Chapter 429 Hello, My Name Is Elon Musk!
Just when Li Xiaofan and Huang Renxun were discussing the performance difference between RIVA128 chip and Voodoo chip intensely and excitedly, Academician Ni beside them was full of emotion!
At present, some graphics cards in mainland China are imported goods, such as Shuangmin Xiaoyingba graphics card, which is a graphics card produced by Taiwan "Congtai Technology" in cooperation with Xintianxia Group and Hong Kong Shuangmin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. There are also colorful graphics cards, etc.
These are some miscellaneous assembled goods, lacking the "Chinese core" that our mainland really develops independently!
After seeing the first NVIDIA company, he felt that the gap between China and Silicon Valley was too big.
When listening to Huang Renxun's introduction, Academician Ni was actually most interested in what Huang Renxun mentioned just now that their chip samples were taped out by Texas Instruments TI. He wanted to understand the entire process of NVIDIA from chip design to product transformation...
Before, when Academician Ni worked at Lenovo, he led the team to independently develop five ASIC ultra-large-scale integrated circuit chips, and successfully applied them to Chinese cards, microcomputers and Chinese character laser printers, which established Lenovo's status in the world.
But at that time, the process of turning the design into a real ASIC chip was not only time-consuming, but also very costly.
At that time, another company in the south, Huawei, was also developing ASIC chips. When they completed the design, they also had to entrust a Hong Kong company with EDA design capabilities to design it into an ASIC chip, and then entrust the American Texas Instruments TI company on the other side of the ocean to tape out and produce it.
This whole process not only took a long time, but also cost a lot. The one-time engineering cost alone was tens of thousands of dollars. Moreover, there is a foreign exchange control system in China at present, and foreign exchange quotas are very scarce. It is also quite difficult to obtain approval for foreign exchange quotas.
Academician Ni thought to himself: The R&D environment in Silicon Valley is too good now. No wonder Li Xiaofan said before that he wanted to put his first offshore incubator next to Stanford University.
If the eight-inch wafer foundry that Li Xiaofan and Dr. Zhang are working on can be successfully established in China in the future, and then Li Xiaofan can successfully negotiate cooperation with the Panda domestic EDA project of the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC, and fully promote the domestic Panda EDA design system in Dr. Zhang's wafer factory and in China...
What an exciting thing it would be for chip design companies such as Lianhai Microelectronics and Huawei, which he leads, and for the semiconductor industry in the mainland!
After the discussion in the conference room, Huang Renxun accompanied Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan to visit their chip design and R&D center.
As soon as Li Xiaofan and Academician Ni entered the R&D center, they found that the EDA tools used on NVIDIA's computers were from Synopsys.
Next, Academician Ni learned in detail from Huang Renxun and his R&D team about the entire process from chip design to tape-out, foundry and packaging testing.
Li Xiaofan listened and realized that it was very important to protect the domestic Panda EDA system, which is used in the entire process of chip design!
…
After visiting NVIDIA, Academician Ni said to Li Xiaofan:
"Mr. Li, after returning to China, I will take the time to report to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Electronics Industry in person to speed up the progress of your cooperation with the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC on the Panda EDA project!"
"Great, Academician Ni, in our itinerary, our next stop is Stanza, which is related to the Panda EDA project..."
Before, Li Xiaofan had asked Gu Qijun, who stayed in Silicon Valley and worked with Tang Xinyi to set up an offshore incubator, to contact his senior brother Dr. Yu Zhiping from Tsinghua University.
Four years ago, when the domestic Panda EDA system was successfully developed, many of the people who participated in the development left one after another.
For example, Dr. Yu Zhiping from Tsinghua University is currently a visiting researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He founded Stanza with Dr. Hu Chengmin from Silicon Valley and Liu Weiping from Fudan University. They also invited Professor Shen Ming from the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University to come to the United States to help them participate in the development.
In a simple office in Palo Alto, a small town near Stanford University, Dr. Yu Zhiping, Professor Shen Ming, Hu Chengmin, Liu Weiping and others warmly received Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan. Among them, Liu Weiping later became the founder and chairman of Huada Jiutian.
