Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 649 Superconducting Quantum Computer Delivery Begins

In mid-January, Xu Shenxue's convoy appeared at a production base of Zhiyun Microelectronics in the suburbs of Shenzhen.

Previously, it was announced that this production base was a semiconductor supporting factory, but in reality, it is the only quantum chip factory under the Zhiyun Group!
At the same time, this is currently the only factory in humankind dedicated to the production of high-performance superconducting quantum chips!
For several years, it was kept strictly secret until the superconducting quantum computer was exposed, and then the Zhiyun Group officially released the commercial YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer. Only then was this production base able to appear before the world.

However, although some industry insiders know of the factory's existence, they are still unclear about the details.

Zhiyun Group is extremely secretive about its superconducting quantum chip technology... Even when it comes to patent applications, it only applies for patents on early, outdated, and obsolete basic technologies. However, it has never applied for patents for a series of technologies currently in use for manufacturing fifth-generation and even sixth-generation quantum chips.

Not to mention patents, they haven't even disclosed the basic technical principles or technical routes; everything is a high-level trade secret.

This wasn't Xu Shenxue's first visit to this quantum chip factory, but it was the first time he had come openly, accompanied by photographers from the public relations department of Zhiyun Group to record and film him... In the past, he had always come secretly, afraid that the outside world would notice the factory and the secrets of the quantum computer.

Now that there is no longer a need for secrecy, it is possible to come openly and even film related footage.

When necessary, Zhiyun Group will release these related images for promotional purposes... but it's unlikely to happen in the short term.

However, even if no related information is released in the short term, the necessary records will still be kept.

After Xu Shenxue's convoy entered the quantum chip production base, he saw a factory building that was somewhat similar to a semiconductor factory.

Once inside, you'll find that the factory's facilities are vastly different from those of a semiconductor factory.

Semiconductor factories are large-scale facilities for mass production, and they all adopt automated assembly line production.

However, the quantum chip manufacturing plant in front of us is more like a laboratory. It is smaller in scale, but many of the devices look more complex and have more automated equipment.

Xu Shenxue's feeling was not wrong... In fact, the fifth and sixth generation quantum chip production lines currently being built by Zhiyun Group are themselves an expansion of the laboratory-prepared quantum chips!
Currently, Zhiyun Group has not yet found a feasible technical solution for large-scale mass production... It can only use experimental technical routes with low output and high cost to carry out small-batch production, and many processes even require top engineers to operate the equipment slowly.

Similar to the lenses needed for lithography machines, they are very complex and slow to develop, resulting in low production volumes.

A vice president in charge of quantum chip manufacturing at Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, is introducing the quantum chip factory to Xu Shenxue:

"Currently, our factory has three production lines. The first production line is the first batch of fifth-generation quantum chip production lines built. It can process quantum chips with an alignment accuracy deviation of 40 nanometers, which is the fifth-generation quantum chip. At that time, based on experimental technology, the overall output was relatively low."

"The second production line is our fifth-generation production line, which was put into operation at the end of last year. Compared with the first production line, it is much more mature in terms of technology and has improved production efficiency!"

"Through the research and development and improvement of these two generations of production lines, we have greatly improved the yield in the production process of the fifth-generation quantum chip, from the initial 2.2% to the current 6%!"

"The significant improvement in yield has also greatly increased the production efficiency of our fifth-generation quantum chips. Currently, the production capacity of the fifth-generation quantum chips has increased from the initial 30 chips per month to the current 250 chips per month."

"Based on this production capacity, the annual output is expected to reach 3,000 wafers, which is already able to initially meet the production needs of our fifth-generation quantum computer!"

The fifth-generation quantum computer is currently used by Zhiyun Group for its own purposes while also being supplied to external parties. One quantum chip can be used to manufacture a YCL-51 or 52 quantum computer, and the production of 3,000 quantum computers per year is already a considerable output.

It's important to understand that the superconducting quantum computer developed by Zhiyun Group is not a cheap product, nor is it an ordinary computer. It is a top-of-the-line device with powerful computing capabilities used for artificial intelligence training and operation.

If the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer were sold to the public, it would cost more than 200 million yuan per unit.

The YCL-51 superconducting quantum computer, which is used by Zhiyun Group itself and supplied exclusively to institutions, costs around 200 million yuan per set, which is quite expensive...

