Chapter 510 How to Recruit Talent?: World-Class Precision Machining Center

Wang Xiao is an ambitious person; once a seed falls into the soil, it will grow wildly.

Now that I've figured it out, what should I do?

Wang Xiao felt she should be more serious and not rush up to someone and say, "Hey, Lin Bo, I've got my eye on you. Come work for me!"

The reason she dared to be so reckless towards Dr. Zhang Rujing was because Dr. Zhang had already planned to build a factory in mainland China. Moreover, he himself was not opposed to becoming the general manager of a chip factory in mainland China; it was only the Taiwanese authorities who objected that prevented it from happening.

But Dr. Lin is different.

He is a Vietnamese of Chinese descent who grew up on the island of Taiwan and then went to the United States for further studies and employment. He has had virtually no direct contact with mainland China.

Moreover, before Wang Xiao's transmigration, there was no record of him having any cooperation with the mainland's semiconductor industry.

Therefore, in the spirit of knowing yourself and your enemy, you will never be defeated. Wang Xiao felt that he should ask around and find out how to persuade the other party.

Given that Huang Youlun has already shared everything he knows and speculated, it seems that the only other person who can offer advice to Wang Xiao is Zhang Rujing or Zhang Bo.

So Mr. Wang didn't hesitate to call Zhang Rujing.

Poor Zhang Bo was nominally just an advisor to Wuzhou Chip, but he was forced to work as the general manager and had to travel between several places.

He had barely returned to Taiwan and hadn't even had a chance to settle in when Mr. Wang's barrage of calls came crashing down on him again.

What could he do? He couldn't very well not answer the phone, could he?

Thank God, Mr. Wang stopped arguing with him about the 12-inch chip factory and instead asked a completely unrelated question: "Zhang Bo, do you know Dr. Lin Benjian? He's Dr. Lin Benjian from Leading Innovations in the United States."

Zhang Bo was surprised: "Is something the matter?"

“I want to invite him to work on the lithography machine,” Wang Xiao explained. “We built an experimental machine based on his paper, but it’s difficult to stabilize the technology. It would be better to invite him to come and lead the lithography machine factory so that we can achieve a breakthrough sooner.”

Zhang Rujing was increasingly surprised: "Leading Innovation Company went bankrupt? When did that happen?"

He wasn't very familiar with Dr. Lin Benjian. He had previously worked at Texas Instruments, while Dr. Lin worked at IBM. Moreover, his expertise was in building factories, while Dr. Lin focused on breaking through key process bottlenecks.

But the Chinese community in the American semiconductor industry is only so big, and there are only so many people with names and surnames, so of course he knew Dr. Lin.

After leaving IBM in 1992, the other party founded Leading Creation, specializing in the development of software related to lithography, and created PROLITH, the industry's first commercial lithography simulation software.

The company isn't very big, but business is pretty good.

Especially since the second half of last year, the booming internet economy has driven the prosperity of high-tech industries, making it even less reason for Leading Innovation Company to go bankrupt at this time.

Wang Xiao was baffled: "No, I just wanted to poach people."

She has no deep-seated grudge against Leading Innovation Company. To poach their employees and then curse them to go bankrupt is simply too unethical.

Zhang Rujing laughed: "Leading Innovation was doing just fine, so why would he close the company and come to the mainland?"

Wang Xiao was taken aback. Yes, this meant that Leading Innovation Company was founded by Dr. Lin? She had thought he was a senior manager like Tang Yicheng and the others.

She forgave herself in a second, then cleared her throat and asked, still unwilling to give up, "Is it really impossible?"

Zhang Rujing stated unequivocally: "It's probably not very likely."

People who have been bosses don't like working for others, and this has little to do with whether the job pay is good or not.

Besides, he used to work for IBM, the real blue giant.

Wang Xiao scratched his head, completely baffled.

According to her memories before she traveled through time, Dr. Lin joined TSMC in 2000!

Of course, she couldn't say it directly; she would never tell anyone her secret.

So she rephrased it: "Zhang Bo, if, and I mean if TSMC were to recruit Dr. Lin, do you think there's any possibility that he would agree?"

Dr. Zhang Rujing is really good-tempered; he is very patient with this young boss.

