Chapter 641: If he dares to sell, I dare to buy! Playing an open conspiracy? Don’t you know that the Chinese are the ancestors!

California, in a luxurious club with extremely high privacy.

The heads of several semiconductor companies, including Qualcomm, Micron, Siego, GlobalFoundries and Intel, organized an impromptu discussion meeting regarding the rise of Star Source Technology.

"Paul, your business overlaps most with Xingyuan Technology. What do you think?"

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich asked Paul Jacobs across from him, holding a glass of whiskey worth thousands of dollars.

"I will report this to the Chamber of Commerce and ask for stricter import restrictions on China, including but not limited to lithography machines, silicon wafers, photoresists, and specialty gases."

Paul Jacob's face was as gloomy as water. He took a puff of his cigar, slowly exhaled the smoke, and was the first to express his opinion.

He knew clearly what Brian Kozaiqi was thinking, which was that he just wanted him to take the lead.

However, he didn't mind it.

Because in just three months, Qualcomm lost 30% of its orders in the Dahua region and lost $3 billion in profits.

This amount of money is enough to buy hundreds of Chen Yansen’s lives!

How could he sit back and watch Xingyuan Technology grow and become stronger, competing with him for business?

Sanjay Jha, head of GlobalFoundries, swirled his glass, the amber liquid gleaming in the light. He chuckled and said, "It's just a 28-nanometer process. Is it worth calling a meeting to deal with it?"

You should know that GlobalFoundries' yield rate for 20nm and 16nm processes has reached over 90%, and even the 14nm process has reached 50%.

TSMC and Samsung are even better!

In his opinion, Xingyuan Technology is like a three or four-year-old child. Is it necessary to target it specifically?

Of course, he also had his own selfish motives for jumping out to oppose it - he wanted to take advantage of the good cooperative relationship between GlobalFoundries and Star Source Technology to obtain the other party's HFOB transistor architecture technology through patent cross-licensing.

After all, as far as he knows, this hybrid process far exceeds the traditional Poly-Sion or HKMG structure in terms of performance and power consumption.

Although it cannot compare with the FinFET technology solution, the advantage of Xingyuan Technology lies in its ability to integrate FinFET and Soi technology to achieve a balance between manufacturing cost and performance.

This alone is something GlobalFoundries cannot do.

Moreover, he also wants to use the HFOB architecture to optimize GlobalFoundries' 14nm LPP solution.

"Sangjie, do you think Star Source Technology will still pay you to do the manufacturing after it achieves mass production of its 28nm process? Wake up! Star Source Technology's ultimate goal is to steal our money!"

Paul Jacob snorted coldly, raised his right hand holding a cigar, and questioned Sanjay Jha.

After he finished cursing, as if not satisfied, he looked at Micron's chairman, Mark Duncan, and pointed without hesitation, "As for your idea, it's even more stupid. You actually want to sell the previously banned NXT 1980i lithography machine to Xingyuan Technology. Are you Chinese or Chinese?"

"Paul, even if your father were here, he wouldn't be so rude to me, you..."

Mark Duncan was furious.

He was fed up with the second-generation rich kid in front of him; his emotions were too unstable.

"Paul!" Intel's Brian Krzanich shouted.

"Saury, I apologize! But you must understand one thing: even the weakest opponent deserves your full attention."

Paul Jacob shrugged his shoulders and apologized, but his attitude was extremely arrogant.

Eric Sanford, CEO of Saigao, had been sitting silently in the corner until he finally spoke up to break the deadlock: "Paul's impatience is understandable, but Sanjay is right.

We now need to figure out whether Xingyuan Technology's HFOB architecture is an "accidental breakthrough" or a "systematic R&D capability."

If it only has a single advantage of 28nm, then it will only threaten the mid- and low-end foundry orders of GlobalFoundries, TSMC and UMC.

But if this hybrid process can be upwardly compatible with 20nm and 16nm, or even adapted to automotive and industrial control chips, that would be the real problem.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he pushed a marked test report to the center of the coffee table and added, "This is the teardown report of the Tiangong A100T processor manufactured by Xingyuan Technology. Its transistor density is 18% higher than that of the traditional 28nm HKMG process and is closer to the level of the 20nm Planar process.

More importantly, their leakage current control rate is 9% lower than TSMC's, which means this process can be directly used in power-sensitive smart wearable and medical devices."

Intel's Brian Krzanich narrowed his eyes, took a leisurely sip of his drink, and then responded, "So you're saying we can't just focus on 'limiting devices,' we also need to focus on 'application scenarios'?"

