1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 319 It's not important to me
What is there to say?

Humans cannot imagine what they have never seen.

For example, several years later, you tell a child to roll up the car windows.

The child may think you are talking slang.

But now, to close the car door, you have to creak and shake the handle.

But even though they have never seen it, there are always strong people who can draw inferences from things around them and speculate on future situations.

Commonly known as long-term vision.

For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Xue Sen wrote letters suggesting that we should bypass fuel vehicles and vigorously develop new energy electric vehicles.

During the same period, Shockley had just won the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the transistor.

It was the first year of Silicon Valley, and almost no one knew what a transistor was. Even the famous Fairchild had not been established.

But after Shockley won the award, the mainland and Taiwan began to develop semiconductor industries the following year.

The mainland calls it the '12-year Science and Technology Development Vision Plan' and lists semiconductors as one of the country's four major emergency measures.

At the National Defense Conference of the same year, Baodao also demanded that a semiconductor industry must be established, that Tsinghua University and Jiaotong University be rebuilt, and that talent be cultivated from scratch.

This is how the island-protecting sacred mountain came into being.

"I didn't expect it to be this year. Otherwise, I should have established good relations with Formosa and brought back some hard goods."

Zhai Yuan felt a little regretful.

If we start by being the supporters and lackeys of the Freedom Association, using them as a springboard to infiltrate the inner part of Shenshan, and then take advantage of the dark night to rob everything, wouldn't that be...

Zhai Yuan was lost in his fantasy while sitting in the car and couldn't help laughing out loud.

Guan Weiming and Tao Zongyi beside him looked at him strangely, as if their boss had become unhinged since he learned that Baodao wanted to enter the semiconductor industry.

Guan Weiming wanted to pour cold water on him and make him sober up: "Boss, don't listen to Lao Tao's exaggeration about semiconductors, but he also said that it will take time to commercialize them. I think we should proceed steadily and do a good job in the CD business at hand."

Tao Zongyi pointed out the problem rigorously: "Semiconductors are not exaggerated, they are really powerful, but they have not yet been developed."

"Then let it develop slowly. We can make money from other businesses first, and then when it develops, we can directly buy the finished products. How convenient~"

"Old Guan, you don't understand. If this thing really develops, you won't be able to buy it even if you want to."

"Crazy! Is there anything that money can't buy?"

"Alas! You have lived in a capitalist society for too long and don't have any sense of crisis!"

……

The two of them were arguing in the car, from semiconductors to the US-Soviet rivalry and the world situation.

The car stopped at the Peninsula Hotel in Central.

Guan Weiming and Tao Zongyi's topic has already turned to aliens.

"Perhaps in another twenty years, aliens will come to Earth. Have you read Ni Kuang's "Wei Sili"? Aliens can kill people with brain waves. Why are you still talking about semiconductors?"

"It's like this, Lao Guan. Let me first explain to you the composition of the universe. Assuming that there really are aliens..."

Zhai Yuan felt like his brain was about to boil.

I suspect that their salary is too high and that they are eating too much.

Zhai Yuan jumped out of the car and banged on the roof: "No one knows more about aliens than me. I met the Dutch first, and then I'll tell you a story about the Three-Body Alien invasion of the Earth, okay?"

Get off the car.

Enter the hotel.

In a guest room on the sixth floor, three Dutch guys led by Gerard were scratching their heads in confusion.

How come as soon as I entered the hotel, the young boss of QVOD company called me and changed his attitude. He took the initiative to ask to go to the hotel to renegotiate the VCD and optical disc business.

"Can anyone guess what this Mr. Zhai is thinking?"

"The Chinese believe in playing hard to get. Could it be that he saw that we were really going to leave and finally agreed to the 17.5% price?"

"Then should we take the initiative and push the price down?"

Soon, the doorbell rang.

Gerard opened the door, and outside there was not only Zhai Yuan and Manager Guan whom he had just met, but also a middle-aged man who looked like a cultured person.

"This is Professor Tao Zongyi, the chief engineer of Qvod's technical department."

Zhai Yuan introduced Professor Tao to the Dutchman, and then the two sides started a meaningless argument. This time, with Tao Zongyi present, in addition to talking about the revenue sharing of VCDs and optical discs, they could also chat about some high-end technical topics. Zhai Yuan didn't understand, but Gerard and his three companions were all technicians, and they were quite happy chatting with Tao.

Seeing that both sides had almost finished talking, Zhai Yuan coughed.

Tao Zongyi understood and turned to the main topic.

"I heard that Philips is going to cooperate with Formosa Research Institute to develop the semiconductor industry? As far as I know, there is no prospect for this industry for the time being."

