Chapter 426 The Ambitious Old Sun and the Opportunity-Seeking Little Zheng
Li Xiaofan laughed and said, "Mr. Sun, we are talking about how my Pacific Network Technology Company will enter the mainland market by the end of the year..."
The chip project currently being cooperated with Dr. Zhang is highly confidential. Before Dr. Zhang obtains TI's consent for him to retire or resign, Li Xiaofan does not want Old Sun to know about this matter for the time being.
Old Sun said, "Well, the market in mainland China is too big. With a population of 1.2 billion and a continuously high-speed economic growth, it is a world miracle! Even I am very optimistic about it. In the future, I also want to invest in some suitable projects. The mainland market is too big..."
Li Xiaofan thought to himself: Old Sun, I admire you very much. You really have a forward-looking strategic vision! In the previous life, you have received more than a thousand times the return on your investment in Mr. Ma's Alibaba project, and the market value of your shares in Alibaba has exceeded one trillion yuan.
However, in this life, you may not be able to make so much money in the mainland.
If this trillion is used to invest in the development of strategic emerging industries such as chips, operating systems, lithography machines, high-end CNC machine tools, engines, key components and basic materials, high-end sensors, etc. that are urgently needed by the motherland, how fragrant it is!
Thinking in his heart, Li Xiaofan still smiled at Old Sun and said, "Yes, yes, if there is a chance, we can work together in the future, and go to the mainland to invest in some good projects."
"Okay, it's a deal. Li, congratulations on the successful listing of your Pacific Network Technology Company today! However, you don't seem to be very nice. Before such a good Pacific Network Bookstore project went public, you didn't let me invest a little..."
Li Xiaofan laughed:
"Haha, Mr. Sun, you are so generous. Just the acquisition of the Kingston memory project cost you $1.5 billion! And the total market value of my Pacific Network Technology Company after the closing today is only more than 800 million US dollars. How can you look down on us? Pacific Network Technology is such a small plate! "
After hearing this, the ambitious old Sun laughed: "Haha, Li, your Pacific Network project is indeed a little small for my SoftBank. However, if there is an opportunity for a big project in the future, don't forget me, we can cooperate and win together!"
After that, Old Sun raised his glass and came to Dr. Zhang:
"Dr. Zhang, I have heard of your name for a long time. I am very happy to meet you today. I hope we can cooperate in the future!"
Before, after Dr. Zhang came into the restaurant, accompanied by Li Xiaofan, he exchanged business cards with Masayoshi Son and others. After a few simple greetings, he was pulled into a corner by Li Xiaofan to have a small exchange with Academician Ni.
Recently, Old Sun spent $1.45 billion to acquire 80% of the shares of the two founders of Kingston. This is his first hardware project after the Internet, publishing, exhibition and investment businesses.
Old Sun ambitiously plans to start both soft and hard. Currently, he is promoting the cooperation between Kingston and Toshiba after the acquisition to upgrade the memory for Toshiba personal computers. This is also the first time that a personal computer OEM manufacturer cooperates with a memory manufacturer to manufacture a joint product module.
So, when he knew that Dr. Zhang was a well-known chip expert of Texas Instruments in the industry, he began to keep an eye on him.
Now that Li Xiaofan and his close communication here has come to an end, he saw the opportunity to come and chat with him.
The drunkard's intention is not to drink. His previous chat with Li Xiaofan was just a cover. The ultimate goal is to have a good chat with Dr. Zhang.
Dr. Zhang stood up and raised his glass and responded:
"Hello, Mr. Sun, I have heard of your name for a long time. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"
The recent series of actions by Mr. Sun made him famous in the United States.
In addition to the huge investment in Yahoo, it acquired Comdex's exhibition business for $800 million, acquired Ziff Davis Group's computer magazine and exhibition business for $3.1 billion, and bought 80% of the shares of Kingston, the world's largest memory board manufacturer, for $1.5 billion...
This series of huge acquisitions shocked the Americans and also left SoftBank Group with a huge debt of $3 billion.
Old Sun has recently been the focus of attention and reports by American financial media, with various praises and doubts.
So, although Dr. Zhang met Old Sun for the first time today, he had seen many reports about him in the media and on the Internet before, especially after the acquisition of Kingston, Dr. Zhang also paid considerable attention to this influential figure.
After saying hello, Old Sun sat down on a chair next to Dr. Zhang and started chatting with him.
"Dr. Zhang, I would like to ask, how much money is needed to invest in a state-of-the-art DRAM factory?"
Old Sun is a layman in chips and hardware.
Kingston's current flagship product is the world's first SIMM single-in-line memory module.
When the two founders, Jichuan Du and David Sun, founded Kingston, they were looking for a solution to the severe shortage of surface mount memory chips at the time. They used the old components that were available at the time to design a groundbreaking new single-in-line memory module SIMM, and became famous in one fell swoop!
The method invented by Jichuan Du and David Sun to reuse existing chips provided an affordable alternative solution while retaining the original surface package, defining a new industry standard.
Since the invention of this SIMM technology, Kingston has become a leading memory, storage and technology solution leader.
However, Lao Sun found that their company needed to purchase DRAM dynamic random access memory products from semiconductor companies around the world.
So, he began to think about whether he could develop upstream in the industry chain and invest in setting up a factory to produce DRAM products?
Dr. Zhang smiled and said:
"Mr. Sun, your question is too big. The current DRAM world is very complicated. The current situation is that the United States, Japan, and South Korea are in a three-way confrontation. As far as I know, South Korea's Samsung has just successfully developed the world's first 1GB DRAM product! This DRAM is no longer a matter of money, but you can't get the latest technology at all, and others won't give it to you, and you don't have any technical reserves. Mr. Sun, you have to know that South Korea and Japan invested their entire countries to develop this industry..."
"Mr. Sun, in my personal opinion, I suggest that you don't get involved in this DRAM world for the time being, let them compete fiercely, for Kingston, you are the biggest beneficiary, you can get cheaper DRAM products..."
After Dr. Zhang's explanation and guidance from the shallow to the deep, the competitive old Sun finally gave up the idea of entering the DRAM world. Before, Kingston's two founders, Du Jichuan and Sun David, had analyzed it for him, and he didn't seem to be willing.
However, Li Xiaofan next to him felt that there seemed to be a business opportunity. Old Sun was ambitious to enter the computer hardware industry. In the future, the wafer foundry project in cooperation with Dr. Zhang might allow him to invest in part.
After Old Sun left, Zheng Yingjie, the investment director of GIC Special Investment Company, also came over.
He also wanted to talk to Dr. Zhang about chips.
As early as 1991, the Singapore government established the Institute of Microelectronics IME to enhance Singapore's semiconductor design and production capabilities by undertaking projects from the government and domestic and foreign companies.
GIC's sister company Temasek Holdings invested in the establishment of Singapore Chartered Semiconductor ten years ago.
And even earlier after independence in 1965, the Singapore government had forward-lookingly established a national policy to develop the semiconductor foundry industry, hoping to attract investment and employment, develop trade, and drive economic development.
Therefore, Zheng Yingjie is also quite concerned about the current global semiconductor chip industry.
Tonight, he can't miss the opportunity to communicate with top experts in the industry like Dr. Zhang!