ps: If you want to hear more of your voices and receive more of your opinions, search for the WeChat public account "qdread" now and follow it to give more support to "Rebirth Electronic Empire"!"In my opinion, chip design and chip manufacturing can be completely split into two independent companies! Chip design companies focus on the R&D and design of new chips, while wafer factories focus on reducing the cost of chip manufacturing!" Li Xuan said with a smile.

In later generations, as the cost of wafer fabs continued to rise, more and more companies began to try to abandon self-built wafer fabs and take the so-called "fab-light" model (light fab model, that is, no longer continue to invest in wafer fabs, and insufficient production capacity is handed over to wafer foundries).

AMD is a prime example of this, in order to reduce losses, it directly spun off its own wafer fab and focused solely on chip research and development. And even Intel, the staunchest supporter of the factory model, has begun to outsource some of its chip production. Another IDM (integrated module manufacturing) giant, Samsung, has begun to enter the chip foundry industry, taking orders from other companies to compete with TSMC.

Zhang Zhongmou frowned, thinking about Li Xuan's mention.

"With the continuous progress of process technology, the investment in wafer production process is getting higher and higher, and now the mainstream lithography machine costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the next generation lithography machine costs at least one million dollars!

The investment required to build a fab is getting higher and higher, which inevitably requires the fab to have sufficient operating rate to achieve breakeven!

"If we can separate the wafer factory, we can not only meet the production tasks of our own chips, but also undertake external orders. The wafer process is being replaced quickly, which means that the depreciation cost of equipment is very high, and if the operating rate can be increased, the depreciation cost spread on each chip will be reduced!"

"As you said, every chip company has its own fab. If you can't even fill the production capacity of your own factory, how can you outsource chip production!" Zhang Zhongmou suddenly asked with a smile, as if he was testing Li Xuan.

"Mr. Zhang, what do you think is the real threshold for restricting entry into the semiconductor chip industry?" Li Xuan didn't wait for the other party to answer, and said to himself, "In my opinion, the biggest threshold is that the investment in the wafer factory is too high. Building even one of the smallest, outdated fabs would require at least a few million dollars of investment.

This is for most companies that are interested in joining the chip R&D industry. It's an unbearable weight. But if you just set up a pure chip design company, you only need a few people and tens of thousands of US dollars! When a special enterprise appears, it is willing to help them complete such a huge investment and set up a chip foundry company to undertake production orders. Countless small chip design companies will soon follow!"

According to the information collected by Li Xuan before, Zhang Zhongmou hopes that Deyi can continue to increase its investment in the semiconductor business and focus on the technology field. However, after Mr. Xia Bai, the new president of Deyi Company, took office, he began to shift the company's focus to the development of consumer electronic products.

The disagreement between the two on the company's development concept was the most important reason for Zhang Zhongmou's resignation from Deyi. This is also Li Xuan's determination to come to Dallas in person to invite Zhang Zhongmou to join Dongfang Electronics.

As early as six or seven years ago, the 41-year-old Zhang Zhongmou had been promoted to senior vice president of Deyi Company, and was the third person in the company after chairman and president. At that time, the semiconductor business accounted for 50% of Deyi's total revenue. Half of the company's 60,000 employees around the world are led by Zhang Zhongmou.

At that time, Intel was in the field of memory, but Zhang Zhongmou took the initiative to provoke the market battle for DRAM memory chips. In the end, Deyi Company snatched a piece of fat from Intel's mouth, and was evaluated by American magazines as "the person who makes competitors tremble".

Such a promising American dream, let Li Xuan give up his high position in Deyi Company and succumb to the small company of Dongfang Electronics, what kind of position does Li Xuan need to give in order to attract the other party?

More importantly, although the scale of Dongfang Electronics is not large. The business is very complicated, including games, computers, software, and semiconductors. A certain kind of Cheng dù on the development model of Dongfang Electronics. It is also not in line with Zhang Zhongmou's concept of focusing on one field for deep cultivation. In the future, TSMC has only focused on the field of chip foundry, and has hardly set foot in downstream consumer electronics.

"I don't know if Mr. Zhang is interested. Prepare for the establishment of a specialized chip production company for Dongfang Electronics. Make a great exploration of the new model of the semiconductor industry, if the wafer foundry model can be successful, it is likely to profoundly change the future pattern of the entire semiconductor industry!"

For Zhang Zhongmou, who is in his current position, the attraction of money is no longer so great. Perhaps he was more moved by a new business that would go down in history. This is probably the biggest reason why he will return to Taiwan four or five years later, at the age of 54, to start a second business.

