the world is at stake

The roster of the 'rookies' was placed on Luo Zhiheng's desk, and some of them were interviewed remotely by him in person, all of which were excellent.As long as these people work in the industry for more than ten years, they will definitely grow up.

"I don't know if the 'Holy Light' can last for 20 years?" Luo Zhiheng sighed, "If we can continue to invest, we can look forward to it."

In Luo Zhiheng's eyes, if 'Holy Light' really wants to develop, it must be mentally prepared to lose money for more than 15 consecutive years - just like the 'Samsung' back then.

This kind of loss is not a loss of tens of millions of dollars a year, but a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.Without a loss of hundreds of billions of dollars, large semiconductor companies will absolutely not be able to develop.

Such a long-term loss-making investment cannot be afforded by the company itself, and it must be supported by national power-Musk's "space exploration SPACE X" also relies on the full support of NASA.

In addition to human capital, semiconductor equipment is also expensive.

Not to mention lithography machines, tools used in IC design, high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, network analyzers, protocol analyzers, logic analyzers, EDA software, emulator, Tapeout costs, these are sky-high prices.

Just do a tap-out test, and millions of dollars will be gone.

But this money is like tuition fees, it is inevitable.

Next to the roster of new employees, there is a list of equipment requests. It is signed by several executives to ask the headquarters of the Imperial Capital for money to buy equipment, with a total purchase amount of more than 50 billion U.S. dollars.

Surprisingly, the headquarters approved it without any further questions, but asked to purchase it in installments. The $50 billion is spread over a one-year expense cycle.

Even if 'Holy Light' doesn't have this money at all, the liquidity on the books is on the verge of drying up.But headquarters decided it could get the money.

Luo Zhiheng thought this was really interesting.

Even in Intel, the technical department needed equipment, so they had to hold a few meetings.The executive needs to explain to the board exactly where the equipment is being used and what are the pros and cons.

After all, it is not petty money. Those who hold the appropriation power may not understand it, but they are not allowed to be fooled. They have to come up with some ritualized process to show that they are the leader.

This kind of thing is like this all over the world, and even the approval of the US Congress cannot avoid holding rounds of hearings.The MP who doesn't understand anything asks all kinds of weird and mentally handicapped questions.

"'Shengguang' is really a new company, with a very light bureaucratic atmosphere. The boss only cares about the direction of the company's development and does not easily interfere with specific affairs." Luo Zhiheng is very happy about this.

After all, money is good, and many American devices are still sold without restrictions.Luo Zhiheng asked his secretary to send inquiries to several semiconductor equipment companies, and they quickly sent people to sell them.

Under the list of approved equipment purchases, there is another draft for consultation.For this manuscript, Luo Zhiheng also felt that it was quite interesting.

The solicitation draft is also a list of equipment procurement, but the procurement objects are mainland enterprises.Although the price is an order of magnitude cheaper, it is not a little bit worse than American products in terms of technology.

However, 'Holy Light' still sent this thousand-page consultation draft to senior technical personnel, asking technical directors such as Luo Zhiheng who have rich practical experience to spend time discussing in detail what level of production line can be built with Continental's own system.

Those are short boards, those that will affect the yield rate, and those that require key breakthroughs. Veterans in the industry can often save companies from detours with a simple sentence.

Regarding this matter, many technical elites are passive and sabotage.

Especially those who have work experience in major European and American factories, seeing the equipment with obvious backward performance in the consultation draft, most of them directly ridiculed that the production line built in this way has no market competitiveness.

But this time, the headquarters of the 'Holy Light' suppressed it with an administrative order, requiring every senior technician to write a reply carefully according to their position and profession.

"Well, this is actually very similar to Taiwanese and Japanese companies. A large company takes the lead and purchases its own products as much as possible. Even if the product performance is a bit poor, it has to grit its teeth and endure."

This is only to cultivate an independent and controllable supply chain.

'Samsung' did it, 'Toyota' did it, 'TSMC' and 'Foxconn' did it too.

