How did i become a god

Jing Gao and Zhang Ruking, a 70-year-old man, met in a private room in a fancy restaurant in Zhangjiang.

In mid-April, the mid-spring evening was just a little chilly. The dishes of local cuisine were served up on large round tables, steaming with heat and aroma, whetting the appetite of the crowd in the private room.

On Jing Gao's side, he, Liu Sumei, Dong Youwei, Cheng Yu, and Guan Yujia attended. Zhang Ruking brought along an assistant, Ms. Wang Yan.

The atmosphere at the table was quite harmonious and lively as people chatted casually.

Does Jing Gao know why this is? Because he and Zhang Ruking shared a common language. This was completely different from his meeting with Jiang Shanyi in the morning. The meeting in the morning was pure business.

In 1997, Ruking Zhang applied for early retirement from Texas Instruments, where he had worked for twenty years, and returned to Baoda Island to found World Grand Semiconductor. Two or three years later, he was sitting on a third of TSMC's capacity, which was then acquired by TSMC.

This opened the curtain on the feud between him and Zhang Zhongmou. At that time, there were rumors that Zhang Zhongmou was conspiring with the major shareholder of World Grand Semiconductor to take advantage of Zhang Ruking's unpreparedness to initiate the acquisition of World Grand Semiconductor.

This rumor was repeatedly dispelled by Ruking Zhang, who was involved in the entire negotiation process. In the end, TSMC paid 8.5 times the then World University Semiconductor stock price to complete the acquisition.

But, take a look at the fine print.

Assuming that Zhang Ruking had not sold World Grand Semiconductor, twenty years later, even if World Grand Semiconductor could not catch up with TSMC's position in the field of chip foundry, he still could not catch up with UMC? Is this more than just an 8.5x premium?

And, as an executive, the head of Seda Semiconductor, he left the company after the acquisition, and went from being a high-powered semiconductor guy to a technician with nothing, and you think that's great?

It's nothing more than TSMC bullying the little ones with the big ones and absorbing World Grand Semiconductor at a premium. It's a conspiracy, out in the open! What are the consequences of World University's rejection of an acquisition? Look at Zhang's style of doing things, he launches legal battles whenever anyone threatens him!

With a big stick in one hand and a carrot in the other, the shareholders and employees of World Grand Semiconductor know how to choose. Of course, World Semiconductor's shareholders didn't lose, and the investment got a good return. The employees went on to bigger companies, and their future pensions were guaranteed.

The only loser was Zhang Ruking!

In 2000, Zhang Ruking went north to mainland China to build a factory, which was warmly welcomed and valued. The old man's patriotism is respected! You know how bad the domestic semiconductor technology was in 2000!

Who is here to bring technology to the country when foreign investors are here to make money? If that's not patriotic, what is?

Not to be outdone, Zhang Ruking assembled about 300 semiconductor engineers, mostly from his former departments at Texas Instruments and World Grand Semiconductor, and quickly raised China's semiconductor technology from four generations behind the world's best to just one generation behind.

SMIC became the world's fourth largest semiconductor.

In 2009, SMIC lost a lawsuit against TSMC, and after the court ruling, Zhang and Ruking lost the case. After the court ruling, Ruking Zhang and the then chairman of SMIC flew to Hong Kong Island to negotiate with TSMC.

The terms of the settlement: $200 million in cash, plus a 10% equity stake. In addition, Ruking Zhang left the company and signed a non-compete agreement banning him from working in chip-related jobs for three years starting in 2010.

SMIC was then plunged into years of chaos. It wasn't until later that Meng-Song Liang took over that the situation was turned around and SMIC turned a profit.

So, from this point of view, is TSMC hateful or not? Very hateful! He has delayed the destruction of the semiconductor industry chain that we have been building and developing.

Some people are going to say: you're copying someone else's technology, what's your point? Good penalty!

This makes sense at first glance. Intellectual property protection! However, can you get around 100% of the process technology of the industry leader TSMC in semiconductor chip manufacturing? Can you get around it? There's no getting around it!

There's always foul play somewhere. Why else would the departing engineer whom TSMC sued have won so many times?

So do we want to develop semiconductor technology? Should we make our own chips? Just forever watching TSMC go for our necks? Do not allow the mainland to have the most advanced chip manufacturing facility! Do we want our fundamental interests?

SMIC should be punished for violating laws and regulations that protect intellectual property. Its decade of stagnation. However, should what Zhang did, in due course, be made to pay a painful price?

I think it's going to be.

Don't think of TSMC as a white elephant, never illegal!

