Coming out of Li Xuan's house, Lin Jieping felt that he was much more relaxed all of a sudden, and the bottom line of the acquisition given by his boss was impossible to be rejected by the shareholders of Applied Materials (AMAT) in the United States. Therefore, in Lin Jieping's view, the merger of AMAT into Lam Research is already a sure thing.

After the completion of the acquisition of AMAT, Lam Research has completed the layout of the three most critical areas of the entire semiconductor equipment market, lithography machines, etching equipment, and CVD equipment, so as to seize the opportunity in the future competition.

The rise of personal computers has driven the entire semiconductor industry, which has entered a period of rapid expansion since the eighties, and has also greatly promoted the development of the upstream equipment industry. With the continuous improvement of chip performance requirements, the semiconductor manufacturing process has been continuously innovated, and the difficulty of research and development of related production equipment has begun to increase exponentially.

As a result, R&D costs have skyrocketed, making the semiconductor equipment sector a high-risk, zero-sum market with a winner-takes-all approach, although very lucrative. Before Li Xuan's rebirth, like the only three companies left in the lithography machine market, Canon had begun to admit defeat and withdraw, and Nikon was still struggling to support, but it was also losing money year after year.

The only winner was the Dutch company ASLM, which alone dominated 105% of the lithography machine sector (because Nikon's profits were negative). Its next-generation EUV lithography system has a unit price of more than a staggering $100 million.

As time goes on, the threshold for investment in the semiconductor equipment sector will become higher and higher. Now can be said to be the last opportunity for Li Xuan's comprehensive layout, taking advantage of the fact that the technical barriers are not very high, he still has the opportunity to use a small investment to go hand in hand in the three major fields of lithography machine, etching equipment and CVD equipment, so as to form the advantage of group operations.

For example, after Lam Research acquired GCA, its technical background in the field of lithography machines has been greatly improved. But there is still a certain gap between it and the current Nikon lithography machine. However, Nikon is not involved in etching equipment and CVD equipment. Lam's ability to provide the three most critical pieces of equipment needed to build a fab at the same time is attractive to investors.

Semiconductor equipment is not like fast consumer electronics such as televisions and computers, and thousands of products roll off the production line in factories every day. It is more like the production of aircraft by Boeing, and it often takes a considerable waiting time from the receipt of an order to the official delivery of the aircraft to the customer.

After receiving Li Xuan's full authorization to acquire AMAT (Applied Materials), Lin Jieping can go back to the hotel to catch up on a good night's sleep. But many others are still busy.

Chunjiang Plumbing Duck Prophet, Aikang's newly launched NoteBook laptop may just be a new consumption choice for ordinary consumers. However, for some keen-eyed industry people, they have seen the new changes that the PC market may usher in in the future.

Business office is one of the most important segments of the entire PC market, and laptops cater to the portable needs of business travelers. The sales volume of 20,000 units in the first week of the global launch released by Aikang also shows the huge market potential of notebook computers. Therefore, IBM began to sit still and was ready to cooperate with Dongzhi Toshiba to enter the field of TFT LCD display, laying a good foundation for the next development of the latest notebook computer.

Toshiba CEO Akaichi Tanimura also took advantage of IBM's positive attitude and quickly persuaded his board of directors. Agreed to the construction plan of the TFT LCD production line involving hundreds of millions of dollars. For example, Sharp is very eager to seek cooperation with Lam, seeking to solve the problem of low product yield of its newly built TFT production line as soon as possible.

Affected by the good news of NoteBook's sales in the first week of listing, it did not choose to be listed on the Taipei Stock Exchange, but deliberately came to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list Taiwan's only LCD display manufacturing company - Xincai Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., whose stock price soared after the opening of the market today.

Aikang released the news at 9 a.m. London time yesterday, but it was already 4 p.m. Hong Kong time, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had just closed. And after today's opening, as the main supplier of NoteBook notebook LCD screens, Xincai Optoelectronics shares. Within half an hour of opening, the stock price skyrocketed by 20%.

You must know that Xincai Optoelectronics is not the kind of small-cap stock with a market value of only 1, 200 million or even tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and its total market value was as high as 1.22 billion Hong Kong dollars at the close of trading yesterday. That is, in just half an hour. The wealth of the shareholders of Xincai Optoelectronics has increased by nearly 250 million Hong Kong dollars.