"From this point of view, 'Holy Light' is very ambitious. It may not really think about making profits in the near future. But this does not bode well for Taiwan's semiconductor industry."

Luo Zhiheng was worried about this.

The panel industry is a living example.

At that time, the mainland engaged in a "beneficial policy for Taiwan" and took the initiative to emasculate itself and not develop the panel industry in order to transfer profits to Taiwan.I hope Taiwan can feel the sincerity of the mainland to some extent.

I don't know if it was the idea of ​​that bastard.As a result, Taiwan's panel industry and South Korea teamed up to pit mainland manufacturers, control the supply of products to the mainland, and drive up prices.

Several major LCD TV manufacturers in mainland China were bleeding heavily.

In this way, there are still various "benefits" in the country, and the benefits are all given to the capitalists-the hot face sticks to the cold ass, and the comprador forces are really killing them.

"How similar is the semiconductor industry in mainland China to the panel industry five years ago?" Luo Zhiheng flipped through the consultation draft sent from the headquarters. "There is no technology, no production capacity, and no market."

In 2010, Taiwan's panel industry still has a say.After five or six years, Taiwan's panel industry was reversed, and the production line could not keep up with the times, gradually losing the mainland market.

By 2020, this industry will be almost wiped out in Taiwan.

"At present, there is no chip foundry company in mainland China that can compete with TSMC." Luo Zhiheng wanted to find some comfort for himself, but he looked through the "Consultation Draft", but this comfort could not stand.

'TSMC' is a foundry, and its equipment and technology also come from all over the world.Relying on a mere Taiwan region, it is simply not enough to meet the needs of the industry.

"The mainland was so backward in the past, why did it set up a complete industrial chain? This kind of thankless thing can't bring any benefits at all."

Luo Zhiheng, as the supervisor, carefully read the entire "Consultation Draft".He even sent the electronic file of the draft to his friends in Taiwan and his counterparts in the United States.

There was a mix of arrogant sarcasm and calm surprise.

Although the vast majority of people in the industry do not think that the mainland semiconductor industry can pose any challenges to the outside world, small fluctuations and discussions are inevitable.

Randomly pulling out a single item on the manuscript will look backward, and pulling out ten items is nothing special, but after pulling hundreds or thousands of items, it will be creepy.

As long as Luo Zhiheng can imagine the semiconductor demand, the mainland has it.

Today the United States announced a complete blockade of China, and tomorrow the mainland will be able to build a computer for its own use, and its performance will reach the level of ten years ago, and there will be no shortage of hardware and software.

In fact, it is more than enough for office and daily use.

The biggest advantage of 'TSMC' is that it has developed for more than [-] years and has accumulated a huge application talent pool.

But people have feet and can run.

Luo Zhiheng ran away by himself, but turned around and worried about what to do if other Taiwanese semiconductor talents followed suit.Even if Taiwan does not run away, Korean and Japanese talents will run away, and even American talents will also run away.

The more he thought about it, Luo Zhiheng couldn't help looking out the window of his office.

The liveliness in the dormitory gradually subsided, and the new mainland rookies were all settled down, and they could start on-the-job training tomorrow.

The rookies will spend half a year mastering the current memory production line, dismantling them one by one, transporting them back to the mainland and reinstalling them.This disassembly is an excellent training and learning opportunity.

By discovering and solving problems, by this time next year, rookies can no longer be called rookies—scholars grow up very quickly.

On the other side is the local labor union in Raymond, which is making noise at the gate of the factory.A sparse dozen or so people have been entangled for months, but they can't get anything.

"The salary of mainland employees is one-tenth of that of the United States, and it is also one-tenth of mine." Luo Zhiheng asked himself, and he was a little worried that he would be replaced one day if he was a local.

If you are afraid, what can you do?

Chapter 14 Salary

It wasn't one or two who were as worried as Luo Zhiheng. The senior engineers recruited by the 'Holy Light' were somewhat uncomfortable.

