Chapter 402

Dongxin Semiconductor's two most core businesses now are lithography machines and chip R&D. From the moment these two projects were established, Dongxin Semiconductor has basically been doing these two things, and it will continue in the future, as long as Dongxin Semiconductor still exists!

In terms of chips, now Dongxin Semiconductor is only responsible for design and R&D, and production is foundry-produced by Shougang NEC.

If we only talk about the chip business, then Dongxin Semiconductor is definitely profitable, and it earns much more than imagined.

Other chip manufacturers are still affected by industry cycles, and orders are unstable, but for Dongxin Semiconductor, it receives internal orders sent by the parent company. The entire Dongling Gao Ke's chips, motherboards, optical sensors, etc., are all orders placed with Dongxin Semiconductor.

But the lithography machine project is different. In this regard, the difficulty is really too great. The most critical thing is that domestic lithography machine companies have basically been wiped out.

This is not as simple as saying a sentence. The companies researching lithography machines are gone, and there are no chip manufacturers. The component supporting companies in the entire domestic lithography machine industrial chain have basically died out in the past ten years.

When countless people determined that the domestic lithography machine industry had no hope, many companies and practitioners had already directly exited or changed careers in the past ten years.

This is like NASA in America in the past life, which spent the sixties and seventies promoting all over the world that it had landed on the moon.

But decades later, when questioned, NASA found it difficult to prove itself. It only needed to repeat the feat of that year and send people to the moon again to break all doubts and prove America's status as a technology hegemon to the whole world again.

But NASA could not achieve everything it had at the beginning. It finally launched a star-class passenger plane through Boeing and sent people to the space station, but... they couldn't come back.

The star-class passenger plane that was blown up to the sky leaked air. Of course, the reason for the air leak definitely wasn't America's fault; it was because the aluminum alloy supplied by India, no, it was the titanium alloy that was unqualified. Anyway, Boeing and NASA wouldn't take the blame.

As for what to do if the people sent to the space station can't come back, what else can be done? They can only play mahjong and Guandan up there...

In this era, when America is in its prime, it is estimated that no one in the whole of America would believe that they could fail in sending a person to the space station.

And the reason why NASA in the past life could no longer send people to the moon was that for these decades, America's aerospace-related industrial chain companies had basically disappeared, and almost all of them had transformed or closed down. Even if they gathered components according to the drawings, they couldn't find the companies that made the components. Having those drawings was no different from waste paper.

Now domestically, the only ones still researching lithography machines are a few laboratories. The most famous ones are the Huaging Laboratory and several R&D teams of the Academy of Sciences. They are not companies, but just preserving a spark for domestic lithography machines.

But now the situation of domestic lithography machines makes Dongxin Semiconductor very embarrassed. There are basically no component supporting suppliers. Either buy from overseas or research it yourself. Buying from overseas is mainly buying components from Japan, but even if you want to buy, you might not be able to buy them.

This makes Dongxin Semiconductor's lithography machine project R&D progress really not worth complimenting. That is, there is Li Dongling protecting it, giving the Dongxin Semiconductor lithography machine R&D team enough funds and time, otherwise, if it were another big financier, it is estimated that this R&D team would have disbanded long ago...

As for whether Dongxin Semiconductor should continue to research lithography machines, just look at the fate of Huawei and domestic companies that need chips in the past life after being banned from selling chips by America.

It is estimated that Canon, which just launched an FPA lithography machine for 8-inch wafer etching at 350 nanometers this year, probably wouldn't have thought that this thing, which can be an antique after decades, this lithography machine that doesn't know how many hands it has passed through, could actually be snatched up crazily domestically after more than thirty years, and the price of one machine was hyped up to 1.7 million US dollars.

You must know that this brand-new Canon lithography machine only costs about 3.5 million US dollars now. After thirty years of use, I don't know how many companies have kicked it until it smoked. After more than thirty years, it can still retain half of its value and still be snatched up crazily.

Those people who hoarded pagers a few years ago and prepared to raise prices to sell them big, after hearing about the experience of lithography machines, it is estimated that they would all be envious and cry. Both are collecting antiques, but the treatment gap is too big. If you collect a batch of second-hand lithography machines from this era and sell them after decades, it is estimated that you can still make money.

This is the influence of lithography machines in the country. An antique can be hyped up to 17 times the price. One can imagine how much the latest model of lithography machine can be hyped up to.

Sometimes, having and not having are two completely different concepts. If you don't have it, the other party will really take a knife to cut you. Similarly, if there are no domestic things, foreign companies will really take you to death!

"Dongxin Semiconductor's current chip production capacity is severely affected. Shougang NEC's production capacity has to produce chips for Japan's NEC company, so it's impossible to give all the production capacity to Dongxin Semiconductor!"

