as the legal representative of state-owned enterprises and institutions. This is also a rule that only existed after 2000. The legal person of the institution.

Even, if the family members of these sea turtles live abroad, their income can be directly remitted in the form of foreign exchange, and there are special family leave abroad every year. If the family is moved back to China, the spouse’s job needs to be helped, and the children’s schooling must also be helped. It is even stipulated that they must be arranged in the nearest bilingual school and bilingual class with the best conditions.

As soon as this opinion aimed at high-level sea turtles came out, it immediately triggered a wave of overseas returnees in the early 21st century. These returned sea turtles were later flooded with various cutting-edge industries in China.

Moreover, many high-level sea turtles do not need these benefits, nor do they care about the country's support for their wives and children, but they still choose to resign and return to China with high salaries. Because this policy sends out a special signal, that is, the country attaches great importance to high-end technical talents, and they can get a green light all the way back to China to start a business!