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"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 make the wafer factory independent, we can not only meet the production tasks of our own chips. It can also undertake external orders, which can undoubtedly make better use of production capacity! The wafer process is updated quickly. This means that the depreciation cost of equipment is very high, and if the operating rate can be increased. The depreciation cost will be reduced if it is spread out on each chip!"

"As you said, every chip company has its own wafer factory, and it can't even fill the capacity of its own factory, so how can it 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 an unbearable burden for most companies that are interested in joining the chip R&D industry. But if it's just a pure chip design company. When a specialized company emerges and is willing to help them complete such a huge investment and set up a chip foundry to undertake production orders, countless small chip design companies will immediately emerge!

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. I came 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, and the company employed 60,000 people worldwide. Half of it is led by Zhang Zhongmou.

At that time, Intel was in the ascendant of the memory field, but Zhang Zhongmou took the initiative to provoke the market battle for DRAM memory chips, and finally let Deyi Company snatch a piece of fat from Intel's mouth. He was evaluated by an American magazine as "the one who makes competitors tremble".

Such a bull with a promising American dream made him give up his high position in Deyi Company. When he succumbed to the small company of Dongfang Electronics, what kind of position did Li Xuan need to give. To attract each other?

More importantly, although the current Dongfang Electronics is not large, its business is very complicated, involving games, computers, software, and semiconductors. A certain development model of Dongfang Electronics 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 in setting up a special 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. It not only attracted IBM, a dark blue crocodile, but also made large companies such as Deyi and HP. Salivating over the PC market. The emerging PC market is still a bit unfamiliar to Deyi, if it can be the same as the other company and Apple. Oriental Electronics Company, which is in the limelight in this field, is undoubtedly a good choice for moderate exchanges.

Li Xuan was not very repulsed and worried about these predators pouring into the personal computer market, anyway, he was soon ready to rush to the table in front of IBM. 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, Mr. Li, accompanied by a Deyi executive, toured their new factory on the outskirts of the city, which will be used to produce Texas Instruments' soon-to-be-launched personal computer products. After a hearty 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. Xia Bai, I don't know what restrictions your company has on the resignation of senior 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 do not impose any restrictions on the professional freedom of all our employees!"

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

This is not a secret at all within Deyi. 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, and whether others listen to it or not. A lot of Cheng dù on. Zhang Zhongmou's unwillingness to compromise with others and his overly strong character. It is also an important reason that hinders him from continuing to be promoted within Deyi.

"It's no surprise that everyone has the right to express their own views and opinions! It won't change because of this!" Xia Bai's face did not show any hesitation, and it was still a very gentlemanly smile.

"My Dongfang Electronics intends to invite Mr. Zhang Zhongmou to be the head of the newly established fab division! I wonder if this abrupt move will cause trouble to 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, and 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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