Wu Xinyi mentioned to Li Dongling the problem of Dongxin Semiconductor's insufficient production capacity.

Now there are only two companies in the country that can foundry produce chips: Shougang NEC and Huajing. But the latter can only produce in name. It has been built for six or seven years but has never been able to start production.

As for major domestic chip industry players like Shanghai Microelectronics and SMIC, they haven't started to bubble up yet. After all, even TSMC and VIA in Taiwan have just emerged. Now, there is a technical gap between players in the global chip and lithography machine industry, but a generational gap has not been formed.

Even if the domestic lithography machine industry abandoned its martial arts a few years ago, it was not crushed into slag by Japan's Nikon lithography machines. It was just because there were gaps in production costs, yield rates, and technology, and foreign chips were cheap and easy to use, so naturally, everyone started to purchase from abroad. Without domestic chips, domestic lithography machines naturally had no use and began to die out.

Dongxin Semiconductor's chips are foundry-produced by Shougang NEC. As for Shougang NEC, just hearing the name, you know it was jointly established by Shougang and Japan's NEC company.

Shougang NEC's technology and semiconductor equipment are all provided by Japan's NEC. NEC is also the second largest shareholder of Shougang NEC, holding 40% of the shares, but in fact, in terms of technology, Shougang NEC is completely controlled by Japan, and even the entire Shougang NEC is very much influenced by Japan's NEC.

And the reason why Japan's NEC cooperated with Shougang to establish this company was also to increase its own production capacity.

Therefore, in essence, Shougang NEC is foundry-producing chips for Japan's NEC. Producing chips for Dongxin Semiconductor belongs to "private work" in a certain sense. When Dongxin Semiconductor's orders conflict with Japan's NEC's orders, even if Shougang NEC wants to earn Dongxin Semiconductor's money again, it must prioritize completing NEC's orders.

Who let Japan's NEC hold the technology? If Shougang NEC doesn't listen, subsequent technology, equipment, and production lines cannot be upgraded...

But this makes Dongxin Semiconductor helpless. Its own parent company is placing orders like crazy, but it can't take out goods here. Little Smart's production capacity is insufficient. Not only is Duan Youli on fire, but Wu Xinyi is also the same.

This year, Wu Xinyi ran to Yanjing I don't know how many times, just to coordinate the chip production capacity problem with Shougang NEC.

"If you want to increase chip production capacity, Dongxin Semiconductor has two plans. The first plan is to find other chip foundry manufacturers, such as TSMC or UMC in Taiwan, or seek help from chip foundry factories in Japan or America."

"As for the second plan, it is for Dongxin Semiconductor to build its own semiconductor production base!"

Hearing Wu Xinyi's words, Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, and others couldn't help but rub their teeth. They knew that playing with semiconductors was money-burning, but they didn't expect it to be so money-burning. Now building a semiconductor company, although it is not like the later generations, where it moves tens of billions of US dollars, as long as it starts construction, a few hundred million yuan thrown in basically won't bubble up.

Like Shougang NEC, it cost a total of about 500 million yuan to build, but Shougang NEC is very special. It is a student taught by Japan's NEC. Whether it is building a factory, technology, equipment, or experience, it is all provided by Japan's NEC. These are difficult to measure with funds.

The most intuitive one is Huajing. It claimed to invest 2 billion back then, but until now, it still can't produce. The engineers inside don't know how many batches have run away, including Wu Xinyi, who also came from Huajing...

Li Dongling rubbed his eyebrows. For Dongxin Semiconductor's current situation, it basically reached Li Dongling's expectations at the beginning.

At the beginning of establishing Dongxin Semiconductor, Li Dongling prepared to let Dongxin Semiconductor learn from MediaTek. MediaTek never acts arrogant or puts on airs, and takes surviving and making money as its own responsibility.

So MediaTek can bend its waist, can develop movements for VCD manufacturers, and can develop mobile phone chips for MP3 and counterfeit mobile phones. It looks like the grade is not high, but it is these orders that let it survive.

The routine Li Dongling planned for Dongxin Semiconductor is also these. No matter what the order is, as long as it can make money, just do it first. Only after surviving can you be qualified to challenge companies like Intel, Texas Instruments, Infineon, and Toshiba.

But designing chips and producing chips are different. The latter is really about smashing a large amount of money to survive.

But if you don't produce chips yourself, the country can't produce chips either. Finding other manufacturers for foundry is also not safe. Didn't HiSilicon get played by TSMC in the past life?

"Hoo"

Li Dongling looked at Wu Xinyi. "Use both plans together. You can find other chip foundry factories to place orders first. In addition, if necessary, Dongxin Semiconductor will build its own semiconductor production company!"

Wu Xinyi's heart was happy. Li Dongling didn't refuse, which means there is a play!

(End of chapter)