Technology: Start by selling mobile phones

Mo Ran had visited "Wanglong Electrical Appliance Factory" not long ago. This time he came, and there seemed to be more employees in the slightly old park than last time, and it was bustling with people.

Soon, Mo Ran found Li Wanglong in the office.

The two of them no longer needed too much politeness. After a simple greeting, Mo Ran told Li Wanglong about preparing to produce the "Nietzsche laptop".

Just as Mo Ran expected, Lao Li was slightly surprised when he received the production task, and then he agreed without a word of objection.

"Okay, Mr. Mo, leave this matter to us."

“I just took over the order for ‘Shenzhou Laptop’ a few years ago, so I have some experience and connections, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Li Wanglong's simplicity made Mo Ran more satisfied.

But the more Lao Li behaved like this, the more Mo Ran felt sorry for "Wanglong Electrical Appliance Factory" and Lao Li.

Especially since the relocation of the new factory mentioned by Lao Li last time was blocked by himself... It would be impossible for someone else to be emotionless.

Thinking of this, Mo Ran exhaled softly, suddenly patted Lao Li on the shoulder and asked:

"I have to work hard on you again, Lao Li."

"The new production line...is there enough space?"

Li Wanglong was stunned for a moment, and then a smile appeared on his face.

"Enough."

“Although the park’s land is tight now, there is still no problem in adding a production line.”

"Ah That's good."

Moran nodded and said nothing more. After a while, the office fell into a brief silence.

Fortunately, this silent atmosphere did not last long. Mo Ran moved his body, changed his sitting position, and changed the topic and asked:

"So what's the situation with the stocking up of 'Snapdragon chips' in the factory now?"

The last time Mo Ran came to see Li Wanglong was when the "Brilliant S1" was just released at the beginning of last month.

Because he is worried that Qualcomm will ban the sale of "Snapdragon 845" chips, Mo Ran has always attached great importance to hoarding "Snapdragon 845".

"Qualcomm is fine, there's no big problem. They also welcome our large purchase of 'Snapdragon 845'."

"According to your arrangement, in addition to the daily necessary operating funds, almost all the funds on my account are now used to purchase 'Snapdragon 845' chips. Currently, I have stockpiled more than 2 million chips, with a total value of approximately 1 billion ."

"And this is also our company's largest inventory ratio currently."

More than 2 million pieces.

This data has greatly improved compared to the inventory of only 1 million pieces more than a month ago.

But according to Mo Ran's expectations, it was still not enough.

"Let's continue to stock up. Again, stock up as much as you can."

"Yeah, I know."

Li Wanglong responded, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, and then said:

"Actually, you don't need to tell me now that I also hope to stock up on more."

"In the past month or so, I have found that whether it is affected by the increase in memory chip prices, Qualcomm has also made some moves and seems to be preparing to increase prices."

"I even heard from rumors that the prices of small chips such as radio frequency chips and communication chips used in our mobile phones may also start to increase."

Mo Ran was a little surprised.

Recently, I have been paying attention to the price fluctuations of "flash memory particles", but I have not paid much attention to the situation of other chips. I did not expect that other chips would also be affected.

However, if you think about it carefully, it is not uncommon in history for industry linkage to lead to collective price increases. This is indeed a possibility.

Thinking of this, he didn't think much, and simply chatted with Lao Li about some work matters before getting up and leaving.

…

Problems were solved one after another, and the development of Nietzsche’s “laptop” accelerated.

In a flash, April passed, and May 2018 came quietly.

May 2nd.

The first good news came.

Nietzsche's April financial data has been calculated, among which Nietzsche's flagship product "Brilliant S1" continues to be popular.

After its first release in March, which generated millions of sales, the all-round and flawless "Brilliant S1" derived from the Samsung Galaxy S10 achieved another success in April. The combined sales of all series reached 1 million units, and sales exceeded 1 million units for two consecutive months. million!

For this alone, the net profit reached 780 million yuan!

The "Jinghong series" memory cards that have always been used as accessories and scraps suddenly made a successful counterattack in April.

Thanks to the explosive sales of "Brilliant S1", monthly sales exceeded 160,000, of which more than 90% were large-capacity TF memory cards of 128GB or above, making considerable profits.

The profit of a single product exceeded 11 million!

but,

What makes Mo Ran even more delighted is that in April, the "Yellow River Storage" that he had been supporting finally formed a complete industrial closed loop and began to realize self-profit.

In April, the "Huanghe Storage TF Memory Card Department" delivered a total of 900,000 "Xiaomi TF Memory Cards".

128GB can earn 20 yuan per card, 256GB can earn 40 yuan, and 512GB can earn 50 yuan. The net profit is about 25 million yuan!

certainly.

25 million is just a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions invested each month by "Yellow River Storage", but this is the "first pot of gold" in the true sense of "Yellow River Storage", different from the first pot of gold purchased by Nietzsche internally!

