"ah?"
Lu Feng subconsciously turned his head and saw a man in his fifties, dressed in a suit and leather shoes. He was not tall, about 1.7 meters, and looked like he was from the south.
"Hello!" Lu Feng looked him over, feeling that the man looked familiar. Suddenly, a name popped into his head, and he asked, "Mr. Zhang?"
"You know me? Hello, hello!" He extended his hand warmly and politely.
Lu Feng didn't know him before, but anyone who pays even a little attention to the domestic semiconductor industry in later generations would know him: Zhang Rujing!
"Are you here representing the company?" he asked Lu Feng.
"I just came to take a look. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. This is Lu Feng from Jiafeng Group." Lu Feng took out a business card from his pocket and handed it over, saying, "Our company has been investing heavily in semiconductor research and development in recent years, and we have made breakthroughs in technology patents in multiple areas."
"Oh, you mean the Jiafeng Group from the mainland?" He looked slightly surprised, grabbed Lu Feng's hand again, and exclaimed in amazement, "I didn't expect you to be so young. I've heard a lot about your Jiafeng Group. You do things quite uniquely on the international stage."
Zhang Rujing didn't know how to praise Lu Feng anymore, and after thinking about it, he could only use the word "unique".
Lu Feng looked slightly embarrassed and said, "I mainly want to do something for the country. We are far behind in integrated circuits. Whether it is in each link or circuit design, compared with the world's top products, we are basically blank slates. This is something that Jiafeng alone can't do. We need to form an industrial chain and a market in China."
“Yes, I’ve been thinking about going back to China these past few years.” Zhang Rujing glanced at his watch as he spoke, then turned to Lu Feng and said, “It’s lunchtime, want to grab something to eat?”
“Okay, it’s a special coincidence to meet someone from my hometown here. My treat!” Lu Feng took the initiative to build rapport.
Half an hour later, in a private room of a Chinese restaurant, the two finished ordering and sat down to chat about the current international situation. Starting in 1995, the external situation began to deteriorate, and until the 1990s were over, a series of events occurred that terrified the Chinese people.
The two men shared a deep understanding of the international situation, noting that various forms of suppression were everywhere, making it extremely difficult to do business with either the United States or Europe.
“I’ve always wanted to set up a business on the mainland. We should have our own industry. Core processors are a field that all countries will compete for in the future. I have nearly 20 years of industry experience and have trained a team of over 100 PhDs. I’m just thinking about building a factory on the mainland when the time is right.” Zhang Rujing looked at the dishes on the table, picked up his chopsticks, took a bite of the shredded pork with garlic sauce, and said, “It just doesn’t taste the same.”
“The local environment shapes the local people, and these dishes have traveled across the ocean to get here, so naturally they need to be adapted to the local tastes. If you go back to the mainland, I’ll treat you to authentic Sichuan cuisine,” Lu Feng invited.
The two were eating and chatting about the development of the mainland in recent years. Lu Feng was thinking about whether to let him go back early. Even without Lu Feng, Zhang Rujing would have resolutely returned to the mainland with his team of a hundred people five years later.
If we bring him into Jiafeng now, SMIC will disappear into history.
"A few years ago, didn't the mainland invest a lot of money in the chip industry?" Mr. Zhang looked up and asked, "How's it going now?"
"You're talking about the 908 Project, right? It built several wafer fabs capable of producing five-inch wafers. Intel also put a plant into operation in Shanghai last year. There are quite a few fabs on the mainland, but the key is that they are small and haven't formed an industrial chain. What's the use of just having wafer fabs? There's no subsequent etching, lithography, packaging, or testing. The key issue is that there's no market. The only market is the military market, but that stuff, right?" Lu Feng raised an eyebrow at him, and everyone understood.
"So what are your thoughts now?" he asked again, as if waiting for an invitation.
"What I'm thinking is to create a market. Right now, the most common uses for chips are in communications, computers, semi-automatic machine tools, or the fully automatic machine tools that will become widespread in the future. My idea is to first create a market and then gradually support the semiconductor industry chain," Lu Feng explained his concept.
“I have studied your company. With Jiafeng’s equity structure, if it really succeeds, it will probably become a foreign-controlled company,” General Manager Zhang said to Lu Feng.
“That is indeed a problem. But if we hadn’t given them this opportunity, they wouldn’t have invested so much money. Look at those joint ventures in China. Foreign capital does hold 49% of the shares, but the technology is in their hands. We’re still being led by the nose. Besides, I want to move faster. It’s like the saying, ‘You can’t catch a wolf without risking your cub.’” Lu Feng raised his glass and said, “I’ll toast you.”
The two touched hands meaningfully, but didn't discuss the equity issue again. Mr. Zhang wanted to go back, and the best option now was Jiafeng. However, he wasn't very confident about Jiafeng's equity and had some hesitation.
"When will you begin mass production of mobile phones?" General Manager Zhang asked.
"next year!"
"So fast?" His face was full of shock. You know, Jiafeng's research and development on this phone has only been a year at most. Even with cooperation with Nokia, it couldn't be this fast, unless Nokia taught him step by step.
Seeing his shocked expression, Lu Feng smiled wryly and said, "We spend a lot of money. We pay foreign engineers three to five times their salaries, and some even ten times. Compared with the salaries of domestic engineers, this amount is a hundred times."
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