It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.
Williams had been to Ah San Country; there were very few toilets, and he had to go into the bushes or relieve himself anywhere every day...
It was unbearable.
But Xia Country was different; its cities were clean and tidy, infrastructure was top-notch, feeling even better than the Empire.
Moreover, consumption in Xia Country was low, yet the income Wang Yi gave him was higher than in the Empire! There was no way around it; such semiconductor magnates couldn't be poached without a salary increase.
With a high income exceeding that in the Empire, and enjoying the low consumption in Xia Country, his happiness index instantly shot up several levels!
As a shrewd person, Williams immediately weighed the pros and cons:
"Boss, when I came to the Imperial Capital in 2008 to watch the Olympics, I was deeply attracted by its cleanliness, tidiness, modernity, and historical heritage. It is my honor to be able to settle and work in the Imperial Capital now!"
"That's wonderful!"
Wang Yi smiled slightly; things were progressing much more smoothly than he had imagined.
He had originally thought that poaching these semiconductor magnates from Texas Instruments to work domestically would be very difficult, even extremely difficult.
He didn't expect it to be this smooth!
"Boss, I will persuade several technical elites as soon as possible to go to Xia Country with me and join Xingyi Technology!"
"Then I look forward to your good news!"
Afterward, both sides discussed some more details before dispersing.
With semiconductor magnates like Williams from Texas Instruments, if Wang Yi recruited more semiconductor talent domestically, Xingyi Semiconductor would be established.
With further investment, if things went smoothly, in little over a year, self-developed chips would be almost ready for production.
In fact, Apple's A-series processors came about this way! In 2008, Apple secretly acquired a small chip company, gaining over 150 semiconductor talents, and also poached an industry magnate.
In just over a year, in January 2010, they launched the A4 processor.
However, the A4 processor was a modified Samsung S5PC110 (Hummingbird) processor; its performance was lackluster, making it a laughingstock.
But Apple didn't lose heart; they acquired another chip company, gaining over 100 more semiconductor talents.
In less than a year, they launched the A5 processor in early 2011! This time, it wasn't a modified Samsung, but an independently designed dual-core processor based on ARM's Cortex-A9 public architecture, which was very successful.
In his previous life, after the A5, Apple processors continued their rapid progress, steadily dominating the entire Android camp...
With Apple's past experience as a lesson, Wang Yi wouldn't take detours.
He would directly recruit magnates from Texas Instruments, and top semiconductor talents...
Then purchase ARM licenses, and carry out independent R&D and design based on the ARM public architecture...
In reality, not only Apple, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, MediaTek, etc., but all successful mobile chips are developed based on the ARM architecture!
Simply put, the ARM architecture is the absolute ruler of mobile chips, it's the foundation!
Even years later, Apple and Qualcomm's so-called independently developed architectures are also secondary developments based on the ARM architecture.
Just like Android OS, Ubuntu OS, etc., are all secondary developments based on Linux.
Wang Yi also wouldn't take detours; he would directly buy licenses and develop his own chips based on the ARM architecture.
When his strength grew later, he would then develop his own architecture based on ARM!
Meals are eaten one bite at a time.
Thus, the matter of purchasing the ARM V8 license had to be arranged concurrently.
The ARM V8 architecture was just launched this year and is the most advanced; even with minor revisions like V8.1 and V8.2 a few years later, the difference wouldn't be significant.
A brand new V9 architecture wouldn't be launched until 2022.
It can be said that the V8 architecture could be used for over ten years.
Wang Yi planned to talk to ARM and directly purchase a one-time perpetual license.
This way, even if it were later blocked by the Empire, he wouldn't fear a supply cut-off.
In his previous life, Huawei did exactly this, directly buying a perpetual license for ARM V8.
Now Wang Yi also wanted to do this, but what price he could negotiate was hard to say.
But in 2011, with V8 just released, Wang Yi buying it outright should allow for a low price.
After all, smartphones were just starting, mobile chip volume was small, and ARM licensing fees were still very cheap.
A few years later, when smartphones exploded and mobile chips boomed, licensing fees would skyrocket.
Like Apple, it took advantage of the current low price and signed a multi-decade licensing agreement at once.
Each chip only needed 30 cents to ARM, which was less than two yuan.
Even ten years later, if Apple sold 200 million phones a year, it would only need to pay ARM 60 million USD in licensing fees.
ARM was so regretful that it wanted to renegotiate the price and raise it many times, but this license was directly signed until 2040...
Wang Yi planned an even bolder move: a direct one-time buyout!
Back at Texas Instruments, Williams called his confidant to the office.
A young technical elite, though not old, possessed excellent technical skills:
"George, you heard about the mobile chip department being shut down, right?"
