Chapter 311 Shocked the Two Founders of OmniVision Technologies
During the dinner, Li Xiaofan asked: "Dr. Mao, do you know that there is a company called OmniVision Technology in the Bay Area?"
"Yes, there are several core technical personnel from Tsinghua University, I am quite familiar with them." Dr. Mao Siming replied.
"Great, then you should know a co-founder named Datong Chen?"
"Yes, Datong is a talented student of the Radio Image Information Processing Department of the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University in 1977. He studied for nine years in a row. He is one of the first batch of doctoral students in semiconductors after my country's reform and opening up. It is said that his grades were very good, and he was exempted from many courses and graduated six months early. Like me, he once stayed at Tsinghua University as a lecturer, and later studied in the United States. He once did postdoctoral research at Stanford University..."
"Well, that's great. Dr. Mao, can you introduce me to visit Dr. Datong Chen at OmniVision Technology tomorrow?"
Dr. Mao Siming said readily: "Okay, I'll contact him by phone first to see if he is convenient tomorrow."
Ten minutes later, Dr. Mao contacted Datong Chen using Li Xiaofan's mobile phone and made an appointment for Li Xiaofan to visit Datong Chen at OmniVision Technology at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.
Dr. Chen Datong, as mentioned by Li Xiaofan, is a world-renowned semiconductor chip expert. In 1995, Chen Datong co-founded Omnivision Technologies in the United States, and returned to China in 2001 to co-found Spreadtrum Communications. Omnivision Technologies once developed the world's first color CMOS image sensor chip, and Spreadtrum Communications successfully developed 2G3G4G mobile phone core chips with independent intellectual property rights. Both companies later became leading companies in the same industry around the world.
Chen Datong began to turn to venture capital in 2008, and successively founded Huashan Capital and Puhua Capital, investing in more than 100 start-up hard technology companies mainly in the semiconductor industry...
In his previous life, Li Xiaofan first met Chen Datong when he was studying for an EMBA at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management. The organizer of the "Fifth Tsinghua University China Entrepreneur Training Camp" invited him to give a speech, which left a deep impression on Li Xiaofan.
Before his rebirth, Li Xiaofan bought a stock called "Weil Shares". In 2019, Will Semiconductor spent 13 billion yuan to complete the acquisition of OmniVision Technologies (at that time, OmniVision Technologies had been delisted from the United States), making the stock market value of Will Semiconductor exceed 100 billion yuan.
This merger and acquisition event, which had a huge impact at the time, once again made shareholders like Li Xiaofan know the name of "Chen Datong", the founder of OmniVision Technologies...
The founder of Will Semiconductor is Yu Renrong, Li Xiaofan's fellow villager in Mingzhou, and a graduate of the Radio Department of Tsinghua University in 1985.
In China's semiconductor field, the Radio Department of Tsinghua University (later changed to the Department of Electronic Engineering) in 1985 is a special existence. Like Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, Yu Renrong, founder of Will Semiconductor, Shu Qingming, one of the founders of GigaDevice, Feng Chenhui, co-founder of Zhuosheng Microelectronics, Zhao Lixin, founder of Galaxy Semiconductor, Zhao Lidong, founder of Suiyuan Technology, as well as more than a dozen founders or executives of semiconductor listed companies, including Ren Zhijun, Gao Feng, Liu Weidong, Lv Huang, Yu Qunhui, etc., are all graduates of the Radio Department of Tsinghua University in 1985.
Among the top 15 A-share semiconductor listed companies in China by total market value, 4 of them were co-founded by them, namely, Will Semiconductor, GigaDevice, Unigroup Guoxin, and Zhan Shengwei, covering chip design, manufacturing, packaging, and equipment in the semiconductor industry chain...
Before rebirth, the most impressive piece of news for Li Xiaofan was that Will Semiconductor founder and chairman Yu Renrong planned to donate 20 billion yuan to build a new research university in his hometown of Minnesota, benchmarking the California Institute of Technology in the United States...
At 10 a.m. the next day, Li Xiaofan came to OmniVision Technology as scheduled and met the humble Dr. Chen Datong.
Chen Datong received Li Xiaofan in the company's small conference room. After taking Li Xiaofan's business card, he smiled and said, "Mr. Li, please sit down. What's the matter with you coming all the way from Singapore to see me?"