Even though her question seemed absurd, he still patiently answered, "Dr. Lin is an acquaintance of TSMC. TSMC's key lithography process technology is licensed from IBM. But I think the possibility is not very high, but it's not entirely impossible."

Wang Xiao was caught in a dilemma by these words and couldn't wait to ask, "Why?"

Is it because TSMC pays a lot? Ha! She's not afraid of being ripped off.

Zhang Bo's answer was: "TSMC is large-scale, and it is now the world's largest wafer foundry. This means that if Dr. Lin really joins, any new breakthroughs he makes in lithography technology will be met by the latest production lines and can be applied on a large scale."

This...this...this is really the last resort.

No matter how much money Mr. Wang is willing to spend, he can't replicate the scale and technology of others.

She blinked, making a last-ditch effort: "What if I were to accept... no, invest in Leading Innovation Company?"

Zhang Rujing laughed, but said rather subtly, "The US government probably won't agree."

Well, a broad and promising road has been blocked off just like that.

Zhang Rujing comforted her, saying, "Take it slow; you can't get fat in one bite."

He thought he was a radical and impatient person, but when he was in front of others, he became a conservative.

How could Wang Xiao slow down? This was her only chance to overtake on a curve.

"We can't wait. We finally managed to build an experimental machine with a wavelength of 134 nanometers. If we delay any longer, we'll never have another chance."

Zhang Rujing stared in disbelief, wondering if he had misheard: "How many wavelengths did you say?"

“134 nanometer wavelength,” Wang Xiao explained. “A 193 nanometer wavelength becomes a 134 nanometer wavelength after being refracted by water. We have finally made an experimental machine. If we don’t hurry up and move to the prototype stage, other giants who have run into trouble with the 157 nanometer dry machine will definitely turn to immersion machines. They are experienced and will soon catch up.”

Zhang Rujing felt his head was spinning.

He opened his mouth for a long time before finally managing to utter, "You're not kidding, are you?"

Wang Xiao swore, "How could I joke about something like this? Do you know Dr. Huang Youlun? Today we took him to visit the lithography machine factory. He saw with his own eyes how our experimental machine does lithography."

Dr. Zhang felt he needed to calm down: "Wait a minute, this is a bit too unbelievable."

Wang Xiao wasn't a very reasonable person: "Incredible, but we did it. Zhang Bo, didn't you want to build the world's number one chip factory? Now is our golden opportunity. To do a good job, you must first have the right tools. Only when the lithography machines are up and running can chip production reach the next level."

Zhang Rujing couldn't refuse: "I need to think about it and see what the best course of action is."

Anyone involved in the semiconductor industry, even those who have moved into administration rather than technical roles, cannot ignore the impending arrival of a brand new era.

He thought a step deeper than Wang Xiao: the shock of seeing the 193-nanometer wavelength refracted into 134 nanometers after passing through water was just the beginning.

The transition from dry to immersion lithography machines has broken through the bottleneck and will allow them to surge ahead.

He couldn't even imagine how much precision lithography would evolve, or whether it would drop directly to the single-digit era.

"I will rush back as quickly as possible. I want to see the lithography machine with my own eyes before I can think of a solution."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Bo was still taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.

Just then, an engineer knocked on his office door: "Richard, if I go to work at the Hong Kong branch, will they provide housing?"

Zhang Rujing was not in the mood to answer such trivial matters, but he always had the demeanor of a patriarch and cared for every employee in the company.

So he smiled and nodded in affirmation, explaining, "The Hong Kong government has coordinated and allocated an additional 3 acres of land to us, making a total of five acres, all of which will be used to build houses for everyone."

The engineer was overjoyed. With housing allocated, he and his family would have no worries about their livelihood, even if they moved to Hong Kong where land was incredibly expensive.

As for working in Hong Kong, he really didn't object at all.

To be precise, everyone at World Trade Center strongly supports opening a third factory in Hong Kong.

Because anyone with eyes can see that the factories in Hong Kong are for the mainland market.

This has nothing to do with personal feelings or even political attitudes, but rather with the huge market size and potential profits.