NoteBook does not use the TFT liquid crystal newly developed by the Oriental Research Institute, but still uses the more mature STN liquid crystal. In Li Xuan and the Oriental Research Institute, STN liquid crystal is already a backward technology on the verge of obsolescence, but for the Taiwan-Gulf liquid crystal industry, Xincai Optoelectronics, located in Hsinchu Science Industrial Park, is the only company in Taiwan that can produce STN liquid crystal.

The largest shareholder of Xincai Optoelectronics is not the Oriental Research Institute, but the China Picture Tube Company. Chunghwa Picture Tube was founded in 1971. It is one of the earliest factories in Taiwan to start producing color picture tubes, and has a close cooperative relationship with RCA company, which has come to Taiwan and invested very early.

After the acquisition of RCA by the Oriental Group, China Picture Tube has naturally become an important partner in the industrial chain of the Oriental Group. With the selection of the deep-sea special zone on the other side of the strait as the manufacturing base for television sets and the outbreak of RCA pollution in Taiwan, the Oriental Group began to rapidly shrink its television and radio business in Taiwan.

China Picture Tube wants to break through the current political barriers between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. It is not an easy task to follow the industrial transfer of the Eastern Bloc to invest in the deep-sea special zones on the mainland. Therefore, with the support of the Eastern Bloc, it began to gradually start industrial upgrading and transformation.

Li Xuan's plan for the LCD industry has been aimed at TFT liquid crystal from the beginning, so although the Oriental Research Institute has realized the technology accumulation in STN liquid crystal earlier, it has not invested often. So this happened to be cheaper than the China Picture Tube Company, and the Oriental Research Institute established a joint venture with it in the form of technology shares.

After Lin Jieping slept in the hotel, he felt much better. After washing his face, he grabbed the phone in his room and began to ask someone to dinner. However, Lin Jieping's face quickly frowned. The person he had made an appointment with had already made other arrangements.

knew that he should have made an appointment in advance by calling before going to bed, and Lin Jieping was a little unswerving. He is in a hurry to return to the United States to deal with the acquisition of AMAT, and has already booked a direct flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco tomorrow morning. Before that, he hoped to take the opportunity of coming to Hong Kong to communicate with the CEO of Jiachuang Technology.

Jiachuang Technology is a wholly-owned subsidiary established by Oriental Research Institute after the spin-off of the LCD business department. Compared to taking advantage of the hot sales of NoteBook this time. The first round of $200 million fundraising planned by Jiachuang Technology will soon be sought after by venture capital.

The reason why Jiachuang Technology launched such a large-scale fundraising action is to start the construction of a new generation of TFT LCD production line. One of the most important reasons why Lin Jieping is in a hurry for Lam Research to annex AMAT is to obtain the latter's deep technical accumulation in the field of CVD equipment, so as to better complete the research and development of CVD equipment required for LCD production lines.

Naturally, these plans should not be known to the management and shareholders of AMAT in advance, otherwise the other party is likely to sit on the ground and raise the price. Therefore, Lin Jieping felt that it was necessary for him to communicate with the senior management of Jiachuang Technology in advance and reach a tacit understanding on some information disclosure.

"Lin Sheng, I have an appointment tonight with Mr. Lin Tingshen, the chairman of Xincai Optoelectronics, if you don't mind, you can come over for dinner. I'll introduce you to this family and you know!" Wei Chuankai, CEO of Jiachuang Technology on the other end of the phone, warmly invited.

Lin Jieping hesitated for a few seconds and quickly agreed. Although he felt that it was a bit presumptuous to suddenly intervene in this way, his trip to Hong Kong this time was indeed too rushed, and he was in a hurry to rush back to the United States to convince the shareholders and management of AMAT that he could not spare other time to meet with Wei Chuankai.

On the other side, Lin Tingshen received a call from Wei Chuankai, and he was not unhappy about the sudden addition of one person at the dinner. Datong Company, founded by Lin Tingshen's father, Lin Shanzhi, is a pioneer in Taiwan's home appliance manufacturing industry. In the import and export trade data released by the Taiwan-Gulf authorities. Lin Jia's Datong Company is second only to Wang Yongqing's Nanya Plastics, ranking second largest import and export manufacturer in Taiwan.

The Lin family established Chunghwa Picture Tube Company in 1971. After 12 consecutive years of losses, he was determined to make a profit. Now Chunghwa Picture Tube has become the most profitable company among dozens of subsidiaries of the entire Cosmos Group.