At night, the local TV station in Raymond began to report that 'Holy Light' has introduced a large number of Chinese engineers, which will lead to the disappearance of thousands of high-paying jobs in the city.

Ruben lived in the high-end villa rented to him by "Holy Light", hugged his charming South American girlfriend, stared at the reporter on the TV screen and talked nonsense.

His girlfriend, in her early twenties, heard the reports and asked: "Honey, does this affect you?"

Ruben is a Jew in his forties. He has worked in Texas Instruments for more than ten years, and then moved to AMD's GlobalFoundries to work on the silicon wafer cleaning process.

After 'GlobalFoundries' was sold to a big dog in the Middle East, it became worse day by day. Ruben wanted to change the company, so the headhunter recommended him to 'Holy Light'.His annual salary thus exceeds $30.

Rubbing his girlfriend's big tits, Ruben asked jokingly, "Baby, what do you mean?"

"Those Chinese people really only get an annual salary of [-] U.S. dollars?"

A young South American woman who is a waitress in the city meets Reuben, hired to Raymond, at a dinner.Knowing that the other party's annual salary is 10,000+, she immediately dumped her ex-boyfriend and posted it on her own initiative.

Reuben knew that his girlfriend had big breasts and no brains. He laughed and said, "Yes, those Chinese engineers are so cheap, so they want to come to the United States. But these people are no threat to me."

"Really?"

"Of course it is true. I am a very good man, and I am not so easy to be surpassed."

After confirming that the gem she dropped would not be affected, the South American girl gave her a sweet smile, "I'll take a shower first, you'll come later."

Reuben smiled more happily, but when his girlfriend actually went to the bathroom, he couldn't stop laughing.After turning off the TV, he grabbed his cell phone and walked to the backyard of the villa, found a number and dialed it.

After a few beeps, the phone was connected.Someone on the other side yelled 'Hi'.

"It's me." Ruben said, "Another group of Chinese engineers arrived today, more than the previous total. I heard that there will be two or three more batches."

"I know." The friend on the call sighed, "The management directly arranged for me three Chinese engineers and asked me to train them how to carry out the etching process.

Among them is a rookie who has not just graduated, and should be sent by a domestic etching machine manufacturer in China.To be honest, I don't really want to teach them.

But the management of the factory was purged, and the new supervisor said that if I could not complete the teaching tasks, I would either have my performance deducted or I would be fired.

I kind of understand now why the HR department signed me to a very weird contract.They deliberately made training the main performance appraisal goal, which is forcing me to teach those novices. "

Ruben also sighed, "Yes, it's the same on my side. Last month, two engineers came to learn the silicon wafer cleaning process. They have a solid foundation, but lack of experience.

After only one month, they have been able to share part of my work.If I really let them study for half a year, I'm afraid I can retire.So I don't really want to teach either.

But last week, the packaging and testing department fired an Indian-born engineer on the grounds that his teaching ability was too poor.I received an email from the management, saying that they want to see me give excellent teaching results.This is definitely a warning. "

Silicon wafer cleaning determines the chip yield rate and is a key process for a wafer production line to be profitable.

Media reports have made words like 'lithography' familiar to the general public, but there are countless processes that are equally important in the semiconductor industry.

If the yield rate of a process is only 90.00%, after dozens of processes, the yield rate will drop to a few tenths of a percent, which is basically equivalent to nothing.

The value of engineers like Ruben is to push the yield rate of each process to more than 90.00%.Only in this way can enterprises obtain profits and survive.

The friend on the call continued to sigh: "I asked those Chinese people, many of them are from research institutes, and they were transferred to 'Holy Light' to get double salary.

The price of 'Holy Light' is high and the competition is fierce, but they are happy to work for it.It is said that the competition in the original research institute is more intense, and it is difficult to have room for advancement.

By the way, you can't imagine how many engineers those Chinese have.They graduate 800 million college students, 50 masters, and [-] to [-] doctors a year.

