Chapter 1274: In the Same Boat (4k)

The rumored ice core restrictions have become a reality.

This makes everyone inside the ice core feel solemn. Everyone is more or less aware of the importance of EUV. Even if it is only experimental in nature now, it undoubtedly symbolizes a ticket to advanced manufacturing processes.

Now, that ticket appears to be in shreds.

Also, this restriction has made many people who have switched jobs feel nervous. Will the intensity on Ice Core be intensified in the future?

Qiu Ciyun made a joke about this when reporting the situation on the front line during an online meeting.

"It's okay. If Bing Xin is further restricted in the future, Zhong Xin is still there and Zhong Xin is not restricted. We can jump back."

SMIC's orthodoxy is in Bingxin... version update, Bingxin's orthodoxy is in SMIC?

This joke somewhat diluted the worries among the top management, but for the middle and grassroots levels, the 10% annual profit conversion option gradually implemented by Bingxin is more realistic. According to this year's profit estimate, at least an additional 400 million Huaxia coins will enter the employees' income. pocket.

As for whether the options can be cashed in, they cannot be listed in the United States, but they can always be listed in China.

The restrictions have been lifted, but work still needs to continue. Currently, there is mass production of 32nm with the second-generation HKMG process, risk trial production of 28nm, and day-and-night research on 14nm that introduces FinFET technology.

It is inevitable that there will be some ideological baggage, and it will inevitably become a topic of conversation in the cafeteria, but life and work must move forward.

On the whole, Bingxin and Yike are relatively calm, but there are more shocks from the outside world.

Especially in China, the number one question on Zhihu’s hot list soon became – “Will this be the Waterloo that Fang Zhuo encountered?”

The ice core is suspended from the market, and the ice core is subject to restrictions...

And, with many reports from foreign media...

The potential losses of tens of billions of dollars, the close relationship between core components, the barriers to the advancement of advanced processes, etc. After reports and popular science, many people’s understanding is summarized by an example from a media, and Ice Core may become the second Toshiba.

In the past, Toshiba was a victim of the semiconductor competition between the United States and Japan. Now Toshiba is falling into an irreversible decline after the financial fraud incident. Such examples have also given the industry another name for this incident.

Ice core is experiencing a "Toshiba moment"!

Not only is the industry quite pessimistic, but since the restrictions were introduced, Fang Zhuo has been receiving nervous calls from domestic administrative departments on his mobile phone, asking about the situation and discussing countermeasures.

Possible restrictions and real restrictions are two different things. If something happens, the level must be raised.

As one of the parties involved, Bingxin has issued a statement stating that it is "deeply shocked" and believes that Bingxin's operations are in compliance with regulations and does not accept so-called "safety" issues. Criticizing this move is completely contrary to its proper position.

Fang Zhuo was calm in the face of calls from above to local places in China. In fact, he had done a lot of things that needed to be done. Now and in the future, it just depends on how to implement it. This is not magic and can be conjured up all at once.

On the last day of July, and the fourth day since the ice core was officially restricted, the Yike Silicon Valley Research Center welcomed visitors.

Austin, a close friend of the shadow shareholders, comes to visit.

Fang Zhuo was relatively indifferent to this person's arrival.

Austin was not offended. Mr. Fang was definitely not happy when the ice core was finally blocked. This was understandable, but he was not happy either.

Fang Zhuo briefly expressed his attitude, and then directly talked about the opinions from MIGA Fund, saying: "The current situation of Bingxin is unclear, the prospects are unclear, the listing is unknown, and the money of several funds..."

He paused before continuing: "In order to prevent further deterioration, Mr. Kong will look for opportunities to sell out his shares first, so as not to lose money."

The Gasoline Man switched institutional vests and entered Bingxin after making profits from the financial crisis. In addition to holding shares, there are also some corporate bonds, which effectively supported part of Bingxin's capital operation.

As the immediate prospects deteriorate, it is natural to protect the interests of shadow shareholders.

But Austin discouraged this approach without hesitation: "Mr. Fang, there is no need to deal with it, just leave it there and don't move it."

Fang Zhuo frowned and said: "There are always risks, and now there is a better place to go."

"Although the ice core is not on the market this time, it is not too far away from the market." Austin continued to dissuade, "The risk is controllable, Mr. Fang, the risk is controllable."

Fang Zhuo shook his head slightly and directly took out the handling opinions submitted by the gasoline man, talking about the possibility of further deterioration of competition.

Austin only looked at it twice before smiling, and said directly: "Hey, Mr. Fang, keep it. What are you guilty of?"

Fang Zhuo has been in the world for more than ten years, but he was also asked by this sentence... What do I feel guilty about?