The Cai family's Want Want, the Xu family's Hsu Fu Chi, the Wei family's Master Kong, and the Guo family's Foxconn are all making a fortune in mainland China. Who wouldn't be envious? Who wouldn't be jealous?

Foxconn, in particular, is responsible for manufacturing almost one out of every five computers in the world.

Mainland China is already the world's largest chip market, and it will remain so for a long time to come.

This market is very profitable.

The engineer, in high spirits, thought of sharing some gossip with his boss: "Mr. Zhang, I recently heard a rumor that Mr. Cao from Hualian is planning to merge all the companies into one, a super five-in-one."

Zhang Rujing didn't expect that even after answering the question, he wouldn't be able to see the other person out of the office.

He had no choice but to patiently agree: "Oh, really? I haven't heard anything about it. When I saw President Cao last time, he didn't mention it either."

The engineer perked up, gossiping with particular smugness: "President Cao hid it very well, but such a big commotion is bound to alarm the financial world. The news came from the financial world."

To carry out a merger, financial modeling, legal structure design, and communication and persuasion with the major shareholders of each subsidiary are all major undertakings.

Zhang Rujing casually replied, "President Cao has strategic vision; a merger is a good thing. With too many companies, all doing OEM manufacturing, resources will be scattered, and internal competition will lead to losses."

This engineer was quite talkative, gossiping enthusiastically: "If UMC does this, it will really be able to compete with TSMC, and may even surpass it."

Strictly speaking, UMC has a longer history, but TSMC was the first to start in the wafer foundry business.

Zhang Rujing didn't directly address the topic, but instead laughed and said, "If the merger really happens, Lianhua's stock will definitely surge. If you want to buy shares, you'd better hurry."

He was secretly astonished.

At the beginning of the year, when he met with Mr. Wang in Hong Kong, the latter jokingly predicted that TSMC and UMC would inevitably have a battle, because the number one and number two companies would definitely fight, and it would be a fight to the death.

Sometimes he admired his boss's intuition. Perhaps she didn't have a deep understanding of the semiconductor industry because she wasn't a professional in it, but she had a keen intuition that seemed to guide her to make the right judgments.

Hopefully, this time, immersion lithography will not be the wrong choice.

Zhang Bo was busy catching his flight, and Wang Xiao didn't dare to place all her hopes on him.

But she also couldn't think of any good way to solve the problem.

Dr. Huang Youlun was quite optimistic: "Just email him directly, he absolutely cannot resist such a temptation. I'm so jealous of him! If I had such an opportunity in my life, I would never let it slip by, my ancestors' graves would be emitting auspicious smoke!"

Wang Xiao was amused by his words.

Seeing her smile, Dr. Huang immediately made a request: "I would like to see your optical factory."

The shock of the 134-nanometer wavelength immersion lithography machine has passed, and he also wants to witness another miracle firsthand.

Magnetorheological polishing technology—who wouldn't call it a miracle? It seems like a miracle that will never intersect with mainland China or impoverished socialism.

And yet, it was created by the Soviet Union, which had made the promise—how amazing!

Wang Xiao readily agreed: "No problem, you're welcome. But the factory isn't in Shanghai, it's in Nanshan City, and it takes an hour or two to drive there."

That's how she does things. If she can't get something done right now, she'll put it aside for the time being. She doesn't want to be idle; the more idle she is, the more headaches she'll get. She'll quickly move on to something else.

As you continue, the time will come, and perhaps the problems you encountered before will be easily resolved.

She turned to Deputy Director Jiang and smiled, "Boss, if you have something to do, please go ahead. I'll take Dr. Huang for a walk. Don't worry, I definitely won't lose him."

Deputy Director Jiang nodded with a smile: "I can't miss out on such a good thing, I have to go and see it too."

As for his scheduled work this afternoon, it will be postponed.

Perhaps even Mr. Wang himself didn't care too much, because the Soviet Union had so many advanced technologies, any one of which would leave people speechless.

Therefore, magnetorheological polishing, when placed among these cutting-edge technologies, seems to blend into the crowd.

But in fact, he had just communicated with Huang Bo and they both agreed that it was a very cutting-edge and advanced technology.

Its core advantage lies in its ability to process near-perfect optical surfaces with extremely high precision and certainty, while producing almost no subsurface damage.

