"Dong Li, I didn't expect you to be familiar with Mayor Chen and Mr. Song. In the car, Cao Xingcheng said to Li Feng with a smile.

"I didn't expect my arrival, but I was flattered to let the two of them come together. But I'm only here because I'm interested in UMC, and I don't want to know anything else, and I'm not involved in politics, am I? If we can get a partnership, maybe we'll stay a few more days, and if we don't, I'll leave here soon. Li Feng replied with a smile.

"I really envy Li Dong's carefree and comfortable, although this fire has caused us heavy losses to UMC, and the pressure on all parties has increased greatly, but it has not reached the point of breaking the bones, we have several other factories, as long as they are integrated, the production capacity is actually not inferior to any one. ”

Obviously, although Cao Xingcheng is willing to cooperate, the meaning of his words is still very clear, that is, he wants to express that even if UMC has suffered heavy losses in the fire now, its strength is still there, and if he wants to fight the autumn breeze, it is a dream.

Similarly, since Li Feng has been invited, there is naturally an opportunity for cooperation, but as for the final situation, it depends on the ability of all parties.

"Yes, I've heard that several factories are built in collaboration with IC design companies, and it seems that you have set up your own IC design department in each of UMC's factories since last year.

Although UMC has indeed opened up the market by cooperating in investment and building factories, as far as I know, because you have set up an independent design department, these design companies are worried about product design technology leakage and other issues, and this is not a day or two.

And TSMC doesn't have such confusion, I think Cao Dong should also be worried about this matter. UMC is in the most difficult of times, but I don't think this is also an opportunity to solve the problem.

There's a saying I've always heard and believed, 'Crisis is crisis, crisis is opportunity', what do you think?"

……

After listening to Li Feng's words, the old man with a gleam in his eyes couldn't help but say: "Yes, these are the biggest dilemmas in front of us, although there are conveniences in cooperating with design companies, such as being able to open up the market and get orders, but there are also inconveniences."

The first point, as you said, the design company is worried about the outflow of technology, and secondly, each foundry is independently responsible for production design, and the mutual cooperation between different factories is restricted, which is also the reason why our production capacity cannot be increased, so what do you think should be done?"

"Hehe... , I think, this should not be difficult for Cao Dong, since there are difficulties in cooperation, one party can just quit, isn't it?

If you reorganize TaiUMC and completely separate the IC design department from the foundry, I don't know if Mr. Cao is interested, or directly acquire the shares of Renjia Design Company, which is the most convenient and direct. ”

"I'd like to, but it takes a lot of money to buy the other party's factory shares, and UMC can't come up with that much money for the time being. ”

Obviously, Cao Xingcheng attaches more importance to the direct acquisition of foundries.

"Haha... Isn't that what I'm here for?"

"That's true, and I think that with your influence in the United States today, maybe after the real cooperation, it should be beneficial for us to open up the market. ”

"Hehe... I can't guarantee this, but I naturally pay attention to the development of my company. ”

Sure enough, people also have a heart, if Li Feng can become a major shareholder of UMC, not only the integration of funds, but also with Li Feng's influence in the United States imperialism, it must be very beneficial to the development of the company, after all, the United States is a major country in chip design, production and consumption.

……

Since he wants to intervene in UMC and invest in the wafer foundry, Li Feng naturally has a good understanding of these.

The semiconductor and chip industries may initially be traced back to the former leader of the semiconductor industry - Fairchild Semiconductor, which is known as the 'West Point Military Academy' in the semiconductor, electronics, and computer industries.

The exodus and departure of batches of elite talents have led to the glorious history of US Silicon Valley, such as Intel and AMD, which now occupy most of the semiconductor chips, all of which were founded by elite talents who fled from Fairchild.

Initially, the major semiconductor companies adopted a turnkey strategy, where the company was responsible for both design and manufacturing, and one problem arose was the issue of cost.