Of course, if we only consider manufacturing costs, the figure would be even lower, but it's impossible to actually calculate it based on manufacturing costs... because there are also a bunch of R&D costs and huge upfront production costs to dilute those costs, so it's impossible to calculate it based on hardware costs.

For example, the high cost of this massive quantum chip factory must be factored in... The research and development costs of the large amount of advanced equipment required for quantum chip manufacturing, as well as other various costs, must also be included.

The initial costs of developing a product from scratch, building an entire industry chain, and researching and developing everything yourself will be extremely high.

Over the years, Zhiyun Group has been investing heavily in various fields to develop superconducting quantum computers, and its overall research and development and capital expenditures are enormous.

This is also why outsiders saw the huge investment that Zhiyun Group made in the semiconductor field in previous years, because when Zhiyun Group made financial expenditure statistics, it directly included its investment in the quantum computing field into the semiconductor field.

These huge upfront investments all need to be factored into the overall cost of superconducting quantum computers.

This is also one of the main reasons why superconducting quantum computers are so expensive.

If we calculate the price of a superconducting quantum computer at around 200 million yuan per unit, and produce 3,000 units a year, the sales revenue would reach 600 billion yuan... This scale is already quite large.

However, this is not the limit of the market, but the current limit of production capacity. Zhiyun Group has successively reached cooperation agreements with more than 100 companies, all of whom are going to purchase quantum computers for use in the field of artificial intelligence.

With the advent of superconducting quantum computers and the further reduction in computing power costs, the entire computing power market has experienced a significant increase, while the current fifth-generation production line capacity is insufficient.

Therefore, the vice president of Zhiyun Microelectronics responsible for quantum chip business also stated that they are preparing to start construction on the third fifth-generation quantum computer production line and are continuously improving the yield rate.

Their goal is to increase the production capacity of fifth-generation quantum chips to more than 5,000 chips per year within a year!

Xu Shenxue is also quite concerned about the production capacity of this fifth-generation quantum chip, because what is currently being sold externally is the fifth-generation quantum computer... according to Xu Shenxue and the quantum computer division's plan.

The commercial cycle of the fifth-generation quantum computer will last for several years, gradually upgrading from 5,000 qubits to 8,000 qubits, and then to 10,000 qubits, with small upgrades to earn more profits.

Even if a sixth-generation quantum computer is launched to the market in the future, the current fifth-generation quantum computer technology can still be sold at a reduced price.

Xu Shenxue's current positioning for the quantum computing business is to create a new generation of core business, which, together with the APO series graphics cards, will form the core component of the computing power business segment of Zhiyun Group, striving to increase the revenue of this computing power business segment to $500 billion or even higher annually.

The computing power business is currently the core business of Zhiyun Group, and in the future, Xu Shenxue hopes to further enhance the computing power business... not only by increasing revenue and profits, but also by making it as widespread as possible.

By further popularizing and expanding the business ecosystem, we can completely control the core upstream of the entire artificial intelligence field: computing power hardware!
Although Zhiyun Group is already very strong in the GPU computing power field, occupying almost all of the commercial market, there are still companies like AMD with similar computing power card businesses, and other companies such as Intel, Tesla, Qualcomm, and even domestic companies like Huawei are also developing computing power cards.

Other people's products may be slightly inferior, but that doesn't mean they're unusable.

Xu Shenxue hopes to further popularize superconducting quantum computers and then completely monopolize the market... because other companies do not have superconducting quantum computers.

And it's unlikely to happen for many years to come!

Xu Shenxue hopes that his company's computing hardware business can form a closed, independent, and monopolistic ecosystem in the future, just like intelligent robots and virtual business.

Therefore, it is necessary to further expand the production capacity of fifth-generation quantum chips... even though fifth-generation quantum chips are already a generation behind technology for Zhiyun Group itself.

Zhuyun Group has begun mass production and has started deploying its sixth-generation quantum computer in the second YANC system computing center.

This is also another purpose of Xu Shenxue's visit to the quantum chip factory today: to see the mass production status of the sixth-generation quantum chip.

"Chairman Xu, this is the third production line in our quantum chip factory, which is also our recently completed and put into operation sixth-generation quantum chip production line. Its alignment accuracy deviation can reach 20 nanometers, which is sufficient to meet the manufacturing requirements of sixth-generation quantum chips!"

"However, the current yield rate is still relatively low, at only about 2.8%. In addition, the technology of the sixth-generation production line is too advanced, and the construction cost is relatively high. Therefore, the production capacity and cost of quantum chips are still relatively high!"