"That's not entirely true. Intel, Texas Instruments, AMD and other companies that made chips in the past few years have indeed suffered losses and are now on the verge of bankruptcy. However, Hitachi, Fujitsu and NEC Corporation in Japan have turned losses into profits. At Philips, electric lighting and home projection are still our main businesses, but we also need to seek new tracks. This time, Formosa has invited us so much that we came to Asia to investigate the market first."

Indirect hint.

Both Zhai Yuan and Tao Zongyi have a general understanding of the current semiconductor industry.

The international situation can be explained in one sentence: Currently, except for a few profitable companies in Japan, Micron and Texas Instruments are still holding on. The rest of the companies, including National Semiconductor, Intel, and AMD, are either bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy.

The reason why Formosa has entered the game now is because the other party has invited the Chinese shareholder of Texas Instruments, Sun Zhongmou.

He wanted to leverage Sun Zhongmou's decades of experience in the industry to attract investment and talent to overtake others.

It was because of Sun Zhongmou's reputation that Philips was willing to come to Taiwan to investigate the market and to discuss the CD business with QVOD.

When Zhai Yuan heard this, he said to Tao Zongyi, "Please ask him how much money Baodao invested this time?"

Wait until Tao Zongyi asked this question.

Gerard began to sense that something was wrong.

Didn't I want to discuss business with you guys at Qvod? Why did you ask so many questions about the cooperation between Formosa and Philips, and the topic is getting deeper and deeper.

Gerard's eyes bypassed Tao Zongyi and went directly to Zhai Yuan's face, staring at him and asked: "Mr. Zhai, you seem to be very interested in the semiconductor industry as well?"

Zhai Yuan shrugged, thinking it was about time to show his hand, and said with a smile: "I am indeed interested. If Philips can provide me with the same technical support and help me set up a company like Formosa, we can also renegotiate the price of Qvod CDs~"

The voice just fell.

The three Dutch guys in the hotel room looked at each other and happy laughter filled the air.

Gerard looked at Zhai Yuan as if he was an outsider, and said in a teasing tone: "Are you saying that you want to set up a semiconductor manufacturing company? What specific products will you make? Transistors, diodes, memory, packaging and testing, integrated circuits, or optoelectronic devices?"

Zhai Yuan scratched his head: "Uh... I will do whatever Baodao does."

Gerard smiled helplessly and shook his head: "Regarding the new company of Formosa, I can briefly tell you some information. Sun Zhongmou is very ambitious. He wants to be the largest technology company in the world, so it will be a new company that includes multiple semiconductor businesses."

Tao Zongyi's translation was straightforward: "Baodao New Company does everything." Zhai Yuan said to him: "Then we should do everything too."

"I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money, Mr. Zhai."

"What's there to be afraid of? I can take out more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is equivalent to more than 300 million US dollars. At most, I can invest all of it!"

Although Tao Zongyi is a professor at the Academy of Sciences, he is also a novice in this regard, just like Zhai Yuan.

At the beginning, Professor Tao had to sell his house and land to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for research funding in the mainland. The 300 million US dollars that Zhai Yuan now asks for is an astronomical figure for him.

then.

Lao Tao also became blindly confident.

He straightened his back and said to Gerard: "I still say the same thing, we will do whatever Taiwan does!"

……

ten minutes later.

Zhai Yuan, Tao Zongyi and Guan Weiming walked out of the Peninsula Hotel with shamefaced expressions.

On the way back to Yuen Long.

The car was no longer filled with the laughter and joy that it had when we arrived, and fell into silence.

"How can this thing be so expensive? If you calculate it this way, our Academy of Sciences' ten-year funding wouldn't be enough to buy a chip lithography machine?"

Tao Zongyi broke the silence, his face full of disbelief.

Qvod also has its own photolithography machine. The basic ultraviolet light (UV) is only suitable for larger process nodes and is purely to ensure accurate overlay of the photoresist and mask for the optical disc.

Originally imported from Nikon Corporation in Japan, this machine cost US$50.

At that time, the mainland academy of sciences used almost the same type of machines for experiments, and some even used second-hand and obsolete machines under more difficult conditions.

Then Gerard gave Zhai Yuan and the others a brief introduction to the world's cutting-edge technology.

……

"Mr. Zhai, you may not know much about the chip lithography machines used in the semiconductor industry. The NSR-1000 lithography machine that Baodao imported from Nikon this time, not to mention etching, cleaning and ion implantation, costs nearly million US dollars for a single machine. In addition to the purchase price of the machine, a group of professionals must be hired to debug the machine. Otherwise, few people even know how to start it."

"Toyo companies currently account for 70% of the global semiconductor market share. Why are they growing so fast? Because they spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year just to purchase patented technologies from around the world. In addition, they need to hire technical talents familiar with the semiconductor industry at high prices. In order to overcome technical difficulties, companies like Hitachi and Fujitsu have almost no holidays for their employees, and their salaries are also ridiculously high."