Semiconductor chip design and research and development is often a billion-dollar starting R&D fund, and the design of chip manufacturing plants and the research and development of new manufacturing technologies are not inferior to chip design.

This makes the semiconductor industry a double-intensive and expensive enterprise with technology and capital, after all, it often starts with a unit of $1 billion, which leads to several giants firmly in control, and latecomers almost have no chance to insert.

Under the background of such a semiconductor industry, Wanwan's semiconductor industry has taken a bold and innovative step, that is, to divide design and manufacturing into two, which has given birth to two semiconductor industries, namely chip design and chip manufacturing.

This segmentation has greatly reduced the cost of entering the semiconductor industry to find food, and the market that was previously dominated by a few oligarchs has also changed, and Zhang Zhongmou of Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is considered the initiator of this change.

……

In other words, at the end of the 80s, Zhang Zhongmou, who was still the global vice president of Texas Instruments, was invited by Wanwan to come here to develop the semiconductor industry.

The later history, most people are clear, that is, Zhang Zhongmou finally established a wafer foundry focusing on chip manufacturing, that is, TSMC, and later TSMC became one of the giants of the global semiconductor industry.

Naturally, with the rapid development of Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Zhang Zhongmou has become the hero and savior of the entire Wanwan semiconductor industry, even in the global semiconductor industry, he has also achieved a huge reputation, after all, because of a major innovation of Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., two major chip industries have been born.

However, just when people thought that Zhang Zhongmou of Semiconductor Manufacturing Power was the proposer of this big innovation, there was another person in Wanwan who did not think so, that is, Cao Xingcheng of UMC.

In Cao Xingcheng's view, chip foundry is his own creativity, and Zhang Zhongmou is just a "plagiarist". He has publicly stated this statement, but Zhang Zhongmou has never responded to this.

It turned out that when Zhang Zhongmou returned to Wanwan and began to preside over the semiconductor industry, Cao Xingcheng, who was a subordinate at that time, analyzed the semiconductor industry, and then made an industry development plan, that is, a wafer foundry plan, and then handed it to Zhang Zhongmou.

It's a pity that after this plan was handed over, there was no reply at all.

Unexpectedly, after Zhang Zhongmou completely left the United States and returned to Wanwan, he directly established TSMC, a company with wafer foundry as the core and dedicated to chip manufacturing.

……

It was also from that time that Cao Xingcheng and Zhang Zhongmou's disagreement began. Similarly, with the dispute between the two bigwigs, the competition between the two major companies also began. For example, before the 90s, whether it was Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) or UMC, the company's boss was actually Zhang Zhongmou, and as a result, in the early 90s, Cao Xingcheng drove Zhang Zhongmou out of UMC and took it into his own hands through a series of operations.

The competition between UMC and Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has become a game and exciting game in the Wanwan semiconductor industry and even the global chip manufacturing industry in the past two years.

After all, most of the chips of semiconductor design companies are produced by these foundries specializing in manufacturing chips, and UMC and Semiconductor Manufacturing are the two largest poles of chip manufacturing plants.

Well, as for the question of who raised the idea of this wafer foundry project, this is also Cao Xingcheng first exposed it in front of the media, saying that Zhang Zhongmou plagiarized his own planning idea, and Zhang Zhongmou has not officially responded clearly in the media.

However, Li Feng believed Cao Xingcheng a little, and thought that Cao Xingcheng would not lie on this point, maybe it was true. After all, with Cao Xingcheng's current status in the semiconductor industry, there is no need to lie, today's UMC is not inferior to TSMC, and now is not the time for TSMC to dominate the world in the future, and Zhang Zhongmou has no clear refutation, which is a bit of a tacit meaning in Li Feng's view.

……

As for why the Wanwan government let Zhang Zhongmou take power in the first place, in fact, this is very understandable, Zhang Zhongmou returned from the US imperialists and was specially hired by the government, while Cao Xingcheng rose locally, and he was just a small minion in the government at first.