"We are not afraid of compensation, Mr. Fang, and you don't have to be afraid." Austin is not here on his own behalf.

Fang Zhuo sighed: "The restriction is right in front of us, how can we not think more about it?"

"Mr. Fang, don't be afraid, there will be dawn after dark." Austin became artistic.

Fang Zhuo felt that Austin might have flown here not from Washington but from China, and the country told him the same thing.

Who kidnapped whom?

Did he kidnap the shadow shareholders?

No, it is the shadow shareholders who want to kidnap themselves.

Fang Zhuo and Austin exchanged clear opinions, and he felt more at ease. EUV will take time after all, and there is still room for maneuver, and with this clear restriction, the domestic industry chain will only be further strengthened.

With this trip to Austin, there is no need to fly to Washington again for the rest of the trip.

There is one more thing that needs to be arranged right now.

It is now clear that both Taiwan News and Samsung have obtained ASML's experimental machine. Judging from Bingxin's current situation, the window for obtaining EUV is infinitely close.

Although Austin stated that the situation will not deteriorate in the future, the restrictions that have been given may be difficult to remove.

Because EUV, which cannot be commercialized yet, harms the long-term process goals, the data supporting Bingxin's listing and market performance are not affected by this restriction. When the impact really comes, the shares that should be sold have been sold.

Therefore, Bingxin Microelectronics Center has listed double exposure technology as a priority, and is in dialogue with Intel to find process breakthroughs that this technology can bring.

In addition, SMIC, which was not affected this time, may still be able to do more.

Fang Zhuo, Qiu Ciyun and others discussed this restriction and believed that SMIC could make another effort. Bingxin is the majority shareholder of the "Huali Phase I" currently under construction.

If the equity continues to be dispersed in the future, introducing SMIC as a major shareholder and acting as the operator may promote the purchase of EUV, and then buy back the equity one by one. Anyway, the relationship will inevitably be broken by then.

This is a way, and we still need to see the changes.

Putting aside the domestic response, since the Japanese company fraud storm, Bingxin and Yike have indeed picked up a lot of technology and teams, especially Lin'an's storage has taken over the semiconductor department that was eliminated by Toshiba.

However, Nikon was not affected too much this time, but only laid off a small number of employees as the environment fluctuated, which is not very satisfactory.

Bingxin Microelectronics Center has conducted cooperative research with Shangwei, and the relevant team is crying out for food. At present, there is a wave of hype about EUV in the industry, which is just suitable for promoting Nikon's EUV research and development.

Fang Zhuo hopes to use this advocacy to let investment institutions get in touch with the possibility of promoting the department's independent listing, and finally expose its PPT research and development to see if they can pick up some technology.

IDG is well-known worldwide, and Xiong Xiaoge is experienced in doing things, so he may be useful.

The same is true for IDC, which was quite authoritative when it talked about Japanese company fraud before.

This move is a leisurely move. If it succeeds, it's great, but if it doesn't, it's okay. Fang Zhuo plans to talk to Lao Xiong after returning to China to see if he can help with this little favor.

On the first day of August, Fang Zhuo talked to Yu Hong on the phone and talked about his schedule. He planned to go to Europe to inspect Bingxin's German factory and visit Crolle in France to discuss the establishment of the second overseas factory.

The restrictions on the US side are set, and there is nothing to talk about with Texas. The right way is to speed up the negotiations with Crolle. Qiu Ciyun has already flown there.

"Are you not watching Apple's press conference here?" Yu Hong asked.

"No, it's limited after all. Although I expected it, I'm still a little bored." Fang Zhuo sighed, "After all these years, it seems that there are more and more things to do, and I have to keep up with the development of Bingxin later."

Yu Hong pondered for a while and said, "A gentleman hides his weapon and waits for the right time to act."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "I have to go back and make a sharper one."

"Go back and see the small one first. After all, we have to work together on the sharp weapon." Yu Hong said.

This is also one of the reasons why Fang Zhuo returned to China.

He briefly talked about the competition for new phones this year, and he had no intention of going to New York again. Mr. Yu increased his office time in Shanghai this year, so he could see him when he returned.

However, a piece of good news has already appeared this month. The Samsung flagship, which was just released a few days ago, does not seem to be as popular as expected. It is the first time that it has abandoned Qualcomm chips in the global market, and consumers are not so receptive to it.

Or, consumers are also waiting for Apple in August and Yike in September.

Yike Mars has some new features this year, and with the strong growth of the local market, sales are expected.

On the second and third days of August, Fang Zhuo's main job in Silicon Valley was still to make and receive phone calls and listen to the concerns, concerns and suggestions of more related people.