"Honestly speaking, if you want to do a single semiconductor business with 1.2 million US dollars, you may have a chance, and you can even invest in ASML to make lithography machines. But if you want to set up a new company like Sun Zhongmou did, I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible. In addition, I will tell you a little more news. In order to support Sun Zhongmou, Formosa will let him choose any talent on the island. The government will invest an additional 3700 million US dollars to build a factory, and private enterprises such as Formosa Plastics will invest tens of millions of dollars. If Philips reaches a cooperation with the other party, the initial investment plan is to buy shares for million US dollars."

"It's not impossible to start from scratch and overtake others without any accumulation, but the premise is that you have enough money. Otherwise, how can you compete with others who have been planning for decades? Three hundred million is definitely not enough for investment in technical support, talent introduction and market development..."

……

The scenery passed by outside the window, and the car kept moving.

Zhai Yuan leaned back in his chair, rubbed his face, and let out a breath.

Sure enough, every other line is like a mountain.

The official investment of 1.2 million US dollars in Taiwan’s shareholding may not sound like a lot, but in fact, Sun Zhongmou was worried that the sacred mountain protecting the island would become a state-owned enterprise, so he only allowed the official to invest this much money.

What does it mean to put this money in the film industry?
How did MGM, one of the eight major American companies, die?

It was because Millennium invested in Wu Yusen's "Windtalkers", which cost nearly 100 million US dollars to produce, but the box office flopped, which directly led to a sharp drop in the stock price, the president resigned, and the company was put up for auction.

But if this money is really put into the industrial field, it may not even make a splash.

Tao Zongyi looked worried and even a little desperate.

"Why do I feel like the gap between me and others has become bigger and bigger over the years?"

"Take it one step at a time, and it will get better."

Zhai Yuan patted Lao Tao on the shoulder and comforted the old professor: "The future is bright, but the road is tortuous~"

Tao Zongyi forced a smile and sighed heavily.

Guan Weiming, who was standing by, felt that the atmosphere was a bit heavy, and advised Zhai Yuan, "It doesn't matter. You don't have to make semiconductors. Taiwan will return to us sooner or later anyway. Let them do it first. When the time comes, theirs will be ours."

This time Tao Zongyi did not refute but remained silent. He probably felt that there was no hope of producing and selling the products by himself.

Zhai Yuan looked at the two people with different expressions and smiled.

He lit a cigarette and put it between his teeth, put his hands behind his head and blew out a cloud of smoke, squinting and smiling: "We still have to do it."

Guan Weiming and Tao Zongyi were both stunned.

Zhai Yuan smiled at Guan Weiming and said, "Old Guan, do you think that the new company in Baodao is more important to me, or you?"

Guan Weiming waved his hands and said, "Wow! How can I be worth so much money? Of course, the new company in Formosa is more important."

Zhai Yuan blinked at him and shook his head.

Guan Weiming was flattered and said with a smile, "I didn't expect Mr. Zhai to think so highly of me. Don't worry, I will do my best in the company!"

Zhai Yuan shook his head again: "You are wrong, you are not important, what about being a 36D busty and plump butt beauty?"

Guan Weiming asked in confusion: "Then who is important?"

Zhai Yuan brushed off the cigarette ash that fell on his clothes and smiled at him: "Guess."

Need I say more?
Of course, there is no so-called sacred mountain that protects the island, which is the most important to me.

Maybe I should go to Japan in advance.

…………

Treasure Island.

Guishan Prison.

Tong Yuejuan and two leaders from Taiwan met a middle-aged man in his forties in the prison detention room.

"Ya Ba, as long as you do this well for the country this time, the Executive Yuan can reduce your sentence and release you on parole early."

This time, Tong Yuejuan did not come as the president of the Freedom Association, but as a politician of a higher level.

There were ginseng, abalone, shark's fin and bird's nest on the table in the detention room. A middle-aged man in prison uniform was eating with relish, not looking like he was serving a sentence at all.

Chen Qili, nicknamed Duck Bully, swallowed the food in his mouth, looked up and grinned at Tong Yuejuan and the other two leaders.

"Of course it is my duty to do things for the country. Didn't you say you would bring him to Taiwan? As long as he arrives in Taiwan, you don't have to worry about the rest."

Tong Yuejuan shook her head.

"I just received news from Hong Kong that this guy named Zhai Yuan has booked a flight to Japan. He will not come to Taiwan."

"Japan?" Chen Qili raised his eyebrows, smiled, picked up the whole bottle of whiskey and took a sip, exhaling a cloud of alcohol: "Don't worry, Tong A'ai, it will be more convenient for us Bamboo Union people to do things when he is in Japan..."

(End of this chapter)