Dr. Yu Zhiping introduced that the Stanza company they founded is mainly based on EDA layout editing tools. Recently, it has opened up the market for serving Silicon Valley IC design companies because their products have many highlights and are unique in layout editing tools.
After listening to Dr. Yu's introduction, Li Xiaofan asked:
"Dr. Yu, I heard that the Stanza company you founded has attracted the attention of Synopsys, a US company, and it is said that they are negotiating a full acquisition?"
"Mr. Li, you are well-informed. There is indeed such a thing..."
"How much did Synopsys offer?" Li Xiaofan continued to ask.
"Very low, the initial offer is only 3 million US dollars, we think it is too low, and we are still in the process of negotiation and communication..."
Hearing this, Li Xiaofan suddenly spoke:
"Dr. Yu, you must not sell to Synopsys. In this way, I will value your Stanza company at US$10 million, our company will invest you US$3 million, and you will give me 30% of the shares. Then your company will move to us. How about the new incubator office, the first year of rent is free, and the second year can be paid at will! ”
Li Xiaofan's suggestion shocked Dr. Yu Zhiping, Hu Chengmin, Liu Weiping and other founders who were unprepared.
Since the listing of Yahoo, Li Xiaofan has become very well-known among Chinese students and engineers in the United States. Coupled with the recent listing of Pacific Network Technology, he has become a legend.
Therefore, Dr. Yu Zhiping and the others knew that Li Xiaofan was serious about his investment advice.
After hearing this, the unprepared founders gathered together and discussed softly with their heads down.
There is no doubt that Li Xiaofan's investment advice is very tempting.
According to the overall acquisition plan of Synopsys, after giving their founders US$3 million in cash, the Stanza company will have no relationship with their founders in terms of equity.
According to Li Xiaofan's plan, not only can they get valuable investment funds of 3 million US dollars for the business development of Stanza, but the company's valuation is three times higher than Synopsys' acquisition proposal.
The most important thing is that the founders continue to be the company's major shareholders, and the company continues to be firmly in their hands. Li Xiaofan, who invested in them, is currently a director of two Nasdaq-listed companies, and is also the chairman of one of them. He has too many resources behind him...
The last option is to stay in the incubator for free for one year, which is also very tempting.
After a quick discussion, Dr. Yu Zhiping accepted the conditions proposed by Li Xiaofan:
"Director Li, I'm honored that our small company has caught your eye. We are willing to accept your investment and hope to provide you with more guidance in the future!"
"Dr. Yu, you're welcome. The EDA project you've created now is very meaningful. We welcome your Stanza company to become the first project to settle in our entrepreneurial incubator!"
After leaving Stanza Company, Li Xiaofan accompanied Academician Ni and his party to inspect a nearby entrepreneurial incubator that had just been renovated and renovated.
Previously, after brainstorming with Tang Xinyi, Pan Zhanlong, Gu Qijun and others, Li Xiaofan named the incubator "Y-Lab". Y is taken from the first letter of Yifan Company, and Y means why. In Stanford It may be more friendly to people to call the incubator "Lab" near the university...
The distinctive "Y-Lab" logo has been erected on the facade of the incubator building and the spiritual fortress.
Just as Tang Xinyi, Gu Qijun and others were standing at the spiritual fortress at the entrance of the incubator, introducing the incubator to Academician Ni, a young white man about the same age as Li Xiaofan came riding a mountain bike.
After taking a look at the recruitment advertisement for the incubator project hanging on the wall, he asked Gu Qijun, who was wearing a "Y-Lab" T-shirt:
"Hi, sir, I would like to ask if I have a startup project that can be admitted to your incubator?"
"Welcome, but do you have any relevant project introduction or business plan?" Gu Qijun asked.
"Yes, but it's in my computer..."
Afterwards, Gu Qijun handed over his business card and introduced himself:
"Hello, my name is David Gu. I am the project director of Y-Lab Entrepreneurship Incubator. This is my business card. It has my email address. If it is convenient for you, you can send me the business plan first. We will We will notify you after the review whether you meet the entry requirements..."
"Oh, thank you! This is my business card. My name is Elon Musk, and I am currently developing an online content publishing software project called Zip2..."
The words of this young white man startled Li Xiaofan next to him:
Let me go, Elon Musk is Elon Musk!