Baidu's listing is one of the landmark events of the recovery of the U.S. stock market, and after entering the new year, Ameriken has gradually come out of the haze of last year, and the capital market has begun to be active again.

Baidu went public because there were many executives from financial institutions, and it was also a rare social occasion for Zhou Xin.

If you just consider him personally, Zhou Xin doesn't need to please or do any unnecessary socializing, but from the enterprise level, Xinxin Technology needs to rely on the power of Wall Street in many aspects.

"Jerrell, long time no see, are you responsible for Baidu's listing this time?" Zhou Xin asked.

Jerrell is a vice president of Goldman Sachs, of course, Goldman Sachs has hundreds of vice presidents, and he is considered a relatively high-ranking vice president among them, otherwise he would not have been the head of Riot Games' IPO before.

In a flattering tone, Jerrell said, "yes, we haven't seen each other for about a year.

The last time we met was when NewPay raised money for the second time, a year has passed in the blink of an eye, and NewPay's growth rate is far beyond the imagination of each of us.

After getting used to QR code payment, I can't leave Mphone in my daily life more and more, and even if I forget to bring Mphone outside, I will feel as uncomfortable as if I have an anxiety disorder.

The only downside of Mphone is that the battery capacity is insufficient, and the first thing I do when I arrive at the office during the day is not even to turn on my computer to check my email, but to check my email directly on Mphone's M-mail and reply directly on Mphone.

The development of technology is too fast, how does Mphone achieve a better effect on mobile phone keyboards than computer keyboards? Nokia also gave me an iphone, and the experience of using the iphone is completely incomparable to that of the Mphone. ”

Sometimes you can't just talk about the merits when you praise the other person, and it will seem a little fake to just say the merits, and Jerrell knows this very well.

Zhou Xin did feel a sense of pride after listening to it, because Mphone was done from a future perspective, but there are many things in it that need to be compromised and transformed, after all, it is not a complete screen, and it tests the skill of product design in operation.

Being able to be popular all over the world, Zhou Xin feels that this can also prove that he has a little talent in product design, at least with the blessing of a vision that has led the world for 20 years, he can create good products.

"We have been investing in R&D in the battery field, and we signed a five-year R&D cooperation agreement with Panasonic before the Mphone went public.

Panasonic and we will invest $100 million in battery research and development every year, and we share patents in the hope that the battery life can be made longer.

In fact, more than half of the volume under the Mphone screen is battery, which seriously affects us to make the phone more designed and futuristic. ”

Panasonic has a history of 80 years in the battery field and has always been an important player in the battery field, including Tesla's first choice of Panasonic battery.

Jerrell applauded after listening to this, because Robin was still talking about the importance of Baidu's listing and what it meant to him on stage, and he used applause to flatter him in the audience, and Robin would think he was applauding him even if he saw it.

"This is the best news I've ever heard today. Enterprises with technology as a selling point will inevitably continue to invest in R&D in the process of operation, and if they are not cash flow well, it is easy to fall into a dilemma before achieving a breakthrough in R&D.

I believe that with Newman's strength, Matrix will not encounter such a time, coupled with the global popularity of Mphone, which sold more than 5 million units last year, with the fermentation of word-of-mouth and the release in Europe and Asia, Mphone's sales this year are estimated to exceed 10 million.

Coupled with Mphone's own high pricing, Matrix doesn't need to worry about cash flow at all. Therefore, in reality, we will always encounter such a dilemma, excellent companies are not short of money, and top investment targets like Matrix are not short of money at all, and we can't find the space to meddle in Matrix.

For companies that are short of money, Goldman Sachs may have invested in dozens of companies, and only one of them has obtained Goldman Sachs' funds and developed patents that have allowed Goldman Sachs to enjoy excess profits.

It's really hard to choose between this, but Newman can tell me at any time if Matrix is short of money or needs external financing, Goldman Sachs is still willing to accept the A/B share structure, we only need earnings, not voting rights.

