Chapter 391 The Groundbreaking Plan of Combining Two Swords!
Although Li Xiaofan is a shareholder and director of his current Weihao Technology Company, Dr. Chen Datong still said bluntly to Li Xiaofan:
"Director Li, my current main focus is on Weihao Technology, and I may not be able to be distracted. Currently, I am leading the team to focus on research and improvement of CMOS processes to reduce the power consumption and size of CIS image sensors... Although you are talking about analog semiconductors It’s my old profession, but my energy is limited after all!”
Li Xiaofan smiled and explained: "Dr. Chen, our company has just rented a 1,200-square-meter office building and a 3,000-square-meter factory building near the Stanford University campus about 10 kilometers away from here, near the Stanford Shopping Center. It is currently being renovated and will be transformed into a technological innovation incubator.”
"My initial idea is that you continue to stay at Weihao Technology, but can you introduce me to a few experts in high-performance analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing DSP products, especially those who have their own entrepreneurial ideas? Let them come I will start a business in this incubator, and then you will serve as the general consultant and guide these entrepreneurial projects when you have time. Moreover, Dr. Chen, it is only a quarter of an hour's drive from Howe Technology Company where you currently work to my incubator, which is very convenient. …”
Previously, Dr. Chen Datong had recruited a group of outstanding Tsinghua semiconductor professionals such as He Xinping, Liu Jun, Yang Hongli, and Dong Qi to join him for the CIS image sensor project at hand. Now this group of people has grown very quickly and has quickly become his right-hand man, making Chen Datong's current CTO job much easier.
Chen Datong thought for a while and said: "Being a consultant is not a big problem. Director Li, you are embarking on this high-performance analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing DSP product project because you intend to benchmark against large companies such as Texas Instruments TI and ADI. Compete head-on with them?”
"Yes!" Li Xiaofan nodded.
"Director Li, this semiconductor project is very expensive. If you want to start this new digital signal processing DSP product project and compete with giants such as TI, ADI, and Motorola, the money invested will be a bottomless pit..." Dr. Chen is worried. road.
"Dr. Chen, my Pacific Online Bookstore project is about to be listed on Nasdaq in the third quarter. After the listing, I will have more capital to invest, and I want to try it! Also, recently I was in mainland China, working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences In cooperation with Academician Ni from the Institute of Computer Science, we invested in the "China Chip" project of the Lianhai Microelectronics Design Center led by him. If you know friends who are senior experts in the chip semiconductor industry, you can introduce them to me. We are in urgent need of talents in this field now..."
In his previous life, Li Xiaofan had read the story about Dr. Chen Datong’s entrepreneurial memoir written by himself, and knew that he had a pure heart to start a business and serve the country. Just as he teased himself in his memoir, he liked to “fiddle” and “restless”...
In the previous life, in 1997, Dr. Chen led the team at OmniVision Technology to successfully develop a new generation of low-power high-performance CIS sensor products that shocked the industry. In 2000, Howey Company was successfully listed on Nasdaq.
Subsequently, Chen Datong, who had become famous, began to feel "restless".
After returning to China, he first identified the trend that handheld mobile devices would replace bulky desktop PCs in the future. So in early 2001, Chen Datong and several Tsinghua alumni Wu Ping co-founded Spreadtrum Communications in Zhangjiang, Shanghai. They led a research and development team that moved from Silicon Valley to Shanghai Zhangjiang Science and Technology Park to position mobile phone baseband chips from 3G architecture-based ones. Starting with GSM and then moving to WCDMA, we achieved great success.
After Spreadtrum went public, Chen Datong left Spreadtrum and crossed over to the field of venture capital. He began to switch to investment and support more domestic high-tech entrepreneurial project teams...
Dr. Chen Datong replied to Li Xiaofan: "Director Li, if you are really determined, I can help you find some talents to try. According to the information I have, currently we have a group of top students from Tsinghua University in Texas Instruments TI, ADI , Motorola and other big companies. When I am free, I will help you pay attention and sort it out..."
After hearing that Dr. Chen Datong agreed to help, Li Xiaofan was extremely happy: "That's great, thank you Dr. Chen! I hope we can work together to unearth some big dark horses."
