Now, because of the appearance of Yu Zixian, Chen Shulin has a great interest in the semiconductor industry, or a desire to invest.

It's just that at this time, the Wandao semiconductor industry has been occupied by TSMC and UMC, and even if you want to invest, you don't have a good target.

Forget about the inland semiconductor industry, the government attribute is too strong, and there are often many restrictions in development decisions.

Yu Zixian's now established Xiangji Power not only has huge sales potential backed by the mainland market, but more importantly, it has a comparative advantage that the mainland does not have in the introduction of technology and equipment.

This makes Chen Shulin quite optimistic, otherwise the money will be dead money, and flowing is the king.

At this time, Chen Shulin had billions of Taiwan dollars, of which excluding fixed assets, the cash assets in his hands were no less than 1 billion.

The children now have their own business, do not need to worry too much, and the current paper industry does not have much continuous investment in the follow-up, unlike high-tech enterprises, high investment and high risk, after the investment is completed, just sit back and make money slowly.

So a huge amount of cash assets have been accumulated. Now, the money has largely been idle.

After the last plane incident, Chen Shulin looked at money relatively lightly, and now the semiconductor integrated circuit industry seems to be good.

Especially in recent years, people's lives have undergone great changes because of the research and development and popularization of various electronic products. This is something from the abundance of electronic devices in the house, and Chen Shulin is deeply aware of it.

And if this is our own family, if it is enlarged to thousands of households, it will be expanded to hundreds of millions of households and a billion people in the interior?

The chip behind electronic products, that is, the rise of the semiconductor industry, is inevitable!

At this time, Yu Zixian found the door again.

However, Chen Shulin is only optimistic about the integrated circuit industry now. With good investment habits, Chen Shulin still has no intention of investing a large amount of money now.

Chen Shulin's real investment in funds depends not only on the project itself, but also on the people!

But fortunately, in the young man, he has already seen a little hope!

"Zixian, you just say, how much money do you need now?"

"Uncle Chen, a down payment of at least 5 million is needed at present, 5 million will be needed in three months, and the remaining 2 million may be at the end of the year. ”

"Zixian, you say that, in fact, I am now more curious about your investment plan! At the beginning, you dared to take over a factory with a capital of several million dollars, and then planned an upgrade plan of 50 million dollars? I want to know where you got your confidence, and if you lose money, what will you do?"

"Well, Uncle Chen, to be honest, I'm afraid you'll criticize me...... I invested the five million you gave before, and if I invest it properly, I may double my profit directly. So just to meet the ...... of the production line investment plan this time", Yu Zixian was a little embarrassed when he talked about this.

Looking at Chen Shulin and scratching his head, Yu Zixian continued: "Because of the huge potential of the inland integrated circuit market, because of the backwardness of inland integrated circuit technology, because it is still too late...... I don't want to let us be stuck by the other party all the time because of foreign technical restrictions. ”

"Zixian, this ideal of yours is very beautiful, but have you considered showing it?......

"Even if the ideal is very plump and the reality is very skinny, but I am unswerving!"

"Haha, young people's courage is commendable!"

"Then Uncle Chen, what is your specific opinion?"

"I'd love to say 'You have dreams and I have money!' And I'm willing to invest real money in you, but you have to let me see the hope of your dream coming true! In other words, you haven't made me feel the urge to invest a lot of money yet!"

"Uh-uh, Uncle Chen, thank you for your encouragement......" Yu Zixian thought that Chen Shulin had fully supported his career...... And not just a gift based on affection!

"Well, come on, but I'm still optimistic about you!"

When Yu Zixian heard this, his heart suddenly "chuckled", is this time the funds going to be lost?

"Then Uncle Chen, what is your opinion this time?"

"$10 million, whenever you ask for it, you can take it directly. However, the 10 million belongs to the special loan of Xiangji, which cannot be misappropriated, and the annual interest rate is calculated at 8%. You don't have any opinions, do you?"

"No comment, thank you Uncle Chen. "Fortunately, this amount of money can be received at any time, even if it is a special fund, it is also of great significance to Yu Zixian at this time.

"Well, that's good. I hope you understand and remember that whether it is to your best friend or your dearest relative, love is love, business is business, and you can't talk about it together! Otherwise, you will become a loner sooner or later!"

"Thank you, Uncle Chen, I remember!" Yu Zixian listened to Chen Shulin's somewhat chicken soup-like admonition, and felt warm in his heart at the same time!

However, what Chen Shulin said, in Yu Zixian's opinion, is still far away!

After all, it was a period when only the rich were considering! And at this time, he seemed to have a big spread, but he was a real loser.

"Zixian, do a good job! Within three years, if you can let me see the value of your investment, the 10 million can be converted into shares at any time, and as for the number of shares, the final say. ”

"Thank you, Uncle Chen. At this time, Yu Zixian somewhat understood Chen Shulin's hard work.