Eric Sanford of Saigao smiled faintly and nodded in response: "That's right!"

Brian Kozaki glanced at the crowd. "How exactly are we going to block the application scenarios? The supply chains for smart wearables and medical devices are fragmented. We can't just pressure them one by one, right?"

Eric Sanford leaned over and flipped the report to the second page. Pointing to a line of data, he said, "The key lies in 'ecosystem integration'! 100% of Star Source Technology's foundry orders come from Orange Technology, making it highly dependent on our EDA tools and IP licensing."

He paused, his tone tinged with coldness. "We just need Synopsys and Cadence to cut off their supply to Star Source Technology and suspend EDA upgrade services to mid- and low-end chip design companies in China. Even if Star Source Technology masters 20nm and 16nm process technology, they will be reduced to a foundry and work for us due to the lack of supporting design software."

Eric Sanford's plan was great, but he overlooked one problem: Chen Yansen had already developed Mass V1.0 two months earlier.

His restrictive measures are useless!

Eric Sanford continued, "Then mobilize the power of the International Semiconductor Industry Association. To maintain their market share, European semiconductor companies will naturally stop looking for Star Source Technology to manufacture their products."

After hearing this, Sanjay Jha of GlobalFoundries frowned even more and shook his head. "That's unnecessary! I personally favor Mark's strategy of selling the NXT 1980i lithography machine to Star Source Technology. That's truly wise! It will keep China's semiconductor industry a generation behind, preventing it from developing true competitiveness."

What this means is that Eric's plan may seem cruel, but it will also put China in a desperate situation. It is a tactic that will hurt the enemy by a thousand and hurt China by eight hundred.

If all chip supply and cooperation are completely cut off, the Chinese market will be completely lost and an earthquake in the global industrial chain will be triggered.

In his eyes, the 28-nanometer production process is not important.

On the contrary, it is more worthy of vigilance that the Optical Department of Xingyuan Technology, in conjunction with the Institute of Optoelectronics and the Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Huazhong University of Science and Technology Association, has launched a large-scale scientific research campaign and developed the polishing and coating technology of aspheric mirrors.

Therefore, before a technological breakthrough, their attitude is: strict embargo, slowing down the research and development process;

After the breakthrough: Immediately release the ban on products that are slightly more advanced.

In this way, domestic chip manufacturers will find that although imported lithography machines are only slightly more advanced, they are superior to the newly developed domestic equipment in terms of maturity, production capacity and cost.

Purchasing imported equipment can help you start production and make profits faster!

Chip manufacturing is a commercial activity that pursues efficiency and profit.

Fab factories will only choose imported equipment that is more stable and efficient.

The end result is that even if China can develop a 28-nanometer lithography machine, it will lose the most important early market and customer feedback loop.

Without large-scale commercial use, it will be impossible to improve performance, stability and yield through iterative improvements. The R&D cycle will become extremely difficult, and the product will be "locked" at the laboratory level or the low-end market, and will never catch up with the world's cutting-edge level.

It seems that they are supplying advanced equipment to China's semiconductor industry, but in fact they have evil intentions and are playing an open conspiracy!

This is what strategy is!

Micron Chairman Mark Duncan couldn't help but smile with satisfaction when he saw that Sanjay understood the deep meaning of his plan.

Compared with Sanjay Jha, Paul Jacob, the rich second generation, has a complete dog brain.

He was able to take the position of chairman of Qualcomm thanks to Qualcomm's previous chairman and founder, Irving Jacobs.

That's right, the two are father and son.

In North America, there are many cases of social etiquette being passed down from father to son.

With Paul Jacob's ability, when Qualcomm was going smoothly, there was no sign of abnormality, but once he encountered external competitive pressure, his true level was exposed.

"Since we can sell it to Xingyuan Technology, we can also sell it to Huaxin International and let them fight among themselves."

Mark Duncan said slowly.

In fact, the tactics he used are also common practices in the industry.

Whenever a competitor masters a certain generation of technology, Europe and the United States will immediately remove or lift the ban on the previous generation of technology, which is still technologically advanced compared to the current one.

They only ever sell technologies or products that are “about to break through but have not yet fully broken through”, with the aim of undermining their competitors’ determination to invest in independent research and development!

High-tech R&D requires continuous and massive capital investment. If every time there is a breakthrough, foreign countries immediately open up to the export of more advanced products, it will trigger a debate:

"Is it really necessary to spend exorbitant amounts of money on independent research and development? Wouldn't it be cheaper and faster to just buy it?"