George frowned slightly:
"Boss, are you here to talk to me about layoffs? I don't want to lose my job!"
"The company is already planning layoffs, and the first batch of layoff list is almost out. Not only will you be laid off, but I'll also be out. The entire department is gone."
"Even you're being dismissed!"
George's expression changed dramatically:
"What about us then? Finding a job in semiconductors is hard now! Qualcomm and Nvidia aren't short of people!"
"To be honest, I've found a new employer, but I have to go to Xia Country."
"Xia Country? Is it that tycoon with thirty million chips, the mysterious Eastern giant?"
George's eyes widened:
"Boss, you have to take me with you; I'll switch jobs with you."
"You need to think it through; your salary won't decrease if you switch, but you'll have to work in the Imperial Capital of Xia Country..."
"The Imperial Capital of Xia Country, no problem! I love the food there, and kung fu. Boss, I'm with you!"
Williams nodded in satisfaction:
"Don't publicize this; we'll proceed slowly. Here's what we'll do: this afternoon, you make a mistake, and I'll arrange for HR to lay you off. Once you get your severance package, you'll go to Xia Country and immediately join the new company. The compensation will be the same as here, and you won't have to worry about not finding a job after being laid off! You'll also have your severance package!"
"Great, no problem! This plan is perfect! Seamless transition!"
George beamed with joy; this arrangement was too good.
Not only could he get Texas Instruments' severance pay, but he also found a new job directly, with no reduction in benefits – it was simply perfect.
But his colleagues were miserable; with massive layoffs before the new year, they wouldn't find new jobs and would be directly unemployed...
They wouldn't last long relying on severance pay either.
After all, their income wasn't as high as a director like Williams, and their expenses weren't low either, plus having only worked for a few years, they had virtually no savings.
The West largely practices advanced consumption and debt-driven consumption...
Subsequently, Williams selected some capable young R&D elites, talking to each one and making arrangements.
Not only his subordinates, but also those of other directors, he prepared to secretly approach.
Thus, that afternoon, George was laid off due to a work error.
The group was abandoning its mobile chip division, and HR was already struggling with how to proceed with the layoff plan, and then George delivered himself to them! HR was delighted, promptly approved, and gave an N+10 severance package.
As for the non-compete agreement?
If he signed it, Texas Instruments would have to pay an additional huge sum in compensation.
If Texas Instruments continued its mobile chip business, it might pay more and sign a non-compete agreement.
But now that Texas Instruments was abandoning its mobile chip business, how could it pay extra compensation? It was meaningless.
George, who had worked for three years with a monthly salary of $10,000, received nearly $140,000 in total (monthly salary + severance pay), and was laid off with a bitter expression...
Then, that evening, he drank and dined with Wang Yi, signed a new contract, and officially joined Xingyi Semiconductor.
His monthly salary was still $10,000! It was equivalent to getting 13 months of severance pay for free! He also found a new employer, so he didn't have to worry about being unemployed after being laid off.
Although George was young, he was outstandingly capable and was Williams' right-hand man at Texas Instruments.
Wang Yi also highly valued him.
If such talent were cultivated, he might become a second Williams in the future, fully capable of independently leading a new project team.
However, chip R&D is an extraordinary money-burner.
Processors in 2011 were still relatively simple; Apple's R&D team of a few hundred people developed the A4 and A5...
Wang Yi also needed to recruit hundreds of R&D elites; even if calculated at an average monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, annual salary expenses would exceed 100 million yuan.
EDA licensing fees were over 10 million yuan annually, and IP licensing also cost a lot.
Once the chip design was complete and verified, it would go to a wafer fab for trial production, a process called tape-out.
Tape-out fees were also a huge sum.
Currently, the most advanced was TSMC's 28nm process, where tape-out fees were relatively low, with $5 million being enough for one run.
However, sometimes multiple tape-outs were needed to succeed, which could also amount to hundreds of millions of yuan.
But for the 3nm process more than ten years later, a single tape-out would cost $600 million, a full 3.6 billion yuan.
Tape-out three times, and ten billion would be gone! No wonder chip R&D often cost tens of billions annually a decade later.
But in 2011, it wouldn't cost that much; developing a generation of chips would probably only need a little over a billion yuan.
The difference lay in the tape-out fees!
$5 million for one tape-out versus $600 million for one tape-out, the difference was immense.
Additionally, product trial production costs would also need to be over 10 million yuan.
If Xingyi Technology successfully taped out its self-developed 28nm chip within two years, Wang Yi estimated that an investment of over a billion yuan would be sufficient.
No wonder Lei Bus said that developing the 28nm surging S1 required an investment of 1.5 billion yuan.
Mainly, the tape-out cost for current 28nm chips was low.
