Chapter 423 Is One Billion Dollars Enough? And Throwing Cold Water on Them

Dr. Zhang explained with a smile:

"My ancestral home is Nanjing. My father's name is Zhang Xilun. He was once a famous steel-making expert. In 1949, my father took my mother and I, who had just turned one year old, to Taiwan. My father was like many who went to Taiwan that year. Like an old man, my heart is always in mainland China... I came to the United States to study for a doctorate and stayed in the United States to work, and my career focus has always been in the United States. After my father and mother retired, they often came to live in the United States when they had time."

"A while ago, my father saw me traveling around the world and being responsible for the successful construction of many chip factories. One weekend when our family was having dinner together, he said to me: Rujing, you seem to be very prosperous now! Where are you going to build a factory? , it has become a hot spot for chips, you kid seems to It has become a bellwether in the chip industry. Now the whole world seems to be carnivaling about chips, but the motherland, with a population of 1.2 billion, has always been quiet like an outsider. Let me ask you now, as a Chinese, you. When will we go to the mainland to build a factory?”

After taking a sip of coffee, Dr. Zhang sighed:

"When my old father asked me this question, I didn't know how to answer it! At this time, I deeply felt my father's feelings. Old people like them who went to Taiwan in their early years always cared about the motherland in their hearts. My father wanted me to In his lifetime, he saw me go to the motherland to build a world-class chip factory!"

Li Xiaofan and Academician Ni said in unison: "Dr. Zhang, now is a good time to fulfill your father's wish!"

Then, Academician Ni said eagerly: "Dr. Zhang, our mainland is currently vigorously developing the integrated circuit industry. The Huahong NEC project has just been launched not long ago. If a world-class chip factory construction expert like you can come to the mainland to develop, then Very good!"

Dr. Zhang smiled and replied:

"Just a few months ago, an electronics industry delegation from the mainland visited our Texas Instruments headquarters and invited me to return to the mainland for development. In fact, although I did not agree verbally, to be honest, there was already an undercurrent in my heart. , I already had the idea of ​​setting up a chip factory in your mainland, and I wanted to give my old father an explanation! To be honest, one day, I actually found the president of our company and said to him abruptly: I want to Resign and go to mainland China to develop..."

Hearing this, Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan felt excited and asked, "Dr. Zhang, how did your president answer?"

"Our president said to me bluntly: Richard, please give up this idea. You are now a core member of our company's chipset, and we in the United States will probably not let you go!"

Hearing this, Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan felt a lot colder.

Indeed, Chinese overseas like Dr. Zhang Rujing have basically heard of Qian Xuesen’s difficulty in returning to China. The West has completely blocked talents, equipment and technology from the mainland. It will not go well for top talents returning to China. It is estimated that the same is true for Dr. Zhang.

Li Xiaofan asked: "Dr. Zhang, is there no other way? At that time, even scientists like Qian Xuesen had returned to the mainland!"

Dr. Zhang smiled and said: "There may still be a way. I have been working at TI for almost 20 years, and I have reached the age of retirement. I am a Christian myself, and the president of our company is also a Christian. I think If I go to the CEO next time, I will tell him that we are all Christians and God teaches us to love all people, especially those in need. Mainland China is relatively backward now, and it is my motherland. , so I asked God, and he allowed me to help the Chinese people with love..."

Li Xiaofan tentatively said: "Dr. Zhang, from this point of view, there is still great hope. You just haven't made the final decision yet and are waiting for a suitable time, right?"

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan had seen some reports about SMIC and Dr. Zhang: The next year, in 1997, Dr. Zhang applied for early retirement from TI. As soon as he left the United States, he went straight to Wuxi to plan to establish a "Shida" company. He found that the mainland at that time lacked equipment, technology, talents, and nothing else. After careful consideration, Dr. Zhang later planned to build the first and second factories of Shida in Taiwan, which has first-class equipment, talents and technology. Then copy it to the mainland and install the mainland chip...

Li Xiaofan thought that there was something wrong at that time, maybe the fate did not come. If Dr. Zhang had gone directly to Shanghai for talks in 1997, perhaps the situation in his previous life would not have occurred, in which three whole years of precious time were wasted!

In his previous life, after a short stay in Wuxi, Dr. Zhang returned to Taiwan with the support of his old friends to found Shida Semiconductor, and quickly achieved mass production and profitability. During this period, Dr. Zhang has made detailed plans to build chip factories in mainland China: the first and second factories of Shida will be built in Taiwan, and the third to tenth factories will all be located in mainland China...

However, things are unpredictable, and the rapid rise of Shida Company has aroused the vigilance of another industry leader, TSMC. Just when Dr. Zhang was about to make a big move, Shida's major shareholder secretly negotiated with TSMC without his knowledge, and sold the company to TSMC for US$5 billion in January 2000.