Limit the use of funds and ensure that funds are earmarked. After all, I already have a $5 million that was used for investment (speculation)!

……

Two hours later.

"Boss, that's how the money went?"

Cheng Du saw Yu Zixian and Chen Shulin talking for a long time, and originally thought that the matter was going to be yellow, but in the end, Chen Shulin actually said that he would give you 10 million US dollars.

"Hmm. Yu Zixian looked at the charming moonlight outside the window, but he was thinking about many things.

On the second day of arriving on Bay Island, Yu Zixian and his entourage rushed to the ASML Hsinchu office.

After arriving at the office, Yu Zixian did not see the specific person in charge of the office, and after a brief meeting, accompanied by ASML staff, Yu Zixian and his party rushed to TSMC.

Yu Zixian wanted to go to the site to actually see the specific situation of the lithography machine. After all, the basis of cooperation is equipment!

Under the coordination of ASML, Yu Zixian and his entourage successfully entered the factory and arrived at a huge equipment warehouse.

Many warehouses have workers carrying equipment at the door.

With the confirmation of ASML, Yu Zixian also quickly saw their goal this time - SNR_1050G lithography machine.

And when Yu Zixian checked the equipment list and specific parameters, to Yu Zixian's surprise, he actually saw a future acquaintance - Zhang Zhongmou!

Zhang Zhongmou, who appeared in the adjacent warehouse, seemed to be accompanied by several people to check the equipment.

Soon, Zhang Zhongmou passed by the warehouse where Yu Zixian and the others were: "Hey, ASML's equipment is finally going to be disposed of?"

"Yes......"

"I'm an inlandman?" Zhang Zhongmou suddenly asked Yu Zixian.

"Huaxia people!" Yu Zixian said with his head held high.

"Are they starting to make 1.5-micron semiconductors?"

It seems to be asking and answering himself, but Yu Zixian clearly saw a different answer in his eyes - contempt, unbelievable?!

"Can't the Chinese do it?"

"......" Zhang Zhongmou did not answer Yu Zixian's words, but shook his head faintly and left.

Ignore Yu Zixian and them.

"Zhang Zhongmou!" For the first time, Yu Zixian felt his insignificance in the eyes of contemptible.

Yu Zixian thought of Cao Xingcheng, who was fighting with Zhang Zhongmou at this time.

The two companies, Lianhua Electric and TSMC, are competing with each other at this time, and they stage a big drama almost every once in a while.

In June 1997, TSMC announced that it would invest NT$400 billion in Vietnam, and Taiwan Union Power immediately made the decision to increase its investment by NT$500 billion.

During this period, it was the core time point for TSMC and Taiwan Union Power to compete for the "OEM King", but when the situation was very good, the ambitious Cao Xingcheng ran headlong into a "man-made disaster".

In August 1997, UMC's Novoray began trial production, and the production capacity reached 30,000 pieces in the second month. In October, UMC's management publicly stated that it would definitely be able to kill TSMC within two years.

But just two days after saying this, a fire caused by human negligence directly burned down the factory building, not only did the factory's NT$10 billion investment come to naught, the 2 billion orders it had received were lost, but also led to a large loss of customers.

The fire is widely regarded as the most serious fire damage in Taiwan's corporate community, for which UMC paid more than NT$10 billion in direct compensation, and other losses are difficult to estimate.

Seeing that he was about to surpass TSMC, Cao Xingcheng experienced a deep sense of powerlessness for the first time.

But just when the outside world thought that UMC was about to collapse, Cao Xingcheng showed his perseverance. In 1999, he suddenly announced the merger of his four semiconductor foundries and the "five-in-one" operation with UMC. The move caused UMC's stock price to soar, and customers also heard about it. After the merger, UMC has become the world's third largest semiconductor company in terms of output value after Intel and TSMC, and the fourth largest semiconductor company in the world in terms of market capitalization.

And TSMC did not show weakness and "forcibly" acquired Shida Semiconductor Company to deal with UMC's aggressive momentum.

The fire disaster gradually calmed down, and the two companies continued to catch up with each other in terms of scale and capacity, and their technology also advanced by leaps and bounds. UMC has demonstrated very strong R&D capabilities, for example, they are the first company to introduce copper process to produce wafers, produce 12-inch wafers, and produce the industry's first 65nm process chip.

The strong performance after the complete transformation and rebirth made Cao Xingcheng gain fame and fortune. In 2001, he was selected as one of the three most likely to lead Taiwanese technology in the future, and UMC was considered the most worthwhile company for long-term investment.

??

But UMC made another fatal mistake.

Before 2000, the gap between TSMC and TSMC became smaller and smaller, but after 2000, TSMC not only stabilized its advantages, but also widened the gap, and its core was the 0.13 micron process technology of that year.

