The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 361 Emergencies
Xinxin has developed from a semiconductor company purely relying on Zhou Xin's reputation to a semiconductor giant that cannot be underestimated in the industry today. Regarding Xinxin's development into today's behemoth in less than ten years, there are various secrets of Xinxin's success in the industry and among the public. is circulating.

The success of Xinxin has also added a lot of content to the case libraries of various masters.

Some people think that Xinxin is successful because they have massive funds and can continue to invest in research and development. Others think that Xinxin is successful because Zhou Xin’s vision has chosen the optimal development direction. Others think that the internationally competitive salary system ensures the combat effectiveness of employees. is the key to success.

At present, Xinxin's salary standard can be compared with that of foreign companies. In some departments or branches with good profits, the salary is even more than twice that of foreign companies. This standard makes Xinxin the best choice for graduates.

In addition, Xinxin has been in a period of expansion, and even the financial crisis has only slowed down Xinxin's expansion without interrupting this trend. Therefore, for graduates of science and engineering majors from prestigious universities, it is not that difficult to go to Xinxin, and McKinsey Compared with only 10 offers in mainland China every year, the salary and development prospects are no less friendly than McKinsey's Xinxin.

There are so many factors for Xinxin's success. One thing that no one will deny is that Xinxin's capital operation is very successful. Xinxin can achieve its goals at the minimum cost, whether it is acquisitions, production capacity expansion or the company's listing.

Xinxin's proficiency in capital operations allows them to give full play to their advantages in the semiconductor competition.

This advantage is also due to China's current position in the international division of labor. It has not taken away too many countries' jobs. It has not yet taken on the reputation of being a crusher in developed countries. It is easier for Chinese companies to acquire semiconductor companies. Regulatory consent in the country where the acquired business is located.

Take Xinxin’s acquisition of ASPLA as an example. When news came out that ASPLA wanted to package and sell it as a whole, in addition to Xinxin, Samsung also wanted to acquire it. However, because the shareholders behind Samsung and ASPLA were or had been engaged in a large number of transactions in many fields, Due to cruel business competition, they have absolutely no desire to sell ASPLA to Samsung.

Even if Samsung offered a higher price than Xinxin, Neon directly rejected Samsung's offer without even looking at it.

Neon Enterprise also conveyed the news that Elpida wanted to take action this time to Xinxin immediately. In their view, Xinxin was the best partner.

Because this financial crisis was more serious than the original 08 financial crisis, Elpida did not wait until 2010 to find someone to take over like later generations. They were already on the verge of bankruptcy a year in advance.

New Core has the ability and may have the will, but more importantly, Neon does not want to sell the last hope of Neon memory chips to Korean companies. It has been beaten badly enough, and selling it to Korean companies is tantamount to surrendering with both hands.

"Elpida prefers cooperation. The shareholders behind Elpida hope to retain some of their shares. They hope to cooperate with 51% and 49% of their controlling rights to Xinxin," Liang Mengsong said. After briefly explaining the situation, Zhou Xin fell into thinking.

Standing at this time point, taking over Elpida is a good thing for Xinxin's semiconductor territory, because Xinxin's entry into the memory chip field can deal a heavy blow to Xinxin's main competitor Samsung.

Samsung bucked the trend and expanded during the financial crisis, betting that Elpida would not survive for a few years. If Elpida fell, Samsung would be able to take most of the market share occupied by Elpida, and the remaining small portion would be taken by Hynix and Micron. Eat.

Everyone has been carrying it for so long, just waiting for Elpida to collapse. According to research from Samsung's internal strategic analysis department, Elpida will not survive this year.

"Let's talk to Elpida. Memory chips are a big market. I think the share ratio of 51% and 49% is fine. Let's discuss the price with them in detail. If we want to privatize Elpida, They need to get Neon to cooperate," Zhou Xin said.

Hu Zhengming felt a little strange, because according to Xinxin's style, they tried their best to complete a wholly-owned acquisition instead of leaving so many shares to the shareholders behind them.

There is a huge demand for memory chips among Xinxin consumer electronics companies. At the same time, after Xinxin gradually transferred the Elpida production line and R&D department to China, the cost can also be reduced a lot. If Xinxin goes to operate Elpida, they will We are confident that we can turn losses into profits within three to five years.

Therefore, for this type of cooperation, Xinxin is on the strong side, and Elpida relies on Xinxin. Xinxin can fully acquire it, and there is no need to leave 49% of the shares to Hitachi and NEC.