On the fourth day, the French side made an appointment and set off on the 7th.

But on the 5th, Fang Zhuo welcomed another visitor to the Yike R&D Center, Microsoft's executive vice president Lu Qi.

This is said to be a candidate for Microsoft CEO. After Ballmer stepped down, he became the global executive vice president, responsible for the entire application software department, in charge of a series of important products such as Office, Bing, Skype, etc., and is already the highest management position held by Chinese in the US technology industry.

Lu Qi's visit this time is private.

After handling business yesterday, he passed by the Yike R&D Center and had the intention of meeting Mr. Fang, so he asked someone to make an appointment to see if he could meet the famous mysterious man.

Lu Qi was curious after entering the Yike R&D Center, especially staying outside the Siri team office for a long time, thinking that he could talk about the future direction after meeting Mr. Fang.

As a senior executive of a giant, Lu Qi has also paid attention to the ice core storm recently.

Although he does not agree with the "major setback" exaggeration of the media such as the Wall Street Journal, he also feels that it is indeed a bit tricky now. The importance of ice core to Yike is higher than that of Samsung wafer manufacturing to Samsung Electronics.

Once the way forward for ice core is continuously restricted, I am afraid that Yike will immediately face a dilemma.

However, when Lu Qi walked into the office and saw Mr. Fang for the first time, he did not see any trace of fatigue or frustration as he had imagined. It was as if the overwhelming protests from the outside world had not affected this man at all.

"Hi, Mr. Lu, how do you feel about our Yike R&D Center?" Fang Zhuo didn't want to see outsiders recently, but because Lu Qi is Chinese, he was willing to meet him.

"It feels like I have come to the engine that drives changes in the global smartphone market." Lu Qi smiled, "Just now when I entered the office, I saw the camera on the door. This seems to be facial recognition. I heard that Yike's fingerprint recognition was first tried in Mr. Fang's office. Could it be that we are not far from mature facial recognition?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, we will use this self-developed facial recognition solution next year." Fang Zhuo answered the curiosity of this person, and then said, "Have you watched Samsung's press conference this year?"

Lu Qi nodded. It was because he watched it that he said it was "mature facial recognition."

This year, Samsung wanted to use Trump to make a big fuss at the new phone press conference in July, but the success rate of facial recognition demonstrated on the spot was not high, which may be one of the reasons for the cold sales.

"We didn't know Samsung would use facial recognition before, and we were hesitant, but we still felt that it couldn't be new for the sake of being new." Fang Zhuo stood up and showed Lu Qi the facial recognition at the door.

As a result, eight out of ten times were successful, which was higher than Samsung's stage display.

Fang Zhuo asked Lu Qi to input and try again, and seven out of ten times were successful.

"I am now particularly looking forward to Mars next year." Lu Qi said with praise after trying this facial recognition system in person.

"It still needs to be optimized. The light at this angle is very good, so the success rate is very high." Fang Zhuo smiled, "I also hope to bring excellent experience to consumers next year."

Lu Qi sat down again, this time talking about artificial intelligence. He was very interested in the operation behind Siri, and also mentioned Microsoft's dialogue program development.

Fang Zhuo felt that this person was optimistic about artificial intelligence, and suddenly remembered that he seemed to focus on this aspect after he came to Baidu.

"Does Mr. Lu plan to return to China? Ballmer went to play with the team, and the position at Microsoft may have reached the ceiling." Fang Zhuo asked.

Lu Qi hesitated for a moment and did not answer directly: "It seems that there is no good place to go in China. I like Yike's current style, but... Can I be the CEO of Yike?"

This person must be a talent.

But...

Fang Zhuo thought briefly.

Seeing this, Lu Qi said half-seriously: "If you don't want to be the CEO, you can just step back a little bit."

With his position at Microsoft, he would at least be the second person in charge when he returns to China.

Fang Zhuo smiled and listed: "Yi Ke has a co-founder, Mr. Yu who is also the market pioneer, Mr. Qi who worked hard in Europe and built up the system ecology, and Mr. Liu who led the strong growth of the Chinese market... Even if it is ranked here, it doesn't seem to be 'a little bit later'."

Even if Lu Qi is Microsoft's global executive vice president, these people would not accept him being parachuted into Yi Ke as the second person.

Lu Qi sighed and joked: "The interview failed."

Fang Zhuo thought about it and said: "Well, when you really want to return to China, remember to find me and I will help you find a job."

Lu Qi was a little amused. It wasn't that difficult to find a job by himself. He smiled and said: "Okay, Mr. Fang, it's a deal."