Especially for the production department of "3D-NAND" flash memory particles, this is the first pot of gold earned after a large amount of capital investment in the early stage is finally converted into products!

The previous investment is finally starting to pay off!

According to the final calculation, after deducting all expenses in April, Nietzsche's net profit reached 860 million yuan, and the total liabilities were still the same as in March - 3.05 billion.

And the Yellow River stores,

Although there are still large losses on the books, with the receipt of orders from Xiaomi, there has also been a rare increase in profits, which can be regarded as slightly easing the financial pressure on Mo Ran.

but.

Less than two days after Mo Ran was happy, another news came from "Yellow River Storage" that "R\u0026D funds" were in short supply.

Mo Ran couldn't help but shook his head with a wry smile.

There is no way, the chip industry is like this, it can only rely on continuous burning of money, burning of money and burning of money.

Although Nietzsche has continued to invest more than ten to two billion yuan in "Yellow River Storage" in the past two years, in fact, this is just a starting price in the chip industry.

Not to mention that top OEMs like TSMC have annual R\u0026D expenses of nearly 20 billion yuan, Qualcomm has nearly 40 billion yuan a year, and even SMIC’s annual R\u0026D expenses are 5 billion higher.

"Yellow River Storage" not only has many research and development projects, but also "3D-nand" flash memory particles are the world's top technology. Such investment is very small even with systematic help.

After feeling emotional.

Mo Ran transferred 500 million yuan of his 860 million net profit in April. So far, Nietzsche has invested a total of 2.7 billion yuan in "Yellow River Storage".

This is not over yet.

Looking at the 360 ​​million left in the account, Mo Ran transferred another 300 million to "Wanglong Electrical Appliance Factory" so that Lao Li could stock up on more before the price of "Snapdragon 845" increased.

As a result, the liquidity on Nietzsche's account was eventually reduced to only 60 million yuan.

The money was spent, and Mo Ran finally had some leisure time. A week passed quickly like this.

During this week, Nietzsche was still steadily selling traditional businesses such as mobile phones, TVs, and air conditioners. At the same time, he was quietly following the price increases of SanDisk and Kingston and selling high-priced "Jinghong series" memory cards. The sales volume was pretty good.

And on the other side,

Preparations for Nietzsche's laptop are also in progress, and prototypes of the motherboard produced by "Runfa Electronics Factory" have already begun.

Wanglong Electrical Appliance Factory has also begun preparation processes such as purchasing equipment, personnel training, and producing molds, and everything is proceeding in an orderly manner.

The situation in Yellow River storage is similar.

With Xiaomi's order guarantee, the production capacity of the "3D-NAND" flash memory particle production department has also steadily increased. Employees in each production link have mastered the production processes and techniques, and their proficiency, quality control, and production efficiency have been greatly improved.

Compared with the previous small-scale mass production, production capacity began to be truly released after formal large-scale mass production.

The same is true for the "TF memory card" production department. The newly purchased equipment with an annual production capacity of 10 million inevitably recruits more employees. Under high-intensity work, novices quickly become experienced, and experienced become experienced, and the production capacity also increases. The steady climb phase has come.

May 10th.

Just when the production capacity of "Yellow River Storage" 3D-NAND flash memory particles continued to increase, and the production capacity of "TF memory cards" continued to be released, suddenly.

A piece of news appeared on the Internet, shocking the entire "memory chip" industry.

"Samsung NAND factory will undergo one month of equipment maintenance due to a switch failure. 》

As soon as the news came out, everyone in the industry understood what it meant.

What kind of switch failure?

What equipment maintenance.

I have only heard of equipment maintenance in the off-season, but I have never heard of production shutdown and maintenance in the peak season. The meaning behind it is——

The second price increase of NAND flash memory particles is coming again, and it may be even greater than the last time!

as expected.

On the afternoon of the next day, Samsung Electronics once again took the lead in raising the ex-factory price of NAND flash memory particles. Following closely, the other four manufacturers that can produce NAND flash memory particles (Hynix, Western Digital, Toshiba and Micron) also announced adjustments to the ex-factory price of flash memory particles. .

The price increase this time even exceeds the last price increase more than 20 days ago!

The price of 64GB flash memory chips has increased from 72 yuan to 79 yuan, and the price per chip has increased by 7 yuan.

128GB has been adjusted from 143 yuan to 158 yuan, and the price per unit has increased by 15 yuan.

256GB has been adjusted from 295 to 320 yuan, and the price per unit has increased by 25 yuan.

512GB has been adjusted from the previous 580 yuan to 635 yuan, and the price per unit has increased by 55 yuan.

As soon as the news of the price increase came out, all downstream manufacturers in the industry cried out.

But what can be done?

Memory chips can range from "TF memory cards" to medium-sized USB flash drives and SD cards, and must be used in mobile phones and computer solid-state drives. It can even be said that they are used in almost all electronic products.