Our internal decision-making committee has discussed that if Matrix is open for investment, Goldman Sachs is willing to hand over all of Goldman's voting rights to you when the investment agreement is signed. ”

To the left of Zhou Xin sits Jerrell, on the right sits Li Jingyi, and to Jerrell's left sits James Dimon, an executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who will become the CEO of JPMorgan Chase in 2005.

Although Jerrell's voice was very low, James could still hear it clearly, of course, everyone is engaged in the financial industry, and they are very familiar with this trick of touting entrepreneurs, but he didn't expect that Goldman Sachs was willing to hand over all the voting rights to Zhou Xin through an agreement in order to invest in Matrix.

This is a completely different concept, and it can even be called a big spectrum, which is equivalent to Goldman Sachs investment in the stock with zero voting rights, which is also very rare in the 100-year history of Wall Street.

Whether it is the A/B share structure adopted by Facebook to accept venture capital after it became popular in the United States in the early days, or the lakeside partnership structure that Alibaba later engaged in in 2010, it cannot be compared with Goldman Sachs' play.

The only thing that could match this idea was when Snapchat went public with non-voting shares for the first time in Nasdaq's history.

James thought about it for a while, and felt that Goldman Sachs' strategy had a certain rationality, because anyone with a discerning eye could see that Matrix was a long-term business, and Zhou Xin, the founder of Matrix, was too young.

People are just doing business, not obsessed with pursuing control of the business, which is not what venture capital institutions do.

Zhou Xin said: "Matrix is indeed not short of money for the time being, but I have another investment project, see if you are interested." ”

Before Jerrell could say anything, James, who was in a seat across from Zhou Xin, poked his head out: "Newman, JPMorgan Chase will serve you wholeheartedly." ”

Jerrell stiffened instantly, and his face changed several times in an instant, but fortunately the audience under the stage was not lit, otherwise he was afraid that his expression management would fail.

Jerrell turned to James and said, "Damon, we need to come first and come first, now Goldman Sachs is talking to Newman, if JPMorgan wants to work with Newman, you can find another time to talk to Newman."

There's a queue right here. ”

James Dimon pretended to exaggerate: "Isn't it Baidu listed today?" When did it become a business meeting for Goldman Sachs? ”

Zhou Xin was afraid that the two of them would make too much noise and smash Robin's field, so he hurriedly stopped: "We can come down and talk slowly, I need a lot of money, and I will need a lot of institutions to participate." ”

"I believe this is not something that a single agency can handle."

Both of them are interested, the larger the amount of investment needed, the more promising the project, Zhou Xin is still very reputable on Wall Street, and the venture capital institutions he cooperates with have not lost money.

This is a rare thing, whether it is Riot Games or NewPay, and it is not an exaggeration to describe Goldman Sachs as a large amount of money.

Therefore, these venture capital institutions have a strong desire to invest in the projects led by Zhou Xin, even if it is a project like Xinxin Technology, which does not make money at a glance, there are many people who are willing to invest.

"Newman, you can simply say, to use the Chinese proverb to describe, that is, it is better to choose a day than to hit the day, we have a preliminary understanding of this project today, and we can start to do a feasibility analysis when we go back in the future, and we can start this project as soon as possible." Jerrell said quickly.

James added: "Yes, we are all interested in your project.

Do you know how much of a shock Mphone has had on us?

What Jerrell didn't finish just now is that other mobile phones were at their peak when they were on sale, and as the first half of the year passed, sales would plummet, and mobile phone manufacturers would no longer invest in marketing, and give specific marketing rights to dealers themselves, because mobile phones themselves do not have the ability to continue to attract consumers.

But Mphone is different, the essence of Mphone is still to sell content, with the launch of the Mphone store, Mphone sells services in addition to selling content.

The content is provided by consumers, and the content they accumulate on Weibo and Quora will only increase, and the services are provided by Internet companies, which are free and paid, but they will not affect the service will be more and more.

And with the increase in services and content, Mphone will only become more attractive, and I think this year Mphone sales in the Americon area will surpass last year, and currently only Mphone is in this form in the entire market. Really amazing design. ”

JPMorgan Chase's perception of Mphone is obviously a level higher than that of Goldman Sachs, and it is also possible that James Dimon has a higher understanding of Mphone than Jerrell.