The main shareholders behind Elpida are Hitachi, NEC and Kingston. Hitachi and NEC are the initiators, and Kingston is a later shareholder. Due to the shrinking global consumption, Kingston is about to be unable to bear it.

After the executive meeting ended, Hu Zhengming asked: "Do you think Americen will take administrative measures to deal with Xinxin?

After the Xinxin curtain that you and I talked about before comes down, in order to ensure the normal operation of Xinxin's business, we need to maintain a cooperative relationship with Neon Enterprises so that they can continue to cooperate with us? "

After the acquisition of ASPLA last year, Zhou Xin and Hu Zhengming had a long conversation, in which Zhou Xin expressed concerns about the future, focusing on the concept of chip screens, believing that Amerikan would prevent China from using technology controls in the chip field. China Semiconductor continues to develop.

The specific time point is considered to be after the financial crisis is over, when Obama, the White House and Washington have time to spare their hands to do this.

Hu Zhengming believes that this is possible, because Amerikan has used administrative measures to prevent the development of the neon semiconductor industry in the past. However, China and Neon are different. China will not sign an agreement with Neon, so for Amerikan It is entirely possible to use different means to achieve the same goal.

"Yes, including the last two years when I have to withhold part of the profits to reserve parts and raw materials, this is all to prepare for the fall of the Core Curtain.

If you want to guess when the White House will take action against Xinxin and China's semiconductor industry, just look at when Paulson will step down. "Zhou Xin said. "Some recent rumors in Washington give me a bad feeling. Paulson's position will not be long. "

Hu Zhengming didn't understand this at all, "Paulson? Isn't he deeply trusted by Obama? He is the only senior official who remained after Obama came to power. All other officials from the Bush era were eliminated."

Zhou Xin shook his head: "It's not that easy. The Secretary of the Treasury is a very critical position. Paulson has been a supporter of the Elephant Party for many years and a confidant of Bush. How can Obama trust him?"

Hu Zhengming asked: "Then why does Obama support the $7000 billion fiscal stimulus plan led by Paulson? The power to allocate the flow of this $7000 billion, even if taking into account ensuring financial stability, is still a very large power."

Decide which financial institutions will receive the $7000 billion, which ones will be rescued and which ones will not be rescued. After the $7000 billion fiscal stimulus plan is passed, this power will basically be handed over to Paulson. Use China’s power-inclusive calculation formula to calculate. You know that at this point in time, Paulson has more power than Obama.

Zhou Xin knew that Paulson would step down soon and would take the blame for causing the financial crisis. This was just a small benefit for him, telling him not to talk nonsense after he stepped down.

Before Golden Retriever, the struggle between the two parties in Washington had always maintained a semblance of harmony, and no one would openly quarrel with each other. Things like the Elephant Party congressmen joining forces to kill the Elephant Party speaker were something that was unimaginable before. "This is an exchange of interests. Rather than the Donkey Party allocating $7000 billion of power to Paulson, it is better to give it to the Elephant Party. As a price, the Elephant Party must shoulder all the responsibility for the financial crisis. This is a matter for both parties. A tacit understanding reached behind the scenes.

And once the financial crisis is over, Paulson is unlikely to stay in this position for long.

But he is not at a loss. After stepping down, he can work as a senior executive in any financial institution that is still alive. Everyone has to give him this face.

It can be regarded as entering the retirement stage ahead of schedule. "

Paulson is a rare pro-China faction. Even when the fight against China became the only consensus between the two parties in 2018, Paulson visited China many times in his own name, trying to act as a glue between America and the Chinese financial community. The role of the agent.

It is precisely because of his status as a pro-China faction that even if the Elephant Party wins the White House again, he is the Elephant Party’s most senior and experienced expert in the financial field and has the most experience in handling financial crises. He will not have the opportunity to serve as Minister of Finance again. .

"Amid such expectations, we need to try our best to win over neon semiconductor companies and the Ministry of Industry and Economy. Even if we pay a little profit to delay a little time, it is worth it." Zhou Xin concluded.

The talks between Xinxin and Elpida went very smoothly, especially after Xinxin expressed its willingness to leave 49% of the shares to the original shareholders. The shareholders behind Elpida quickly reached an agreement and agreed to sell Elpida to Xinxin.

The only remaining difference between the two parties is the price. Elpida hopes to sell to Xinxin at a premium to the current market value.