...

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After leaving SMIC, Ruking Zhang founded an LED factory in 2010, a field he was not allowed to pursue under the non-competition agreement. In 2014, he founded Sunrise Semiconductor in Lingang, Mordor, which mainly produces and manufactures wafers.

The manufacturing of silicon chips is based on the wafer, using photolithography technology to create integrated circuits.

Sunrise Semiconductor is a wafer factory.

Mr. Lao is 70 years old and is looking to create a new chip manufacturing facility. He wants to follow the IDM model. He is negotiating with investors everywhere. The Phoenix Group has entered the chip manufacturing field, and the initial contact between the two sides has been very pleasant.

Now the meeting is to discuss the details.

Zhang Ruking, who didn't drink, said with emotion: "I haven't been to Zhangjiang for a long time, but today's meeting with Mr. Jing, who has set up a dinner party here, has made me feel a lot of emotions.

Jing Gao said, "I have great admiration for Dr. Zhang's decision to go north to build a factory 17 years ago. But Dr. Zhang's departure in 2009 was a great loss for SMIC."

Zhang Ruking, however, was open-minded and calmly said, "When something happened to the company at that time, someone had to take responsibility for the lawsuit."

How could he not have pain in his heart after leaving the company he had founded for ten years? But his life had to keep moving forward.

"Then someone wanted to ask me to go back, but I didn't. I said I wouldn't go back, I wouldn't cause trouble. I said, I won't go back, I won't give trouble to anyone, and I won't give trouble to myself. You know what, Mr. Wells? You inviting me to build a factory will most likely attract a lawsuit from TSMC in the future."

This sentence, Zhang Ruking said very confidently. There was also a sense of pain.

Confident, because he is recognized as a master of factory construction, in two or three years, he can get a chip manufacturing plant up and running.

Pain, TSMC is a dark cloud over all chip manufacturing plants. As long as you grow, he will certainly come and sue you to eliminate the potential threat. And he had already had his business destroyed twice by TSMC. He wasn't sure he could withstand a third time.

With a cheerful smile, Wells said resolutely, "Dr. Zhang, I think I can withstand a lawsuit. It's not the same now!"

The King of Knowledge is already in office. The domestic market is already the world's largest consumer market for chips. TSMC also has factories in China. TSMC still wants to play the same tricks as in 2009. It won't work!

The Phoenix Group can at least get the terms of the Samsung defendant.

Mr. Zhang Ruking smiled, ate his food and said, "Mr. Jing, I'm negotiating with Qingdao. The company is preparing to build an IDM model chip factory. The Phoenix Group's factory in Jinling should be involved in Foundry, right?"

The semiconductor industry has three modes of operation: IDM, Fabless, and Foundry.

Fabless means only design, not independent production, represented by Qualcomm, Huawei and Hisilicon; Foundry means no design, only foundry production. Both SMIC and TSMC belong to this model.

IDM is a combination of the two, integrating design and production processes, with overall profits higher than both design and foundry. The representative company is Intel, which produces and sells its own products. But this model is actually backward.

Intel only has 10nm process technology, behind TSMC and Samsung. The fundamental reason is that the scale of self-production is difficult to meet the funds needed for new process technology research.

Jing Gao said frankly: "It will be. I have a chip manufacturing plant in Beijing, China. This factory is sufficient to meet the needs of Coolpad's cell phones. I will get involved in OEMs on the Jinling side of the plant. Also, I would like to use the 90nm lithography machine developed by Mordor Microelectronics."

He was on Weibo the other day, and the line with a netizen (Renji) brought up his frustration. He said to Guan Yujia that Phoenix Group will also build a lithography machine.

And it's not like they are starting from scratch. He has already instructed Shanhaijing Semiconductor and Mundu Microelectronics to contact each other to start the cooperative R&D. This is a very huge project, difficult to build. It's a huge project with many difficulties.

To give the simplest example, in 2008, Mordor Microelectronics developed a 90nm front channel lithography machine. However, because the core components were sourced from abroad, an embargo was immediately imposed by international manufacturers.

As a result, Moody Microelectronics' lithography machine became a decoration, and it could only work on back-channel lithography machine to meet some of the demand.

Aligner is divided into front channel and back channel according to its usage. The front lithography is used to make chips. Back-channel Mask Aligner is mainly used for chip packaging.

But, in any case, the Phoenix Group has already departed.

Zhang Ruking frowned: "The generation difference is too far. Mr. Jing, it's hard to be profitable this way." The words were very tactful and already showed the meaning of rejection.