Not everyone is willing to invest in ASML, after all, their method is too innovative, and there is a suspicion of kidnapping users, if there is a choice, everyone is not willing to be threatened by ASML, but unfortunately they can provide high-end lithography machines. You must know that there are only five high-precision lithography machine companies in the world, namely ASML in the Netherlands, Nikon in Japan, cannon in Japan, ultratech in the United States and Shanghai Microelectronics (SMEE) in China. China's companies are barely counted, the two Japanese basically have no continuous R&D investment, the United States ultratech has not made much progress, and most of the products they sell are low-end, and high-end EUV is only provided by ASML. In other words, the current progress of semiconductor chip manufacturing technology can only rely on ASML's equipment progress.

Intel and Licensed Semiconductors have no choice, and TSMC and Samsung have not yet realized or temporarily considered it unnecessary, which gives the opportunity to license. After Zhou Shi relaxed the requirements, the matter of licensing semiconductors to take a stake in ASML was basically completed. Licensed Semiconductor acquired a 5% stake in ASML for US$1035 million and invested US$340 million to help ASML develop new technologies. The investment amount will be based on the development of 450mm machines and the development and manufacturing of 10nm technology for EUV.

Many people have opinions on Zhou Shi's decision, ASML has not yet come to the door, and the concession is rushing to catch up, why? Can these investments still be recovered? What should I do if I lose money, is it so easy to make back the money through semiconductor foundry profits?

The key to this is whether the licensed technology can be realized without the support of high-end equipment, and the production efficiency and quality can be guaranteed. Is it stupid for a mature company like Intel to be willing to invest such a large amount of capital? One purpose of franchising is to ensure its own development, and the other is to create trouble for the future through procurement.

In the past life, Intel, TSMC and Samsung, the three companies that invested in ASML, became the three leading companies in semiconductor manufacturing technology, is it because they are lucky? All accidents are the inevitable result. It cannot be said that if you invest in ASML, you will definitely be able to become a giant in the industry, but if you do not invest in ASML, I am afraid it will be many times more difficult.

After Intel signed a contract with the concessionaire ASML, ASML's stock price skyrocketed under the covert manipulation of someone with ulterior motives, from less than $60 per share to more than $65 in just a few days, with the consequence that Samsung retreated. Due to Zhou Shiqi's involvement, although Samsung has invested hugely, there is still a distance between it and licensed semiconductors in terms of technology, not to mention its market share. It is mainly supported by its own industry, but because of the efforts of Micron, Hynix and Qimonda, Samsung's storage business has inevitably been impacted, and it is relatively cautious in investment. In their previous life, their investment was also the least among the three companies, but this time they simply did not invest, but TSMC invested more money in order to suppress licensed semiconductors. It invested US$1.38 billion in ASML 6 percent, and invested US$4.6 billion in research and development. Intel has a 14 percent stake in ASML.

If nothing else, the three companies – Intel, TSMC and Chartered Semiconductor – could get EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) equipment first ahead of the rest. Of course, such a contract will definitely not appear directly in front of the public, after all, it violates the principle of fair competition, so there are only rumors and no definite evidence outside.

Zhou Shi could not stay in the Netherlands forever, having travelled to Munich before the Champions League final, where FC Bayern is located. The Champions League final was played at home by one of the football teams, and for the first time. However, Liverpool's overall plastic surgery has exploded Bayern, and Zhou Shi has increased Liverpool's publicity efforts on social networks, and its popularity in the world has been greatly improved, and it has also tied Liverpool and Huaxia Capital into Europe, and it is also to promote the multinational force operation in the United Kingdom, Huaxia Capital has won the prestige of England, this time in the Champions League, Huaxia Capital has participated in a lot, compared to the advertising sponsorship of companies such as Shell, Nuts and Geely Volvo, the perfect combination of capital and strength, I believe that the final result is unlikely to be unexpected.

Zhou Shi's visit to Germany is not just to watch the game, but also to recruit people to contact Germany's Siltronic AG, the third largest company in the global silicon wafer market. If the acquisition of SunEdison in the United States does not go well, he needs an alternative, and the French company Soitec Semiconductor is also one of the candidates. This company has unique features in SOI wafer production technology, is the promoter of this technology, and is also one of the initiators of the SOI industry alliance. AMD recently announced that it would abandon its development in the field of FD-SOI technology, and Intel launched commercial FinFET technology last year, TSMC soon made a huge breakthrough, and the FinFET technology of licensed semiconductors was also close to success. These are a great blow to the enterprises that adhere to the FD-SOI technology industry, and it is a big risk to invest heavily in this industry at this time, but the difficulty is relatively small.

When he arrived in Europe and came into contact with experts here, Zhou Shi had a further understanding of the development of FD-SOI technology. There is a plan on the European side to promote the development of the SOI industry, and through the EU to invest billions of euros to establish several SOI wafer production lines, to improve the industrial chain. The French company Soitec is one of the core enterprises, which has achieved mature mass production of FD-SOI substrates, which are the bottleneck of SOI wafers. There is also STMicroelectronics, which is a leader in FD-SOI process foundry.

If the concession and GLOBALFOUNDRIES fail to acquire IBM's chip manufacturing division, the only option for a breakthrough in the FD-SOI process in a short period of time is to license ST's process technology platform. You can't always think about doing everything alone, no matter how good a company is, you need the help of an alliance.

However, it can be seen from here that Zhou Shi still has a very backward development idea in the high-tech field in China, not only has no forward-looking thinking, but also has no forward-looking investment. At this time, FD-SOI obviously lost its advantage, and the EU still invested firmly in the most basic field of the industry regardless of returns, and the country wants to build large aircraft, not wanting to start from the entire industrial chain and cultivate a new generation of large aircraft from the direction of new materials and new technologies, but to learn the model of Boeing and Airbus, and the probability of success is really small. However, the development of artificial intelligence and big data technology may be able to bring new breakthroughs to this industry. Artificial intelligence, for example, can provide scientists with more assistance in analyzing and designing experimental protocols

In any case, just like Liverpool was able to defend the Champions League title on its own, in this world, miracles always happen, but most of the miracles that seem to be miracles are accidents that appear in the inevitable after countless preparations. Take a hundred plating to read the latest chapter of "The Rebirth of the Post-80s Legend Claw Book House" for free for the first time.