LightReader

Chapter 97 - Chapter 97 The Key Lies with TI

Chapter 97 The Key Lies with TI

One week later, Su Yuanshan and Qin Weimin's YX01 team headed to Hong Kong.

Sun Xihui was overjoyed to see Su Yuanshan and the others.

She had booked their hotel well in advance and arranged a welcome banquet.

After dinner, the three of them went up to the rooftop café, enjoying the night view of Hong Kong while chatting.

"Sister Sun, what's the situation with land prices here? Can we secure anything?"

"Even with my amateur eyes, I can already see that land here will soon be worth its weight in gold — and that's not even considering the experts," Sun Xihui said gracefully, sipping her coffee.

"You can get land, but it's outrageously expensive."

Su Yuanshan nodded.

This was the height of Hong Kong's real estate boom.

Even trying to acquire land for building electronics factories offered no pricing advantage.

In fact, it was the endless swallowing and hoarding by the real estate tycoons that caused Hong Kong's once-thriving electronics manufacturing industry to shrink and eventually vanish.

These ruthless giants weren't even badly hurt during the financial crisis — when the real estate bubble burst, it was only ordinary folks and small investors who jumped off buildings.

Su Yuanshan's plan was to grab a piece of land while prices were still merely insane, not totally absurd.

Use Hong Kong's unique position to build a wafer fab with fewer obstacles.

Still, he underestimated the greed of the real estate giants and the short-sightedness of the government.

And because Hong Kong Xinghai was still only an agency business with limited cash flow, buying land now would require Yuanchip's capital injection.

"We'll see. If the government offers incentives, we'll buy.

If not, forget it.

It's not exactly the best place anyway," Su Yuanshan smiled.

"As for the business, we'll keep pushing.

After all, domestic companies need a window to the outside world.

We can represent a lot of businesses."

Sun Xihui smiled: "I understand.

Right now, we're just brokers."

Hearing her so accurately summarize Hong Kong Xinghai's nature, both Su Yuanshan and Qin Weimin laughed.

"Don't look down on brokers," Su Yuanshan said.

"As reforms continue, tons of Chinese companies will rush into foreign trade.

And countless foreign brands will want to enter China.

If we play it smart, even by just skimming a little off the top, we could build an entire feather factory."

"Not just electronics.

We can grab luxury goods, cosmetics, consumer products — anything the West wants to push into Southeast Asia."

"No problem. You're the boss," Sun Xihui said.

They chatted late into the night before finally heading to bed.

 

The next day, Sony's and the Silicon Valley team's flights arrived almost back-to-back.

After hosting a three-way meeting as the "local host," Su Yuanshan immediately boarded a plane to San Francisco.

...

"Senior Brother! Sister-in-law!"

As expected, picking him up were Tang Wenjie and Yang Yiwen.

Whether from the different climate or just too much stress, Tang Wenjie looked slimmer than back home — though still much bulkier than Su Yuanshan.

He grabbed Su Yuanshan into a big bear hug, slapping him hard on the back:

"Can you believe Teacher let you come here alone?"

"Hey, I've got you guys here," Su Yuanshan laughed, turning to Yang Yiwen:

"Sister-in-law, give me a hug."

"You brat," Yang Yiwen laughed, tapping his shoulder lightly.

"You and your Senior Brother have both lost weight."

"Of course. Sister-in-law always knows best!"

"Obviously! Who do you think he married?" Tang Wenjie boasted, picking up Su Yuanshan's suitcase as they headed toward the parking lot.

Walking side-by-side with Yang Yiwen, Su Yuanshan lowered his voice:

"Sister-in-law, how's progress over here?

Last time, Senior Brother Xi said there might be some shareholder trouble with Cyrix."

"Yeah, turns out Cyrix had already done a financing round.

National Semiconductor owns 15% of them."

"Oh!" Su Yuanshan's eyes widened in realization.

No wonder Cyrix didn't go public and ended up being sold to National Semiconductor a few years later —

they were tangled up since the A round!

Yang Yiwen continued:

"At the time, National Semiconductor had high hopes for Cyrix because Klaus had some solid FPU technology.

They just didn't expect Intel and AMD to catch up so fast."

"I heard Cyrix countersued Intel for infringing their FPU patent.

From your perspective, what's the chance they'll win?"

Yang Yiwen stopped, thought for a moment, then shook her head:

"Honestly, if this were a fair and just legal system, they'd probably split the blame — both sides have some merit.

But here... it's all about legal interpretation.

The judge will think more flexibly — it'll come down to which lawyers argue better."

Su Yuanshan nodded slowly, then smiled:

"Doesn't matter.

I'm betting they'll settle out of court."

"I have that feeling too."

"Aha! See, Sister-in-law — only you think like me."

"Hmph! Such a silver tongue.

How many girls have you tricked already?"

"No opportunities yet..."

...

Once they got in the car, Yang Yiwen took the wheel since Tang Wenjie hadn't gotten his license yet.

In the back seat, Tang Wenjie and Su Yuanshan joked and laughed.

When Su Yuanshan mentioned he had picked Applied Physics as his major, Tang Wenjie jokingly grabbed his head and pretended to pry it open to see what was inside.

After a brief meet-and-greet with the Silicon Valley team, Su Yuanshan went back to the villa to crash and fight jet lag.

 

The next morning, he woke up to the smell of breakfast prepared by Qin Si.

In the living room, Xi Xiaoding, Chen Haoming, Tang Wenjie, Qin Si, and Yang Yiwen were already up — and Carly was also there.

Six people, and apart from Tang Wenjie setting the table, the other five were deep in quiet discussion.

When Su Yuanshan walked out, Xi Xiaoding waved:

"Come over! We've been organizing all the information."

"What information?"

"The relationships between National Semiconductor, Cyrix, and TI," Carly said with a smile.

"Little Boss Su, when you said Yuanchip could build a strategic partnership with Texas Instruments, were you planning it all along, or just lucky?"

"Oh, I just said it casually," Su Yuanshan said, dragging a chair over.

Everyone stared at him.

Xi Xiaoding shook his head, laughing:

"National Semiconductor owns shares in Cyrix.

Cyrix CPUs are fabricated by TI.

And the President — even the founders — of National Semiconductor originally came from TI."

"So if we win over TI, everything else falls into place."

Su Yuanshan thought for a moment.

"Yeah, that checks out."

Of course it checked out!

Because when National Semiconductor couldn't hold on anymore, it would eventually sell itself to TI!

And getting on TI's good side had another, even more important purpose.

There was someone they absolutely had to bring onboard.

(End of Chapter 97)

Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.

Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1

More Chapters