Dr. Zhang only found out about this incident after the fact, so he resigned without any hesitation the day after the acquisition was completed, determined to directly invest in chip factories in mainland China.

In early 2000, relying on his reputation in the industry and Shida's successful experience, Zhang Rujing quickly gathered a group of talents and funds and began to select a factory site.

They were in Shanghai at the time, and they received a warm welcome. The relevant parties took them to the hinterland of Pudong, which is full of farmland, and showed Zhang Rujing the large area of ​​land planned for them to build factories in Shanghai.

Later, this farmland was called: Zhangjiang Hi-Tech...

But after all this trouble, three precious years have passed!

Dr. Zhang replied to Li Xiaofan:

"Director Li, you are right. I am indeed waiting for the right time. Because investing in a chip factory is no longer a piece of cake. An eight-inch wafer foundry would cost at least US$1 billion. If there is no careful planning ahead, , I dare not act rashly..."

Li Xiaofan asked: "Dr. Zhang, is $1 billion enough to build an eight-inch wafer foundry now?"

Academician Ni smiled and answered for Dr. Zhang: "Dr. Li, in principle, it should be almost the same, maybe a little bit worse. I talked about this topic with Dr. Zhang just now, and we think that in addition to the wafer foundry, there is another possibility that is more suitable. The semiconductor production model in mainland China is called Commune IDM, which is the CIDM model.”

"What is CIDM?" Li Xiaofan asked puzzledly.

When Academician Ni and Dr. Zhang were discussing this topic just now, Li Xiaofan left to greet other guests.

Dr. Zhang explained:

"IDM is called vertically integrated manufacturing. The CIDM model is to create a shared integrated component manufacturing company that integrates chip design, chip R&D, chip manufacturing, and chip packaging and testing to provide end customers with high-quality, high-efficiency products. Adopt co-construction In the shared model, IC design companies, terminal application companies and IC manufacturers jointly participate in project investment, and integrate multiple parties through the establishment of joint ventures.”

"Then these investors cooperate like a community to form a semiconductor production platform, on which all participants jointly build a win-win relationship. This model allows IC design companies to have the exclusive production capacity and technology of chip manufacturing plants Support, and at the same time, IC manufacturing plants are guaranteed by the market, realizing resource sharing, capability collaboration, capital and risk sharing..."

After listening, Li Xiaofan said thoughtfully: "I probably understand a little bit."

Dr. Zhang was afraid that Li Xiaofan still didn’t understand, so he continued to explain:

"I was responsible for the TECH project of building an 8-inch wafer fab in Singapore from 1992 to 1994. This was a relatively classic CIDM model project. This TECH project was jointly sponsored by Texas Instruments, EDB of the Singapore Government, and Canon of Japan. It is also jointly invested by four companies including Hewlett-Packard of the United States. It mainly produces memory and plans to achieve profitability on the basis of meeting its own demand for DRAM. After the TECH project passes its own design process, it is manufactured according to the design requirements, and then formed into a product through packaging and testing, and finally pushed to the sales market. After being put into production last year, it has already generated a certain amount of profit this year..."

Academician Ni added: "Dr. Li, I just discussed it with Dr. Zhang. We believe that at the current stage, the downstream manufacturing link is very important to support the upstream design link. However, the cost of investing and maintaining a wafer manufacturing plant is too high now." High. Therefore, in response to this current situation and trend, we can use the CIDM model to drive the development of the mainland's semiconductor industry. Through this integrated resource approach, we can break through a number of key technologies and products and further solve the problem of weak supporting capabilities among domestic industrial chains... "

Academician Ni continued: "We have just discussed that the CIDM model has many advantages. The first is that CIDM can be more profitable than foundry and IDM. Without using advanced processes, CIDM's fast and efficient design capabilities can reduce Second, it can reduce vicious competition: CIDM. It can bring together many design companies in the same field to reduce vicious competition between each other, so that products can quickly go to market. Third, it can provide a more efficient and faster platform: the platform provided by CIDM can make circuit design faster. Products use factory data and big data analysis to make product debugging and iteration faster..."

"Of course, the implementation of the CIDM model in China may also encounter many difficulties. For example, CIDM requires foundries and integrated circuit design companies to jointly build, integrate design and manufacturing, and develop jointly and interactively. These characteristics will bring great benefits to both design and manufacturing parties. Many challenges arise. For the design industry, Fab factories need to integrate design links into the manufacturing and packaging and testing processes, and they need to ensure the consistency of design and technology development. There is also controversy over the ownership and priority of production capacity under the CIDM model. CIDM It is a combination of multiple companies. If the use needs of CIDM internal companies are given priority, this will also limit the development of CIDM and limit its ability to serve the majority of design manufacturers..."

Unexpectedly, Li Xiaofan threw a bucket of cold water at Academician Ni: "Academician Ni, I think the current CIDM model may not work!"