With the rapid development of semiconductors, the demand for precision optics is growing explosively.

The potential of magnetorheological polishing technology is vast and immense. It has the potential to completely transform the semiconductor equipment landscape in China and even influence the global semiconductor equipment market.

Wang Xiao smiled and nodded: "It is truly an honor for Nanshan City to have two great masters descend upon us."

In front of the two of them, she directly called Mayor Zhao of Nanshan.

Yes, it's Mayor Zhao, who previously served as the director of the investment promotion office in the Jiangdong Provincial Government and became the vice mayor of Nanshan in 1994.

She made this call with the intention of making a goodwill gesture, so as soon as the call was connected, she smiled and said, "Boss, could you arrange someone to be our guide? The leaders from Shanghai brought Dr. Huang from the United States, and they want to visit Nanshan. I'm worried that Nanshan has changed too much, and the driver might not know the way and get lost."

Mayor Zhao laughed heartily, his voice incredibly warm: "Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome! Don't worry, Mr. Wang, we'll make sure you're well taken care of."

After hanging up the phone, Wang Xiao laughed at Deputy Director Jiang and Dr. Huang: "Okay, don't worry, you won't get lost anymore."

At these words, Deputy Director Jiang and Dr. Huang could only laugh.

However, once the two got into the car alone, they didn't discuss this matter. Instead, they started to have a heated discussion about magnetorheological polishing technology.

It's not that the immersion lithography machine brought them a fleeting sense of awe; rather, according to Mr. Wang, their magnetorheological polishing technology has clearly achieved industrialization and commercialization.

Huang Youlun counted on his fingers: "It can be used to make core optical components for advanced lithography machines, core components for process testing and measurement equipment, and can also process special materials."

In that instant, he even felt that China might also have its own Zeiss.

The two became more and more excited as they talked, and eventually they kept repeating, "We have to take a good look, look at it very carefully."

Boss Wang is a latecomer to the field, and she only has a superficial understanding of many things. Let's hope she doesn't delay the opportunity for this great technology to shine in more fields.

The car drove forward, and the further we went, the more different the scenery became.

Leaving Shanghai, the charm of the Jiangnan water towns becomes even stronger. It's not the Jiangnan of ink paintings, but a place of blooming flowers and green willows. May is truly a vibrant season.

Further on, Dr. Huang couldn't help but laugh: "When I was in the United States, I also heard that China was developing very fast, and the East had already become like Europe."

He didn't finish his sentence, saying the West resembled Africa, because he hadn't had a chance to go and see for himself and couldn't judge whether it was truly like that.

But now the buildings on both sides of the road really look like Europe, and in a very typical German style. When I went to Germany with him on a business trip, the buildings there looked very similar.

Deputy Director Jiang was also surprised, and half-jokingly said, "I didn't expect that Nanshan would be building a European-style street."

When the car stopped, he asked Wang Xiao, "Nanshan is vigorously developing its tourism industry, isn't it?"

Oh, is that true?

Wang Xiao was a little confused: "Boss, what do you mean by that?"

Strictly speaking, it would be quite simple for Nanshan to develop tourism, since there are many historical cities in ancient Jiangdong, and Nanshan happens to be one of them.

However, Nanshan mainly focused its efforts on manufacturing. After all, in 1999, if you didn't have money, you couldn't even travel on a budget.

Huang Youlun pointed and laughed, "This whole street is German-style, with German pubs."

Wang Xiao almost got influenced by him and blurted out, "Hey, Hitler."

She quickly regained her composure and shook her head, explaining, "No, no, it's because there are many German companies here."

ah?

Even Deputy Director Jiang didn't know this; he only knew that Volkswagen had entered Shanghai in the 1980s.

Wang Xiao explained, "Back in 1994, Jiangdong Province went to Germany to recruit engineers and technicians, and some local businessmen saw a business opportunity. They tried to follow suit. It just so happened that Nanshan County was very famous for its eyeglasses, and also produced telescopes and microscopes, so the Zeiss engineers settled here. The German businessmen also took the opportunity to conduct some research here first. It's said—"

She started laughing first, "There happened to be a restaurant on the street run by people from Northeast China, whose signature dish was braised pig's trotters with sauerkraut. Somehow, it suited this guy's taste, so he decided to stay and set up a factory."