Just before Li Xiaofan and his party bid farewell to Dr. Chen and were about to leave, "Director Li, I suddenly thought of someone!" Dr. Chen Datong suddenly stopped Li Xiaofan.
"Which one?"
"Dr. Zhang Rujing from Texas Instruments..."
Li Xiaofan was shocked when he heard the words "Zhang Rujing". Isn't this famous Zhang Rujing the famous founder of SMIC!
In his previous life, Li Xiaofan had heard some stories about the grievances between Dr. Zhang Rujing and SMIC, as well as between him and Zhang Zhongmou, another native of Mingzhou who is known as the "Father of Taiwan Semiconductor".
Li Xiaofan only knew that Zhang Rujing and Zhang Zhongmou had both worked at Texas Instruments, but he couldn't remember the specific years.
"Dr. Chen, do you know this Dr. Zhang Rujing? He now works at Texas Instruments?"
"Yes, I know it. Dr. Zhang Rujing is our senior Chinese in the semiconductor industry in the United States. Dr. Zhang Rujing from Taiwan was born in Nanjing in his early years. He went to Taiwan with his parents before liberation and later studied in the United States. 20 years After graduating from Ph.D., he joined Texas Instruments. Dr. Zhang Rujing first worked in the dynamic random access memory DRAM team led by Jack Kilby, the famous Nobel Prize winner in physics and one of the inventors of integrated circuits. …”
Li Xiaofan asked: "What kind of work is he currently responsible for at Texas Instruments?"
"He is currently working under the leadership of Dr. Shao Zifan, another Chinese vice president of Texas Instruments. He is an expert in the construction and operation of chip manufacturing plants. Previously, he has successfully been responsible for Texas Instruments' operations in the United States, Japan, Singapore, Italy and Taiwan. With the construction and operation of nearly ten semiconductor factories, we are the ‘factory master’ in the global semiconductor industry.”
Chen Datong continued: "I heard a story recently. A while ago, a domestic electronics industry delegation visited the Texas Instruments headquarters and met Dr. Zhang Rujing. At that time, the leader of the delegation jokingly asked Dr. Zhang Rujing if he would like to go to mainland China to develop chips. Factory, it is said that Dr. Zhang Rujing answered very tactfully, seeming to indicate that he could return to mainland China to build a chip factory after he retires..."
Hearing this, Li Xiaofan was ecstatic: It turns out that Dr. Zhang Rujing was interested in building a chip factory in mainland China in 1996!
In his memory, SMIC settled in Zhangjiang, Shanghai around 2000. At that time, the equity was very dispersed. The largest shareholder was Shanghai Industrial, which only held 12% of the shares and did not hold a controlling stake. Other shareholders include Goldman Sachs and Motorola from the United States, as well as some investors from Taiwan and Singapore, while founder Zhang Rujing only holds 1% of the shares.
Later, a large number of engineers who followed Zhang Rujing to SMIC came from TSMC and were involved in issues such as patent infringement. SMIC was brought to court by TSMC under the leadership of Zhang Zhongmou, and was eventually forced to settle out of court. SMIC not only paid a huge compensation of US$375 million, but also reluctantly "ceded" 10% of its shares to TSMC.
This lawsuit caused SMIC, which was just starting out at the time, to lose all its wealth and lose its normal hematopoietic ability, let alone compete with TSMC. Zhang Zhongmou's goal of destroying SMIC was basically achieved. Moreover, one of the requirements of TSMC Zhang Zhongmou is that Zhang Rujing must leave SMIC.
The media reported at the time that when the trial results were announced, Zhang Rujing cried bitterly on the phone...
Li Xiaofan thought to himself: It is only 1996. If he intervenes now, he will try to get Dr. Zhang Rujing to cooperate with the domestic Academician Ni, so that the two swords can be combined! With strong support from the national and local governments, we can build a chip factory in Zhangjiang as soon as possible and avoid the patent traps of TSMC... Can the history of SMIC and China Chip be rewritten?
Thinking of this, Li Xiaofan asked urgently: "Dr. Chen, can you introduce me to Dr. Zhang Rujing right now?"