And the Lin family naturally knows that the entire CRT TV industry has begun to slowly enter the sunset period. The Lin family's Datong company naturally does not have the strength to lead the trend of technological development, so their best choice is to cooperate with other strong players.

The Eastern Group is obviously optimistic about liquid crystal technology, which can replace the existing CRT picture tube and become the mainstream of future display technology. To this end, the Oriental Research Institute has invested heavily in research and development on the LCD project. And Lin Tingshen, the helmsman of the new generation of the Lin family, chose to believe in the vision of the Eastern Group without hesitation and decided to bet on the future of LCD technology.

Lin Tingshen's choice has obviously reaped rich returns, and the increase in the share price of Xincai Optoelectronics was finally fixed at 31% at today's close. This is the craziest round of skyrocketing since the listing of Xincai Optoelectronics. Lin Tingshen's net worth also increased by 100 million Hong Kong dollars in one day.

It's just that these gains can only be regarded as floating profits, largely due to the irrational impulse of the market to chase up. Lin Tingshen really wants to stabilize these inflated market capitalizations, so he needs Xincai Optoelectronics to bring investors more fantasy space.

After the advent of TFT liquid crystal, STN liquid crystal is technically destined to be outdated. Therefore, the most suitable choice for Xincai Optoelectronics to meet market expectations is undoubtedly to enter the field of TFT liquid crystal. However, although the Zhonghua Picture Tube, a subsidiary of the Lin family, is the controlling shareholder of Xincai Optoelectronics, in fact, all the technology comes from Jiachuang Technology Company, a subsidiary of the Oriental Research Institute.

In fact, with the full support of Jiachuang Technology, Xincai Optoelectronics has just begun to understand the related technology of STN liquid crystal, and it is simply unable to develop TFT liquid crystal that is several orders of magnitude more difficult on its own.

Therefore, Lin Tingshen knows very well that the only opportunity for Xincai Optoelectronics to enter the new TFT LCD field as soon as possible is to obtain the support of Jiachuang Technology. And Lin Tingshen specially flew from Taipei to Hong Kong today to have dinner with Mr. Wei Chuankai, CEO of Jiachuang Technology, in order to explore the other party's tone.

Lin Jieping felt that good luck had come, and sometimes it was really unstoppable. He had already had no expectations for tonight's dinner, after all, in front of outsiders, it was impossible for him to directly discuss any private issues with Wei Chuankai.

But as soon as the meal began, he was pleasantly surprised. The new color optoelectronics company from Taiwan and Bay intends to invest in the construction of a new TFT LCD production line, and Wei Chuankai of Jiachuang Technology does not seem to object, but looks at him and smiles.

Even if Xincai Optoelectronics wants to build a TFT LCD production line, it is impossible to build a new second-generation TFT production line like Jiachuang Technology, and Jiachuang naturally cannot give away its core technology. However, if it is to adopt the relevant technology of the pilot production line that Jiachuang Technology has built, it is not negotiable.

You must know that when Jiachuang Technology built the first test production line, it was completely crossing the river by feeling the stones, and invested a lot of money in trial and error. On the basis of the original technology accumulation, Jiachuang has begun the construction of a larger-scale second-generation TFT production line, and many of the original technologies are no longer necessary to continue to hold in their hands.

If it can quickly recover the R&D cost in the early stage with the follow-up investment of other companies, it is undoubtedly a good choice for Jiachuang Technology. Because the first generation of TFT LCD production line cannot be regarded as the originality of Jiachuang Technology. At least Japan's Sharp has built a production line of the same level of technology.

Although Sharp's TFT production line ignored the important detail that LCD production requires cleanliness more than that of the fab, resulting in a disastrous product yield. But they only need to take the time to investigate and quickly find out why.

For example, the cleanliness of the factory cannot be concealed at all, and Sharp only needs to spy a little on the operation of the production line of Jiachuang Company to analyze the clues. Instead of this, Jiachuang might as well simply open up and disclose some non-core details in exchange for more benefits for himself.

Therefore, Jiachuang does not prohibit its partner, Lam Research, from selling CVD equipment for liquid crystal manufacturing to other companies. It is important to know that most of Lam Research's R&D funding on this project actually comes from Jiachuang Company, and many of the patented technologies are shared with Jiachuang Company.

Since Jiachuang has no way and no plan, it is better to control the rhythm in its own hands to prevent other companies from following up and investing in TFT LCD. (To be continued.) )