New Core hopes to directly acquire Elpida at market value. The current market value of Elpida is about US$20 billion. The market value, which was originally falling, quickly stopped falling after the news that New Core wanted to acquire Elpida. After a small increase, it stabilized at 20 billion US dollars.

The two sides were deadlocked over the price.

Just as Elpida suffered another loss in the first quarter and Hitachi and NEC were planning to compromise, Americen's Ministry of Energy took action and kicked New Core Technology out of the EUV LLC alliance, claiming that as a Chinese company, New Core Technology's continued presence in EUV LLC may have an impact. To Amerikan's national security.

Affected by this news, the stock price of Xinxin Lithography Machine fell sharply by 5 points. You must know that Xinxin Lithography Machine has a market value of 4000 billion RMB, and a one-time drop of 5% is already a lot.

"Breaking news, Americen's Department of Energy has excluded Xinxin Technology from the EUV LLC alliance. Industry analysts said that this will seriously affect the research and development of Xinxin Semiconductor's next-generation lithography machine technology. Affected by this news, Xinxin Optoelectronics Keji’s stock price suddenly plummeted.”

Zhou Xin was helpless after receiving the news. It had to come sooner or later. It seems that ASML's EUV lithography machine research and development is making good progress, otherwise it would not kick out the new core at this time.

Apparently American is worried that Xinxin will continue to stay in EUV LLC. If Xinxin and ASML successfully develop EUV at almost the same time, it will be difficult for ASML to win in the commercial market. Compared with Xinxin, it will obviously be easier for ASML in the same camp. control.

"The storm is coming, and Washington has realized the threat that Xinxin poses to them. EUV LLC is only the first step. There are still many challenges waiting for us in the future. Let Xinxin lithography machine issue an announcement saying that this is unfair treatment. Then he said that even if we can't continue at EUV LLC, we can still develop EUV lithography machines." Zhou Xin was calmer than he originally thought.

However, Americen's move was not that simple. The second move came soon. Americen's Ministry of Commerce notified Matrix that Matrix's chips could no longer purchase Chinese chips. The reason was still national security.

Zhou Xin knew that this was the killer move. The huge scale of Xinxin Technology was largely built on Matrix. Every year, Matrix can help Xinxin digest a large amount of chip production capacity, whether it is mobile phone CPUs or other power management chips, Bluetooth Chips, ISP chips, etc.

Once the connection between Matrix and Xinxin is severed, the system built by Xinxin will be completely destroyed.

If Amerikan's first move was considered a bit overbearing by the outside world, but still within the scope of logic, then after the second executive order was issued, public opinion in China was in an uproar.

In 09, there were many more people and media who thoughtlessly supported Amerikan than after 18. At this time, the G2 theory was rampant. China and Amerikan coexisted peacefully, and win-win cooperation between the two sides was the mainstream view.

Chinese media and media practitioners are still trying to find reasons for Amerikan's behavior and trying to prove that it is completely understandable behavior. However, the Internet has long been abuzz, and Chinese netizens in major forums are expressing dissatisfaction.

"Matrix's iPhones and Apple devices cannot use Chinese chips. This is all for new chips. National security is just an excuse. I haven't seen Intel and AMD chips banned."

"I believe this is too targeted. If we lose the Matrix market, Xinxin Technology will suffer a devastating blow and lose more than half of its market share."

"The problem is that Matrix is ​​a company that operates globally. Selling Chinese chips to other countries also affects Amerikan's national security, right?"

“This is the so-called free trade and economic globalization. When the rules are good for me, you all have to follow the rules. When the rules are not good for me, then I will change the rules.

No wonder there is no wrong nickname for American imperialism. "

"Is Xinxin the first Chinese company to be targeted in this way? When Neon Semiconductor was targeted in this way 20 years ago, Amerikan didn't go after a company, right?"

"No, at that time American was targeting semiconductor companies owned by Neon. This time it is completely targeting Xinxin."

"As soon as the news came out, the US stock market opened today, Matrix plummeted, and the stock prices of Intel, Texas Instruments, and TSMC all rose sharply. The executives of these companies were so happy that they couldn't sleep due to the mobile chip market share sold by New Core Technology."

"After seeing this news, I quickly changed my mobile phone to Xiaomi. Supporting Xiaomi means supporting domestic chips and indirectly supporting Xinxin Technology."

　There will be more tonight. This is to make up for last night.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)