After James finished speaking, Zhou Xin simply said that Xinxin Technology would build a factory in China, and then it would need external financing, and he himself would contribute 20%, and then he would need to raise 80% from outside.

After saying that, James and Jerrell were silent, because the project didn't make any money when they heard about it.

It makes sense to engage in chip design in China, because chip design is essentially research, and it only needs to cultivate talents, and the scope that needs to be considered is relatively narrow.

But chip manufacturing, if there is no Wassenaar agreement, they feel that there is a problem.

With the constraints of the Wassenaar Agreement, this is an investment that risks far outweigh the returns.

Zhou Xin saw that the two fell silent and said: "I know your worries, I am expected to raise $4 billion, and I will contribute $1 billion myself."

However, this is not a one-time investment, it will be invested gradually, and it will continue to be invested only if it works well and the profit meets expectations.

For the first time, it is expected to raise $1 billion, and I will invest $500 million myself to buy three chip production lines. ”

Jerrell sighed in his heart, he wanted to eat meat but others brought out the bones, or bones without meat but smell, just in view of the previous cooperation between Goldman Sachs and Zhou Xin, they all need to say something about this project:

"Newman, I know what you mean, we'll study it well when we go back, and then decide whether to invest after internal research.

From a personal point of view, I am not optimistic about this project, because the overall integrated circuit manufacturing environment is not optimistic, memory chips are in price reduction, and Samsung is counter-cyclical expansion under the premise of price reduction, Xinxin Technology has no advantage in comparison with Samsung or neon Elpida.

But I still believe that you have magic and can succeed. ”

James continued: "Newman, we at JPMorgan Chase will also seriously consider your proposal, out of trust and support for you, we should invest some, but the total amount of $4 billion raised is really not able to be eaten by JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs."

You may need to find more investment institutions to get involved.

I don't think that chip manufacturing in China will definitely fail, China still has its unique advantages.

After joining the WTO and enjoying the most-favored-nation treatment of many developed countries, China's chips have a cost advantage at the export level. In addition, China's labor cost is relatively low, and at the same time, there are a large number of groups with higher education, so the advantages in this regard are obvious.

Moreover, China does not lack water and stable electricity needed for chip manufacturing.

The only two major factors restricting Huaguo's chip manufacturing industry are that the general environment is bad, and the lack of demand will make it difficult for your chips to sell even if they have a cost advantage.

The second is the Wassenaar Agreement, which determines that China can only make low-end products in the field of chip manufacturing, and the profit margin of low-end chip products will be very thin and cannot enjoy excess profits like the most advanced chip manufacturing process.

So this is a high-risk, medium-low-return project, but with Newman, it's different, maybe you can solve the problem on the consumer side by yourself.

Just like Mphone, just with Mphone's revenue of $3 billion last year, part of the chip production was handed over to the chip manufacturers of Xinxin Technology, and some electronic products were developed in the future, so the consumer side did not have to worry too much.

So Newman, with your blessing, I think this is a low-risk, low-return project, and JPMorgan Chase will be willing to participate in it. ”

For example, Shougang wanted to engage in chip transformation at the beginning of the millennium, and gradually shifted from the steel field to the chip field, and Americon Capital was willing to invest at that time, because the overall environment of the entire integrated circuit industry was very good at that time, and even if it only did low-end chip manufacturing, it could make money.

As a result, in the first quarter of 2000, the situation began to take a sharp turn for the worse, the demand for chips shrank rapidly, Shougang took the land to build a base, and Ameriken Capital withdrew its investment, and the equipment was halfway down, but it was directly abandoned and turned to real estate.

In March, SMIC obtained the know-how transfer of 0.11 micron DRAM trench technology and 300 mm products from Deutsche Infineon, in June, the foundation stone of North China Kexi-Silicon Technology Semiconductor Technology No. 1 Co., Ltd. was laid, Changan Xiyue Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. was established, and in June, the government of Shenhai SJ District signed an investment agreement with TSMC to establish TSMC (Shenhai) Co., Ltd. to engage in the production of 8-inch chips. In July, Gusu Hejian Technology was officially put into production.

(End of chapter)