Dr. Huang laughed and nodded repeatedly: "Germans and us Northeasterners do have similar appetites. I used to work in the countryside in Northeast China, and I can attest to that."

Wang Xiao smiled and nodded, "Later, the provincial government took the lead, and the Nanshan municipal government was responsible for the operation. The vocational schools here jointly established a training center to train professional employees for German-funded enterprises, adopting the German dual system teaching model. Then, more and more German companies came here."

She pointed to the buildings along the roadside, "The earliest German-style buildings here were dormitories built for employees of German companies. Later, to meet their living needs, more and more buildings of the same style appeared."

She laughed and said, "Now when we shoot advertising photos, we come here directly to find the location."

Before Dr. Huang could even finish looking at the buildings on the street, a car stopped.

Wang Xiao was surprised to see the person getting out of the car: "Oh my, Mayor Zhao, why did you come in person? I'm so sorry to bother you, leader."

Mayor Zhao smiled and shook hands with them: "How could I not come when distinguished guests have come to visit?"

Deputy Director Jiang shook her hand and replied with a smile, "Then we really benefit from Boss Wang's influence."

He knew Mayor Zhao.

If you take local governments across the country, less than one in ten women can become the top or second-highest-ranking officials.

Moreover, Mayor Zhao's promotion speed was very fast. Five years ago, she was the deputy mayor sent to Nanshan by the Jiangdong Provincial Government. Five years later, she was already the second-in-command.

If nothing unexpected happens, she will likely become the top leader in the next reshuffle of the Nanshan Municipal Government.

It was quite an honor for her to personally come and greet them.

Mayor Zhao responded with a smile, "Oh my, aren't you all shining brightly? I was wondering why the sun seemed to be hiding behind the clouds this afternoon. It's all because it dared not look directly at your brilliance."

Everyone laughed, even though they knew she was exaggerating, they still felt happy to hear it.

Since everyone is here for magnetorheological polishing technology, the first stop for inspection must be the optical factory.

Mayor Zhao explained, "This factory has a history of about 30 years. It was later bought by our boss, Mr. Wang, and then it became a great success."

Everyone laughed along.

Wang Xiao touched his nose sheepishly: "I just think it's too troublesome to communicate, so I might as well just buy it and do as I say."

Huang Youlun nodded in deep agreement. If you want to innovate technologically, you really have to have your own factory. Otherwise, just the communication process alone can drive you crazy.

Just as they were about to enter the factory, a group of German men in suits walked in from outside.

Huang Youlun jokingly remarked, "Your German gentlemen are quite refined."

He was referring to the engineers and technicians recruited by the factory from Zeiss in East Germany.

But the factory manager shook his head and explained, "They are our factory's customers."

Wow, Deputy Director Jiang and Huang Youlun were both stunned. Wow! This factory has already started exporting to Germany.

The factory manager, unable to hide his pride, laughed and said, "No, no, we're more like a laboratory, and we also do some contract manufacturing."

The secretary next to them handed the guests a brochure introducing their factory, which was printed quite beautifully on coated paper.

Deputy Director Jiang saw the factory's business scope, and his eyes widened as he looked.

The factory manager added, "We have magnetorheological polishing technology, and these companies send us samples from their R&D projects for testing. They also outsource the processing of some products with particularly high surface finish requirements."

Huang Youlun couldn't wait any longer: "Can we take a look?"

"Of course, of course," Wang Xiao said with a smile. "If you need any additional processing later, our factory would absolutely welcome you."

Everyone rushed into the R&D center with great excitement. This was the most coveted spot in the entire optics factory, as testing fees were one of the main sources of revenue for the company.

Even so, their testing fees are still incredibly cheap for German companies. In fact, this year two German companies decided to open factories here simply because they knew they could get their tests done at such low prices.

This time, the person introducing the product was an engineer from the factory. He pointed to the steel core of a car taillight mold: "As you can see, there are very fine prism patterns engraved on the surface of the cavity of this steel mold. When these patterns are used on the lampshade, they will create a specific optical effect."