This debate will shake the determination and patience of decision makers and investors in long-term investment in domestic substitution, and is likely to lead to the interruption or reduction of R&D funding, thereby undermining the momentum of independent innovation from within.

It's like a "fishing game"!

You are a fish that wants to learn to hunt on your own, and the fisherman will never give you bait until you are about to starve to death.

But when you finally catch a small fish after unremitting efforts and are about to enjoy it, he will immediately put a bigger and more tempting fish in front of you.

If you can't resist eating his fish, you'll never learn to hunt for your own and will become dependent on him.

Market suppression, technological blockade, economic profit, and internal collapse—this is an extremely clever and brutal combination.

Intel CEO Brian Krzysztof thought for a moment and then echoed, "I agree with Mark's decision!"

"I second the motion!" Sanjay Jha, head of GlobalFoundries, agreed.

In an instant, most people in the box agreed with Mark Duncan's plan.

Paul Jacob's "table-flipping" strategy affects everyone's interests, and no one supports him at all.

…

…

"ASML is willing to provide Huaxin with the NXT 1980i lithography machine? Did you hear it correctly? Are you sure it's the 1980i, not the 1950i DUV lithography machine?"

Liu Xunfeng was slightly startled, then came to his senses and confirmed again.

"Boss, I've confirmed it with them, it's the NXT 1980i!"

Xie Zhuojian, Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Huaxin International, showed joy on his face and answered in an affirmative tone.

If someone shows you kindness without any reason, he is either a traitor or a thief!

Liu Xunfeng was extremely cautious and remained calm in the face of temptation. He thought for a moment and said to Xie Zhuojian, "Go check if they have any additional terms for this sale? For example, the scope of use of the equipment, maintenance cycle, or a binding consumables purchase agreement."

Although the NXT 1980i is also a DUV lithography machine and can only be considered a second-tier product globally, it is not completely useless.

The NXT 1980i lithography machine can etch a 14nm process chip on a wafer with just one exposure.

The NXT 1950i lithography machine requires two or four times of multiple exposures to achieve 14nm process production.

With each additional exposure, the production difficulty and cost will increase exponentially.

In other words, the NXT 1950i lithography machine cannot be used for commercial production of the 14nm process. It can be manufactured, but the cost is unbearable.

"Okay, boss. I'll go investigate right away."

Hearing this, the smile on Xie Zhuojian's face faded a little.

"Ask ASML how many units are in stock? I'll take them all! If the quantity is less than five, I'll order five more futures."

Liu Xunfeng reminded.

The reason why ASML suddenly lifted the sales restrictions needs to be investigated, but the NXT 1980i lithography machine cannot be abandoned either.

Although Huaxin International cannot use this equipment at the moment, some things are better to have than not to have.

If you don’t buy more while you can, will you regret it in the future?

The other side.

Chen Yansen has a similar idea. If ASML dares to sell, he dares to buy!

The NXT 1950i lithography machine will only last until the first half of 2015 at most, after which it will be reduced to a production equipment for mid- and low-end chips.

By then, if there is no NXT 1980i lithography machine, how will Xingyuan Technology produce the next generation of products of the Tiangong A system?

Self-developed?

Can't keep up the speed!

Although Xingyuan Technology's Optical Department has made rapid progress in the research and development of optical systems, there are still many technical obstacles to overcome.

From silicon wafers, target materials, CMP materials, to photoresists, electronic special gases, and masks, which one does not require a lot of R&D time?

At this time, the phone on the table rang. It was Liu Xunfeng from Huaxin International calling.

"Mr. Chen, I heard that you are also discussing the purchase of 1980i with ASML?" Liu Xunfeng's voice came through the receiver with a hint of temptation.

Chen Yansen smiled: "Could it be ASML that told you?"

What a coincidence, it’s true!

Liu Xunfeng had already figured out some of the deeper meaning at this time.

Thinking about the gossip he had heard before, he immediately realized what was going on.

These foreigners appear to be dressed in suits and ties, but they are actually very sinister inside.

In the 1960s, China's first automatic alignment step-by-step projection lithography machine was killed by this method.

Chen Yansen and Liu Xunfeng chatted for a few minutes and then hung up the phone.

"Are you trying to play a trick on me? Don't you know that the Chinese are the ancestors?"

Chen Yansen sneered.

(End of this chapter)