"But based on our experience on the fifth-generation production line, if we are given another two to three years, we expect to be able to increase the yield to more than 8%, and optimistically even 10%!"

"After all, we have accumulated a lot of experience in improving the yield of the fifth-generation production line. Although the technical route of the sixth-generation production line is quite different, many technologies and experiences can still be used!"

"The current annual production of sixth-generation quantum chips is estimated at around 500 pieces, but we are confident that we can increase it to more than 3,000 pieces within two years!"

As Xu Shenxue listened, he looked out at the sixth-generation chip manufacturing workshop. Calling it a workshop wasn't quite accurate; it was more like a laboratory!
Moreover, Xu Shenxue and others did not actually enter the quantum chip manufacturing laboratory; they watched the automated equipment operating from outside through a glass wall.

"The sixth-generation production line has extremely stringent requirements for precision and production environment. Even the finest dust particle falling into the quantum chip being processed will cause the entire chip to be scrapped. Therefore, the entire production process is carried out without human intervention, and is entirely automated or remotely operated mechanical equipment!"

"To minimize the impact of dust on the production environment!"

Xu Shenxue said, "This seems to be similar to semiconductor chip production, both of which have very high environmental requirements!"

Ding Chengjun, CEO of Zhiyun Microelectronics, said at this time: "They are very similar, especially in terms of precision and production environment... because the manufacturing of our superconducting quantum chip is also the most extreme micro-manufacturing. From this perspective, it is actually very similar to the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips!"

"Even our current sixth-generation quantum chip production line is more technologically advanced than an equivalent three-nanometer semiconductor chip production line, and has even higher requirements for equipment and environment!"

"After all, this is a top-tier chip used to produce 50,000 controllable qubits. To achieve these 50,000 controllable qubits, we need to stack an extremely large number of components on the quantum chip, and every processing step is extremely difficult!"

"This is also why the equipment required for manufacturing quantum chips is so expensive, and why the yield rate of quantum chips is so low... The precision requirements are too high!"

"It can be said that every step of the quantum chip manufacturing process challenges the current technological pinnacle of humanity!"

Ding Chengjun, CEO of Zhiyun Microelectronics, joked at the time: "Only Fairy Mountain Holdings has these devices and supporting consumables, and only Zhiyun Microelectronics has the production process. Even if we release the design blueprints of the sixth-generation quantum chip directly, no company outside can manufacture it!"

"They lack the necessary equipment, the necessary consumables, and, more importantly, sufficient technological expertise!"

"While we have competitors in the semiconductor field, we have no competitors in the quantum chip field—not a single one!"

Xu Shenxue loves hearing this kind of talk because he enjoys playing with things that only he has and no one else has... from robots to virtual worlds to quantum computers, and so on.

Xu Shenxue is usually not interested in things that others already have, unless it's to solve supply chain security. Otherwise, he rarely invests in industries that others already have and are doing well in.

This is also why the outside world rarely sees Liuhe Investment and Fairy Mountain Holdings, the two core companies, investing in ordinary industries... Xu Shenxue has little interest in this.

After visiting the sixth-generation quantum chip production line, Xu Shenxue also saw a manufactured and packaged sixth-generation quantum chip.

This quantum chip is actually quite large, and it's not square, but rather a circular structure, with a diameter of about two hundred millimeters.

Moreover, it uses very special materials, the most crucial of which is the MMK34 superconductor!
The most crucial material in the superconducting quantum chip used in superconducting quantum computers is the superconductor.

Xu Shenxue looked at the unassuming sixth-generation quantum chip in front of him, which was just a large round plate, and sighed... Ordinary people would find it hard to imagine how advanced the technology behind this sixth-generation quantum chip is just by looking at its appearance!
"This sixth-generation quantum chip, when combined with our quantum algorithm for predictive intervention, can now control up to 50,000 qubits!"

"Compared to the fifth-generation quantum computer, it's a five-fold improvement!"

"Furthermore, the five-fold increase in the number of controllable qubits results in a more than five-fold increase in overall computing power. In some computing tasks, the increase can even reach more than thirty times!"

"The sixth-generation superconducting quantum computer, YCL-61, equipped with the sixth-generation quantum chip, will become our group's biggest computing power guarantee. Combined with neuromorphic computing technology, our new generation of integrated computing power center will be able to achieve several times the overall computing power increase with limited power supply!"