There are only five companies in the world that can produce NAND flash memory particles!

They raise prices collectively, whether you like it or not!

Domestic netizens originally regarded the show as news, but soon someone discovered that as the price of flash memory particles increased, the retail prices of "TF memory cards" and "solid state drives" from major manufacturers also increased...

even,

Several large-capacity laptops also quickly adjusted their prices due to the increase in flash memory particles, with prices rising by 100-200 yuan.

This is not the end.

The effect of the price increase of "flash memory particles" seems to be spreading to other chip fields.

On the third day after Samsung announced a price increase, Qualcomm also announced that its Snapdragon series chips would increase prices due to rising raw materials.

The original price of "Snapdragon 845" is 500 yuan per piece, which has increased to 550 yuan per piece.

Manufacturers such as Intel and NVIDIA have also followed suit, and NVIDIA's graphics cards, in particular, have experienced rapid growth.

Overnight, almost all electronic products showed signs of price increases, and arguments about "chip shortage" and "core shortage" suddenly started making noise on the Internet.

…

but.

Compared with the stunned comments and discussions among netizens on the Internet, Gao Qiang, the head of the "3D-NAND" production department of "Yellow River Storage", is even more jealous of the price increase of "flash memory particles".

Especially after I heard that the "TF Memory Card Production Department" delivered 900,000 "Xiaomi Memory Cards" last month, and the entire department had a huge profit margin, I felt even more unbalanced.

Others don't know, but he knows very well that in the order for Xiaomi, all the "flash memory particles" are "3D-NAND particles" produced by his own department!

As a result, all the benefits were taken up by the "TF memory card production department", and their own "3D-NAND" department just made a lot of money, and the cost price was wasted, and it was idle.

As a result, many colleagues in the production department now criticize him as the department leader.

Just after the evening meeting today, Gao Qiang deliberately walked at the end and stopped Wang Xiaole, the head of the "TF memory card" production department.

The two are about the same age.

"Lao Wang, I just now know that your department made a lot of money last month! Nietzsche's order plus Xiaomi's order, especially Xiaomi's order, have allowed the company to leave a lot of funds for your department, right?"

Wang Xiaole's face was red and he smiled.

"To be honest, Lao Gao, last month our department made a net profit of 25.37 million yuan. The company allows the remaining 3% of the profit to be used as activity funds for the department, which can be used freely and at my disposal!"

"Guess how much it is?!"

"3% of 25.37 million, 760,000 yuan!"

Gao Qiang made a simple calculation, and his back molars were almost broken.

More than 700,000 yuan, the department’s activity funds for one month!

This is funding that can be arranged by the department head himself!

This is all overtime work, the gap is too big!

"No, Lao Wang, you must share some of the profits with me today!"

"Look at how much the market for 'flash memory particles' has gone up. The price of 128GB has risen to 158 yuan. The production cost price we gave your department is only 132 yuan!"

"The price difference of 26 yuan has been saved for you. Isn't it too much for you to share some of the profit with us?!"

"Haha, stop dreaming. The price was set by Mr. Li, not me!"

Wang Xiaole was obviously not afraid of being strong, and the smile on his face became even brighter.

"If you ask me, if you and I are competing for this profit, it would be better to quickly find ways to improve your yield rate."

"Your current yield rate of 42.8% costs 132 yuan. Once the yield rate is increased to 50%, the cost will be directly reduced to 115 yuan."

"When the cost of 115 yuan is sold to our department for 132 yuan, you won't make 10 or 20 yuan per pill? It's a bloody profit!"

Gao Qiang suddenly sighed.

"Do you think I don't want to improve the yield rate? In addition to investing time and energy, sometimes I have to rely on luck."

Wang Xiaole is obviously not as pessimistic as Gao Qiang.

He smiled and took the words:

“Sometimes, the best way to improve the yield rate is to stimulate everyone’s ‘subjective initiative’.”

"Subjective initiative?"

Wang Xiaole nodded and said with a smile:

"Guess how I plan to use this 700,000 yuan fund?"

Gao Qiang was stunned and shook his head.

Wang Xiaole suddenly lowered his voice a little and whispered:

"Actually, our production department has been thinking of ways to improve the yield rate and reduce costs, so..."

"This time I plan to directly give 100,000 yuan to each of several employees who have proposed plans to improve the yield rate!"

"How can there be no brave man under the heavy reward?"

As he said this, Wang Xiaole paused and coughed lightly.

"Although your department does not have money at the moment, you can make a commitment first and draw the pie first."

"Everyone is happy, but everyone can't eat dirt."

Gao Qiang's eyes really lit up now, and when he looked at Wang Xiaole, his eyes looked completely different.

"Old Wang, technically you may not be able to compete with me, but..."

"You are truly a master in management."