But with subsequent advancements in process technology, tape-out fees would skyrocket, and chip R&D costs would also increase dramatically.
By the time 14nm chips were developed, one tape-out would cost $10 million, with a total R&D investment of 2 billion yuan.
For 7nm chips, one tape-out would cost $30 million, with a total R&D investment of 3-5 billion yuan.
For 5nm chips, $50 million, with a total R&D investment of around 7-10 billion yuan.
For 3nm chips, annual total R&D investment would start at tens of billions!
Wang Yi breathed a sigh of relief; previously, he had calculated based on 5nm and 3nm tape-out costs, estimating tens of billions annually for chip R&D, which almost made him back down.
But now that 28nm tape-out was so cheap, costing just over a billion yuan, it was no problem.
He could start immediately.
Directly developing a 28nm quad-core flagship chip based on the most advanced ARM V8, 64-bit architecture.
Later, he would also develop a slightly lower-frequency mid-range processor, and tape them out together! If the flagship processor failed, there would still be the mid-range processor as a fallback, which could be used in next year's Qingyou thousand-yuan phone, so it wouldn't be a waste of effort.
Of course, if the flagship processor also succeeded, that would be even better; they could directly launch the self-developed chip!
The next day, Wang Yi met the person sent by Meiyou Technology yesterday.
"Boss, after our investigation over the past two days, there are no issues with Xiya Beauty's financial status, property rights, product aspects, etc.; we can sign the contract!"
"Okay."
Wang Yi nodded and formally signed a contract with Konaite, fully acquiring Xiya Beauty Company.
With this, Xingyi Technology had its first overseas R&D center and its second overseas subsidiary.
As for the first overseas subsidiary, it was naturally Meiyou International!
"Konaite, please cooperate with the subsequent procedures. Once the procedures are completed, twenty million dollars will be immediately transferred to you from Meiyou International's overseas account!"
"Okay, boss, thank you for your generosity. If it weren't for you, I really would have lost everything and become a homeless person."
Konaite was immensely grateful; the difference between a bankrupt homeless person and the current Zhenyou R&D Director, a life winner, was just a single thought!
Wang Yi smiled slightly:
"You are a talent; you deserve an unlimited future."
After this incident, Konaite probably didn't want to start a business for the rest of his life, deciding to follow Wang Yi diligently and work for him.
Holding $20 million in savings, serving as Zhenyou R&D Director, and earning an annual salary of one to two million dollars, wasn't that appealing?
Why bother pouring out all his assets, risking losing everything, and suffering the hardships of entrepreneurship?
Suddenly, Konaite's perspective broadened!
He immediately organized a team and began to advance the R&D of new products.
For such R&D institutions, Wang Yi would continuously invest funds only if there were output.
If there was no output for half a year, then it would be over; no more funding could be applied for, and benefits would drop across the board.
If there was no output for a year, a major overhaul would probably be necessary...
Konaite's team had just experienced unemployment and being laid off, and they didn't want to be laid off again, so they could only go all out in R&D!
In the following days, every day, R&D backbone personnel from Texas Instruments were laid off in the morning, received their severance pay with a sad face, and then secretly and joyfully joined Xingyi Semiconductor in the afternoon...
Williams was very adept at this kind of operation.
And Texas Instruments readily agreed.
Especially Texas Instruments' HR, who were ecstatic, as they were struggling with how to advance the layoff plan.
Now it was great; every day, performance was actively delivered to their doorstep, with people voluntarily being laid off for various reasons, which was really good.
Even if Texas Instruments realized there might be issues behind it, they no longer cared.
They were abandoning the mobile chip business and would no longer develop new products.
They wished all R&D personnel would resign.
Otherwise, so many R&D personnel would continue to stay idle and still need to be paid monthly...
Wang Yi was very satisfied with this.
He decisively had the Texas Instruments R&D elites who joined Xingyi Semiconductor pack their belongings and fly directly to Xia Country in batches.
Ostensibly, they were laid off and went to Xia Country for a vacation to clear their minds...
Or, they temporarily couldn't find suitable work and went to Xia Country to live for a period, where the cost of living was low...
Some traveled to Xia Country alone, while others brought their families.
Upon landing in Xia Country, there were dedicated people to receive them.
Jian Ziyan had arranged all of this, even their apartments were properly settled.
From the many vacant office buildings in Xingyi Science Park, an area was directly designated as the semiconductor R&D center.
These talents were semiconductor R&D elites Wang Yi poached from the Empire, and they were also major weapons against Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung! Naturally, proper arrangements had to be made.
Meanwhile, Wang Yi arrived at ARM's Imperial headquarters.
To conduct his final negotiation before leaving the Empire, the ARM V8 architecture negotiation!
(End of chapter)