A research institute can easily select hundreds or even thousands of engineers and technicians.As long as they are given enough money, these people can work at full capacity.

With an annual salary of US$[-], an outstanding graduate with a master's degree can work overtime on the production line every day.An annual salary of [-] US dollars can hire experts with more than ten years of experience to work hard.

If the annual salary is increased to [-] US dollars, 'Holy Light' can hire a group of professor-level senior technical personnel from its country.The same salary in the United States can at most hire an Indian who speaks curry-style English. "

What the fuck is it called?Engineer bonus? !

The phone call lasted half an hour before Ruben's girlfriend yelled in the bathroom.After enjoying a night in Wenrou Township, he drove back to the factory early the next morning, and immediately got the 'good' news.

"The FBI came last night and captured a Chinese engineer."

"why?"

"It is said that he downloaded illegal copyrighted movies online, but he was targeted."

Ruben passed by the cafeteria of the factory area, and saw hundreds of rookies who had just arrived yesterday assembled to be lectured.Someone from the corporate legal department is yelling at them.

Although I can't understand Chinese, but from the fierce scolding and gestures, I can tell that the Chinese lawyers in the legal department are very angry-downloading pirated movies can be big or small, and they are usually warned by network operators.

But being targeted by the FBI can only be bad luck.

The rookies were still in high spirits yesterday, but today they received a sap in the head, and all of them were crying.The person caught ranged from a fine to deportation.

However, after this blow, the rookies became much more honest and mature.

Ruben changed his overalls and walked into the clean room of the production line, where the rookies assigned to him were already in place.After completing the handover with the engineer on the night shift, the working group he led started the day's work.

The teaching itself is very simple, and the semiconductor production line is highly automated and refined, and does not require too much human intervention, nor can it be intervened.Basically, the device is moving by itself.

The rookies just want to read more, listen more and ask more questions. Relevant technical materials have already been issued, and they need to use their time after get off work to study them—to achieve 'knowing what is happening and why'.

"Being good as a teacher" is also a common problem of human beings.

Being chased by the rookies to ask and answer their questions made Ruben feel a little smug.He also had a similar learning process, and the communication between Xueba and Xueba saved some saliva.

At present, the memory technology has been developed to DDR4, but Raymond's production line is still stopped at DDR2, which is why Qimonda is willing to sell it.

"What we have to do is to purchase equipment and patents to upgrade the production line. There is no market for the second-generation DDR memory. We must move to the fourth generation."

Ruben and the rookies talked about technical details, and the teaching interaction was quite harmonious.Before leaving get off work at noon, he couldn't help asking, "Will you choose to stay in the United States after finishing your studies?"

A few rookies brought recording pens, but still chose to take some notes on the key points.Suddenly asked about where to stay, they all raised their heads and looked at each other.

Ruben added: "The U.S. semiconductor industry is very strong and can provide very generous salaries. The U.S. government is also willing to provide visas, green cards and even naturalization for professional and technical personnel like you.

For example, there are many Chinese in Silicon Valley, and graduates from your best universities like to stay.If necessary, I can help introduce.

I really think that with your abilities, the annual salary of only [-] US dollars is too low. If you go to Silicon Valley, you can get at least [-] US dollars, or even more. "

Reuben put on an 'I'm helping you' tone, trying to be kind and friendly.But none of the few rookies who studied with him expressed their opinions on the spot, but they could see that they were quite moved.

The huge difference in salary will indeed greatly damage self-confidence.

He is also an excellent college student. The monthly income of 2000 RMB for Vietnamese is a high salary, while that for Chinese is 2 RMB. In Japan and South Korea, it is raised to 3 RMB...

In the United States, only those engaged in the semiconductor and IT industries can earn a monthly income of 10 RMB.

Ruben showed hopeful eyes, hoping that his agitation would make these rookies restless and eager.If these rookies keep leaving after training, he can continue to get a high salary in the 'Holy Light' safely.

It's also a 'win-win', right?