In the era of 0.18 micron process, UMC was ahead of TSMC, but in the 0.13 micron period, in order to stabilize its advantages, UMC chose to jointly develop with IBM and Infineon. However, the result of the cooperation was quite unsmooth, and the three parties had their own calculations, and it was difficult to unite together, and the project finally failed.

After the end of the cooperation, UMC decided to develop its own products, but in the technology industry, time is the most valuable advantage, let alone semiconductors in the race against "Moore's Law". On the 0.13 micron process, UMC was completely thrown off by TSMC and has never been able to win back a city.

At the same time as the technical miscalculation, Taiwan's chip foundry has also encountered a collective "threat". In 2000, due to the acquisition of Shida, its founder Zhang Rujing came to the mainland and founded SMIC, copying Taiwan's wafer foundry model, and the first professional semiconductor foundry enterprise was born in mainland China.

The sudden change in the industrial pattern of the strait made Cao Xingcheng and Zhang Zhongmou uneasy, but their actions were very different. At that time, the Taiwan authorities strictly guarded against the wafer factories and strictly prohibited Taiwan investment in the mainland. However, Cao Xingcheng was optimistic about cooperation with the mainland in his early years, and in the face of SMIC, he could no longer sit still, and preemptively founded Suzhou Hejian Technology in the form of "assistance".

It is said that Cao Xingcheng admired Zheng He's feat of seven voyages to the West, from which the name of Hejian Technology came from, and in terms of design, Cao Xingcheng also made a special request to build the building of the factory into a warship that was about to set sail.

This ambitious warship brought Cao Xingcheng big trouble. According to insiders, Zhang Zhongmou was also very anxious about the mainland's semiconductor foundry, but he did not act rashly, but waited until the "decree" of the Taiwan authorities allowed him to go to Songjiang in Shanghai to invest and set up a factory.

On the other hand, Cao Xingcheng forcibly "landed" when the authorities' policies were not opened, and the severe blows he received from this triggered a large-scale "inspection and investigation" campaign, an over-frequency search for UMC, and even the private residences of high-level personnel were raided many times.

In the face of political pressure, Cao Xingcheng did not have the slightest willingness to give in, and he repeatedly satirized the authorities in public and repeatedly published newspapers to retaliate. He said half-sarcastically: "If you take a plane to Shanghai in the morning and then take a plane back to Taiwan in the evening, then you won't be considered leaving the mainland." ”

The hard-line attitude eventually led him to court prosecution and endless "political" troubles. Because of frequent lawsuits, Cao Xingcheng resigned from the position of "national policy adviser" in June 2005, and as the incident intensified, in order not to involve UMC, in 2006, Cao Xingcheng suddenly decided to resign as chairman of UMC and enter a state of retirement.

One year later, Taiwan's Hsinchu District Court ruled that Cao Xingcheng was not guilty, but his dream of leading Taiwan UMC to surpass TSMC had been shattered, and UMC gradually drifted away with the departure of the soul figure.

After Cao Xingcheng left, the semiconductor industry continued to change. Intel entered the ARM chip foundry market to undertake Spreadtrum's business; Samsung set up an independent foundry department and replaced Taiwan UMC as a role to catch up with TSMC; Tsinghua Unigroup joined forces with the big fund to establish Yangtze River Storage, and the mainland wafer foundry entered the era of huge productions......

With such changes, it is almost impossible for UMC to regain the glory of the past. Cao Xingcheng's successors, whether it is Hu Guowei, Hung Jiacong, or Sun Shiwei, have failed to reproduce the majesty of UMC during Cao Xingcheng's time.

Regarding the sudden farewell and the abrupt end of the king's dream, Cao Xingcheng never confided in the outside world, which is also in line with his consistent style.

In the Taiwanese industry, Cao Xingcheng is a maverick, and according to those around him, he himself is low-key and does not talk much. But in the eyes of public opinion, Cao Xingcheng is an open-mouthed person: he openly questioned Zhang Zhongmou's huge dividends, and directly sprayed the "Taiwan Union Party Legislator" as a clown who was grandstanding. His remarks often sparked controversy on the island, and the outside world's evaluation of Cao Xingcheng was also mixed.

Cao Xingcheng doesn't care about praise and criticism, he said, "The social image is a very empty thing, and you don't have to put effort into pretending to be fake." ”

In the eyes of UMC people, Cao Xingcheng is also a flesh-and-blood and very real person as he says. In TSMC, Zhang Zhongmou's image is very lofty, and the next level of supervisors is far from him, while the biggest feature of the UMC team is that it is neither big nor small, and everyone is complaining and joking with each other to become bigger.

All this is closely related to Cao Xingcheng's character. UMC management once said that Cao Xingcheng was a typical charismatic leader, who was smart and good at strategy, but never high on top. He doesn't talk much, but he speaks firmly, and so does his style – he does what he wants to do, and he doesn't hesitate. From UMC's complete transformation to insisting on investing in the mainland to confronting the Taiwan authorities, Cao Xingcheng's actions all confirm this characteristic.

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