The two talked in the study for about an hour, and Li Xuan politely got up and left, returning to the hotel booked in advance. Zhang Zhongmou did not give a direct reply, only said that he needed to think about it. Li Xuan also knew that such a heavy decision could not be agreed to casually.

The next day, Li Xuan met with CEO Mr. Xia Bai at the headquarters of Deyi Company. Li Xuan's visit to Dallas this time not only discussed the transfer of the fab, but also involved a series of cooperation agreements between the two companies in other aspects, such as mutual licensing of some of the patents owned by each other.

Dongfang Electronics is an electronics newcomer, and its own patent pool is almost empty. In order to achieve a smoother development in the next step, it is necessary to obtain the authorization of some basic patents. In this regard, Deyi is undoubtedly a good partner to work with, and the technology accumulation of this semiconductor giant company is not inferior to that of IBM and other companies.

Dongfang Electronics also happens to have some patents that Deyi can look at, such as the KEY-102 keyboard patent applied to ABC computers, and Deyi intends to use it on its new personal computer.

Apple's huge success has not only attracted IBM, a dark blue crocodile. It also makes large companies such as Deyi and HP salivate for the personal computer market. The emerging PC market is still a little new to Deyi, and it is undoubtedly a good choice to have a moderate exchange with another Dongfang Electronics company, which is in the same limelight as Apple and is in the limelight in this field.

Li Xuan poured into the personal computer market one after another. Not very repulsive and worried, anyway, he was soon ready to rush to the IBM to flip the table. In a transparent and competitive market, the efficiency of these bloated large enterprises is really worrying, and it is not as great as those copycat small companies that pose a greater threat to Li Xuan.

Throughout the morning, Li Xuan, accompanied by a senior executive of Deyi, toured their new factory on the outskirts of the city. It will be used to produce Texas Instruments' upcoming PC products. After a sumptuous steak working meal, Li Xuan went to the conference room, which had already been renovated, and signed his name on several cooperation agreements with Mr. Xia Bai.

Dongfang Electronics had to pay Texas Instruments a total of $12.5 million to license more than 100 patents in the computer and semiconductor fields at a wafer fab near California's Silicon Valley.

"Mr. Shabber. I don't know what restrictions your company has on the resignation of top management?" Li Xuan asked tentatively with a smile as he held a champagne glass and smiled at the tall white old man in front of him.

Xia Bai quickly understood the meaning of Li Xuan's words, and he shook his head: "Mr. Li, as long as it does not harm the interests of the Texas company, we will not make any restrictions on the professional freedom of all employees!"

Li Xuan nodded, and seemed to diverge to another topic: "Your company is preparing to enter the computer market. It seems that Mr. Zhang Zhongmou does not agree very much?"

This is not a secret at all within Deyi, and Zhang Zhongmou has spoken out his views on many occasions inside and outside the company, regardless of whether Xia Bai, the president, is present or not. It doesn't matter if the others listen to it or not. Zhang Zhongmou's unwillingness to compromise with others and his overly strong personality are also important reasons that hinder him from continuing to be promoted within Deyi.

"It's not surprising that everyone has the right to express their own opinions and opinions!" but the direction of the board of directors will not change because of this!" Xia Bai said with no uncertainty on his face. It's still a very gentlemanly smile.

"My Dongfang Electronics intends to invite Mr. Zhang Zhongmou to be the head of the newly established fab division! Will it be troublesome for the cooperation between the two companies?" Li Xuan asked bluntly.

Even if Zhang Zhongmou is willing to resign from Deyi to join Dongfang Electronics, he must be approved by Deyi's board of directors. Li Xuan simply picked out this matter himself.

Xia Bai shook his head and chuckled: "This first requires the consent of Zhang himself, if he does think that joining your company is more beneficial to the future development, although we regret it, we will not set up special obstacles!"

Li Xuan has no shortage of malicious conjectures, and the new head of Deyi in front of him is probably eager for Zhang Zhong to get out of his way. Because of the latter's series of remarks, it poses no small challenge to his authority. If it was an ordinary executive, Xia Bai could naturally kick it away. However, Zhang Zhongmou has 20 years of experience in Deyi Company, and his current position is completely obtained by his own hard work step by step, and there are not many supporters of him on the board of directors.

This is also the reason why Li Xuan values Zhang Zhongmou, because whether it is his performance in Deyi or the later single-handedly building TSMC, it proves that his ability is absolutely undoubted.

Now that he has obtained the understanding of Xia Bai, the CEO, Li Xuan's poaching operation does not need to be so sneaky. Of course, Li Xuan will not deliberately be high-profile, after all, Zhang Zhongmou's contract with Deyi will expire in two or three years. (My novel "Rebirth Electronic Empire" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will be a 100% lottery gift for everyone!Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner "Add Friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up!) (To be continued)

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