Li Xiaofan answered directly, "Dr. Chen, let me get straight to the point. I am an investor who recently invested in Jerry Yang's Yahoo project. I came to you today to ask if your OmniVision Technologies needs investment?"
After hearing Li Xiaofan's question, Chen Datong was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mr. Li, your question really stumped me! Although my business card says I am the co-founder of the company, I only manage technology, not the company's financing business. So, I will invite our CEO to come and communicate with you!"
Then, Chen Datong invited Hong Xiaoying, the CEO of OmniVision Technologies, in.
Hong Xiaoying, the founder and CEO of OmniVision Technologies, graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1955 and was in her early 50s at the time.
"Mr. Li, are you interested in this chip project of our OmniVision Technologies?" Hong Xiaoying said in surprise after taking Li Xiaofan's business card.
"Yes, I'm very interested! Mr. Hong, could you please briefly introduce the current situation of OmniVision Technologies?"
So, next, Hong Xiaoying introduced some of the current situation of OmniVision Technologies to Li Xiaofan.
The full name of OmniVision Technologies, Inc. was established on May 8, 1995. The company's main product is CMOS image sensor (CIS), a CMOS imaging solution provider.
The company currently has four co-founders: Shaw Hong is the CEO, Raymond Wu from Taiwan is responsible for marketing and digital circuit design, and David Chen is responsible for analog circuit design and focuses on the technical direction of CIS sensors.
Most of the company's core R&D personnel are from the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University. For example, He Xinping, a semiconductor major of Tsinghua University in 1980, Liu Jun, Yang Hongli, and Dong Qi, a semiconductor major of Tsinghua University in 1982. These core R&D personnel with Tsinghua backgrounds were brought in by Chen Datong later.
Dr. Chen Datong became the co-founder of OmniVision Technologies. He joked that he was "forced to start a business" without knowing why...
In 1993, after completing his postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Chen Datong joined National Semiconductor as a senior engineer, working on advanced analog semiconductor processes and holding more than 20 patents.
Dr. Chen Datong, who worked as a senior engineer at National Semiconductor, felt a little bored at work at that time. In his original words, "I know everything I need to learn, my work is easy and competent, I am highly valued, the project manager listens to me, and the bonus from applying for a few patents in my spare time is enough to support my family...", so he entered a state of extreme boredom.
In early 1995, two years after joining National Semiconductor, Chen Datong became interested in semiconductor design again and wanted to lean towards semiconductor design, so he began to learn design knowledge by himself.
At this time, Wu Qiming, Chen Datong's mentor when he was studying for a master's degree at Tsinghua University, found him and wanted him to help find an expert in bipolar IC design to help their small company called Opus solve technical problems.
Later, Chen Datong volunteered to solve this problem. At that time, Chen Datong went to work at National Semiconductor every day, worked overtime at Opus after get off work, and looked up books urgently after returning home late at night. He solved this problem in two or three weeks.
The solution to this technical problem made Teacher Wu Qiming look at Chen Datong with new eyes! About one or two months later, Teacher Wu Qiming found Chen Datong again. This time, the news he brought was that several founders including Hong Xiaoying wanted to invite him to co-found a new company called OmniVision Technology.
Chen Datong, who was a senior engineer at National Semiconductor and a little bored at the time, "confusedly" agreed to Hong Xiaoying and others, which was the beginning of his first "startup".
After listening to Hong Xiaoying's brief introduction of OmniVision, Li Xiaofan asked: "Mr. Hong, are there other companies in the world that are currently making CIS image sensor products?"
Hong Xiaoying answered truthfully: "Yes, but there is only one. Currently, there is only one British company called VVL in the world that is developing CIS products. To be honest, VVL was founded earlier than us and is ahead of us. At present, we are working overtime to catch up with them..."
"So how much is the total investment in your project at present? Did you four co-founders raise funds yourself, or are there other investors?"
"We have an angel investor in this project. He is the second young master of the Qiu family from HCG Synthetic Sanitary Ware in Taiwan..."
"How much did you invest?"
"2 million US dollars."
"Then if I invest another 2 million US dollars, how many shares can you give me?" Li Xiaofan asked directly.
Li Xiaofan's question shocked the two co-founders Hong Xiaoying and Chen Datong who were caught off guard.