"However, after traditional polishing, its surface has an uneven texture at the microscopic level, like orange peel, which we call the orange peel effect. There are also fine, regular scratches or fluctuations. These defects are at the micrometer or even nanometer level, which may not be visible to the naked eye, but will seriously affect the light."

“We use magnetorheological polishing technology to polish it, which can completely eliminate the orange peel and micro-ripples on the surface of the mold steel, creating a perfect, smooth, mirror-like optical surface, while retaining its macroscopic prism pattern structure.”

A group of people saw the servo valve core in the lamp model, and also noticed the polycrystalline diamond cutting tool, which is used for precision machining of aluminum alloy wheels.

Generally, the surface of the machined wheel hub will always have fine "knife marks", which require subsequent manual polishing, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

However, after magnetofluid polishing refines the rake face and cutting edge of the blade, they will obtain a chip-free, mirror-like cutting edge, thus completely eliminating the need for subsequent polishing processes.

As he listened, Deputy Director Jiang nodded in agreement. Technology was indeed bringing humanity to life.

The factory manager, knowing he was a leader from Shanghai, smiled and said, "We have to thank Shanghai Volkswagen. Many German companies here are in the supply chain for Volkswagen."

This is one of the reasons why Mayor Zhao values ​​Wang Xiao so much.

From a transportation cost perspective, Nanshan is not the closest region in Jiangdong Province to Shanghai. However, the dual system for training workers and the magnetorheological polishing technology have made these German companies more willing to establish themselves in Nanshan City.

Because she was in charge of the entire investment promotion process, she was also highly regarded by her superiors—investment promotion is being carried out everywhere, but very few can actually be developed into high-tech enterprises.

It was this impressive resume that allowed her to remove the "deputy" from her title and strive for the top position.

Deputy Director Jiang also praised them, saying, "Your supply chain is so good that Volkswagen will increase production in Shanghai."

Why? Because land and labor costs in Shanghai are far lower than in Germany. With the supply chain in place, Volkswagen has no worries and can naturally expand its production lines and increase production to gain a greater competitive advantage through lower production costs.

Mayor Zhao smiled and nodded: "That's what you call a win-win situation."

Wang Xiao continued, "Hello everyone."

Everyone burst into laughter.

They watched it from beginning to end, becoming more and more excited as they watched. When it got dark, they had to go eat, and everyone at the dinner table was engaged in a lively conversation.

In May, when pufferfish are at their fattest and most delicious, Wang Xiao ate with great relish, completely unafraid of being poisoned.

After a few drinks, Deputy Director Jiang suddenly looked at Wang Xiao and said, "Mr. Wang, I think we need to reorganize our resources and make them play a greater role. Now, Nanshan is fully capable of world-class precision machining. We need to make this reputation known and attract more precision machining companies to quickly improve our industrial strength."

He emphasized earnestly, "In order to make a good lithography machine, in addition to optics, precision machining is essential and crucial."

Wang Xiao became interested and asked earnestly, "Boss, how do you suggest we integrate them?"

She loves integrating resources so much that every integration brings unexpected surprises.

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[Winking emoji] In real history, UMC announced its five-in-one merger around June 21, 1999, which caused its stock price to surge. Then TSMC acquired Worldwide Semiconductor. I've seen some sources saying that Richard Chang was deceived during this process, but I'm more inclined to believe he wasn't. Richard Chang, then the general manager of Worldwide Semiconductor, participated in the entire discussion during TSMC's acquisition of the company. "He (Morris Chang) offered a very good price and asked if I was willing. I said yes, and he was very happy." The price offered by Morris Chang was equivalent to 8.5 times the stock price of Worldwide Semiconductor when Richard Chang took over (in 1997), and no one could refuse it.

Later, a disagreement arose between the two sides because Richard Chang planned to build a third factory in mainland China. Morris Chang did not object at the time, but the project was not carried out. Extremely disappointed, Richard Chang left Taiwan and went to Shanghai to establish SMIC.

Just think about it: in the first half of 1998, Texas Instruments sold its semiconductor business for only $800 million, but by January 2000, Worldwide had sold it for $5 billion. This industry is just so insane! [winking emoji]