Xu Shenxue was in a good mood and even picked up the sixth-generation quantum chip to take a closer look... The small, silver-white disc wasn't really anything special... The only eye-catching feature was the marking on it, which was the brand mark that Zhiyun Group printed on almost all of its own chips, the capital 'YUN'.

Then there is the model number and core parameter information: YCL-61-5W.

Next, there are manufacturing dates, batch information, etc.

Xu Shenxue left the quantum chip factory with a satisfied expression. After returning to the headquarters of Zhiyun, he went to see the mass-produced model of the sixth-generation superconducting quantum computer.

After this round of inspections, Xu Shenxue officially approved a plan submitted by Zhiyun Microelectronics for developing a new generation of quantum chip technology and expanding existing quantum chip technology production capacity, as well as a research and development plan for more functional and diverse quantum chips.

The plan will require a huge amount of funding, as well as the cooperation of a large number of departments within the group, and may even require coordination with Fairy Mountain Holdings.

The core objective is to develop the technology and processes to produce seventh-generation quantum chips with more than 200,000 controllable qubits, and to build the first corresponding seventh-generation quantum chip production line.

The initial funding request for the project reached 20 billion US dollars, and the total cost is unknown... because no one knows what problems will be encountered during the research and development process. If the research and development does not go smoothly, the cost is estimated to be enormous.

However, this money must be spent, and it's worth it... The superconducting quantum computer has very high value for both its own use and commercial applications.

While approving the plan, Xu Shenxue also simultaneously approved the plan submitted by the Quantum Computing Division regarding the preliminary research of the eighth-generation superconducting quantum computer...

As for the seventh-generation superconducting quantum computer project, it has already begun!
Selling one generation, using one generation internally, developing one generation, and conducting preliminary research on one generation—this is the research and development process of Zhiyun Group in the field of superconducting quantum computers.

When the outside world saw the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer, the YCL-51 superconducting quantum computer inside the Zhiyun Group had actually been in service for several years, and at this time the deployment of the YCL-61 superconducting quantum computer had begun.

The YCL-71 superconducting quantum computer project has been underway for about a year and has entered the core quantum chip design and quantum algorithm training phases.

At the same time, the preliminary research on the YCL-81 superconducting quantum computer was officially launched to explore new technological routes.

The technological accumulation and application of Zhiyun Group in the field of superconducting quantum computing are more profound than outsiders imagine!

However, no one outside knows this right now; the outside world is currently excited and even cheering for the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer released by Zhiyun Group.

In mid-January, Zhiyun Group officially announced the commencement of overseas deliveries of quantum computers. The first exported YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer will be delivered to strategic partner Gugou.

This YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer was transported by a cargo plane owned by Zhiyun Aviation and then arrived in the United States.

The entire process of this superconducting quantum computer being loaded onto the plane, arriving at the airport, and then being transferred to Google's computing center was covered by the media!
After all, this is the first YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer delivered by Zhiyun Group to an overseas customer, and its historical significance is still very great.

A few days later, engineers dispatched by Zhiyun completed the assembly and testing of the superconducting quantum computer at Google's computing center.

As soon as the test was completed, the people at Google couldn't wait to use the superconducting quantum computer as the core computing unit to begin training and testing their self-developed artificial intelligence model.

That evening, Google officially announced that its first superconducting quantum computer computing unit had been deployed and claimed that it would deploy more than two hundred superconducting quantum computer computing units within the next year.

Google will continue to reach new heights in the field of artificial intelligence!
Of course, not long after, other overseas strategic clients also began to accept the first YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer. Companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, and Amazon all accepted the first YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer in January.

In addition, since the beginning of January, superconducting quantum computers have been delivered to Yihai Technology Group and Hailan Automobile Group in China.

More than a dozen major high-tech companies around the world seem to have entered the quantum computing era overnight...

Yihai Technology has been using the term "quantum AI" in the advertising of some of its internet software products, claiming that its artificial intelligence is a new generation of quantum AI technology, leading the industry, and so on...

GTAI uses quantum computing servers... or 'quantum AI' for short.

As the outside world began to enter the era of quantum computing, Zhiyun Group started a money-making frenzy.

Furthermore, the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer cannot be used alone; it requires an additional dedicated GTL server.

Therefore, Zhiyun Group did not simply sell the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer; it also sold a large number of APO6000 graphics cards.

It's very profitable!

(End of this chapter)