Chapter 122 - Five Hundred Million
Su Yuanshan knew that Zheng Zhenchuan had called not to discuss cooperation over the phone. He probably just suddenly felt a sense of helplessness — something Su Yuanshan himself had experienced countless times in the past.
Thus, he could fully understand Zheng Zhenchuan's feelings.
"It's fine, Uncle Zheng.
Let's wait until you come back and then we'll talk," Su Yuanshan said reassuringly.
After hanging up, he turned to Chen Jing and shook his head,
"See? Another money burner."
Chen Jing opened her mouth to speak, then sighed,
"You keep saying the future will see industry specialization, yet here you are spreading yourself all over the place."
Su Yuanshan put away his bulky mobile phone, stood up, and walked to the glass window, gazing silently at the neon lights flickering in the night.
It was a long while before he turned around, smiled at Chen Jing, and said,
"Industrial specialization requires industries to exist first.
Take the lithography field — if Chengguang Institute falls behind again, they'll miss the entry ticket altogether."
Chen Jing fell silent as well.
"This is why you don't want Yuanchip to go public, right?
So you can throw money around as you please."
"Yeah," Su Yuanshan said casually, "It's great when I'm the only one who gets to decide."
Then he quickly corrected himself, realizing he was speaking to the professional manager he had worked so hard to recruit,
"Of course, you have a say too."
Chen Jing chuckled at his tone, shaking her head and smiling.
"If you really want to do this, why not just recruit all of them over here?"
"First, they might not be recruitable.
Second, don't think that just because the government is short on money, it has no value.
Policy support is often more powerful than money.
Besides, the government won't be broke forever."
Chen Jing thought for a moment and nodded, acknowledging his point.
"Alright then, I won't disturb your rest.
I'll go downstairs and chat with Senior Brother."
...
Downstairs in the guest rooms, when Su Yuanshan knocked, he found Qin Weimin and Chen Jianguo chatting leisurely.
Seeing Su Yuanshan swinging his briefcase as he came down, Qin Weimin chuckled,
"We were just guessing how long it would take you to come down."
Su Yuanshan gave his Senior Brother a disdainful look,
"Do you ever behave properly?"
"What do you mean?
We were talking about your business discussions," Qin Weimin countered calmly.
Su Yuanshan was instantly rendered speechless.
"Come in.
Jianguo has something to tell you," Qin Weimin said with a smile, closing the door behind them.
After the three sat down, Chen Jianguo spoke directly and seriously,
"Xiaoshan, UMC does have strength.
Their reverse-engineered 486 is quite solid.
Originally, they planned only for 40MHz, but they later pushed it to 50MHz, capable of matching Intel's U performance at the same frequency."
Qin Weimin chuckled,
"Too bad Intel released Pentium this year."
Chen Jianguo also laughed,
"Yeah.
I heard Intel unveiled Pentium at COMDEX in Las Vegas.
The entire UMC team was furious.
And Intel already knew UMC was developing a CPU.
They sent a warning — if UMC dares to release it, Intel will immediately sue.
No luck, no chance of slipping through."
Su Yuanshan nodded thoughtfully.
"Even if they only sold it in the mainland market, it wouldn't work?"
"UMC also has a factory in Silicon Valley.
If Intel sues and wins, being banned from the Western market would be the least of their worries — they'd still get hit with massive fines.
So now, UMC is split into two factions:
one wants to reconcile with Intel and beg for a license;
the other, the wafer foundry faction, wants to spin off the IC design department as soon as possible and focus purely on contract manufacturing."
Su Yuanshan silently mourned for UMC for a few seconds.
In history, UMC's CPU project had indeed been crushed by Intel.
Even printing "Not for U.S. Sale or Import" on their chips couldn't save them.
In the end, they abandoned CPU production entirely.
Chen Jianguo looked at Su Yuanshan and smiled,
"But UMC being crushed by Intel is good news for us."
Su Yuanshan asked immediately,
"Are they planning to buy the YX architecture?"
Chen Jianguo grinned,
"How should I put it?
Their desire is strong — and it seems the island and the mainland are already in contact, right?"
Su Yuanshan exhaled slowly, then smiled and nodded,
"Yes."
Just this month, a series of meetings had been held in Hong Kong.
By the end of the year, a profound consensus would be reached:
businessmen from the island would begin investing heavily in the mainland, and the mainland would offer policy incentives in return.
As for what would happen decades later, Su Yuanshan had no comment.
He would only say this:
the mainland sacrificed far too much.
But for now, at least, reaching a friendly consensus would benefit China.
The influx of capital and businesses would objectively push industrial progress forward.
The calendar flipped to November.
Three days ago, the Emperor of Japan returned home after his visit to China, taking with him NEC engineers responsible for building cleanrooms.
Both the government and the people believed this would push China-Japan relations to a new height.
Immediately, there was a fresh wave of Japanese loans and investments.
Some analysts even predicted that Japanese investment in China would reach 2.2 billion dollars this year and 3 billion dollars next year.
Unfortunately, most of that investment wouldn't go into manufacturing — let alone the semiconductor sector.
(Note: Related data can be found in the article "A Brief Discussion on Japanese Investment in China in the 1990s" — available for free on Aixi Academic. PS: I love Aixi Academic...)
From Japan's perspective — even with a top-tier company like Yuanchip — the Chinese semiconductor market was still treated with caution.
After all, one company couldn't drive an entire industry by itself.
From their viewpoint, and indeed from the viewpoint of most countries, China's fundamental issue was simple:
poverty.
...
"Even if you're poor, you can't neglect scientific research."
Standing in front of the cleanroom building, Su Yuanshan said to Zheng Zhenchuan with a smile.
After receiving permission to sell the lithography prototype, Zheng Zhenchuan personally escorted the machine to Yuanchip's Technology Park.
Zheng Zhenchuan shook his head, smiling bitterly.
He gazed around at the sprawling Technology Park — larger than Chengguang's entire site — and at the endless stream of desks and laboratory furniture being delivered.
He knew Yuanchip had ambition.
Yuanchip had money.
But... Yuanchip's demands were also harsh.
Zheng Zhenchuan forced a smile,
"But your conditions... I personally have no problem with them.
I'm afraid higher-ups might."
The conditions Su Yuanshan had laid out were simple:
Move into Yuanchip.
Adopt a strict financial management system based on the research-industry model.
In short, Yuanchip would provide the money — but every penny must be spent on scientific research, properly accounted for.
This funding would cover parts, materials, and also subsidies and bonuses for researchers.
Undoubtedly, this was the best possible outcome for individual researchers and projects.
But for the institutions cooperating with Yuanchip...
It was uncomfortably domineering.
Not only was the money tightly controlled, even the people would have to relocate to Yuanchip.
Where would that leave the face of the Chinese Academy of Sciences?
"No need to worry about it," Su Yuanshan said, stepping aside to let workers move a piece of equipment through the door.
He smiled slyly,
"Contact the Institute of Optics.
We'll also get the University of Electronic Science and Technology involved —
through them, we'll reach out to the ministry."
"On paper, it will be a three-party joint initiative — supporting research-industry collaboration."
"And..."
He paused dramatically.
"We can promise to invest at least five hundred million dollars into lithography R&D."
"If breakthroughs are achieved—"
Zheng Zhenchuan stumbled in shock, quickly interrupting him.
"How much did you say?"
"Five hundred million," Su Yuanshan repeated calmly.
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